Ford Junkyard Jubilee update

I posted awhile back about a Jubilee I bought in a junkyard for $800. It had been bought by the owner to run a brush-hog. He claimed it ran fine when he first got it. After not using it all winter, it never ran again. That was supposedly 6-7 years ago. He hired a mechanic from a local New Holland dealer to try to fix it and it seems the guy gave up. He was moonlighting and doing it at night and I don't know the whole story.

So, with good sheet metal and good tires? I told the owner I'd work on it at his yard and if I got it running and all seemed "not too bad" I'd buy it.

As I posted previously, engine tested at 80-90 lbs. compression on all four cylinders. Fuel system was so plugged I had to use drill bits to open it up. I have never seen gas-sludge get so hard before in less then 20 years. I got it running and it did not sound half-bad. Hydraulics work great and engine sounded tight. But it was skipping. I pulled the valve cover off and found over 1/4" of valve lash on one intake valve. I had at first suspected a cam-lobe had worn out. NOPE.

Ends up the valves will go up and down at cranking speed and thus why I got a decent compression reading. But once the engine starts - two intake valves hang up. Sometimes a pushrod would fall out of place when an intake valve hung up.

So, I first pulled the valve springs off from up top and tried to move the two intake valves. They were real stuck and no remedy from up above.

So I pulled off the head. Ends up I had to drive out the two valves with a punch. Looking at the head, it is obvious it was redone and has all new hardened seat inserts. It also had umbrella valve-stem seals on the intakes that I doubt Ford used in the 50s.

So it is all apart. The problem is some odd-ball black gun or resin on the intake valve stems. None on the exhaust valve stems. Note the throttle shaft on the carburetor was also stuck with what looked like the same black gum. I have never seen anything quite like this. Some odd additive in the gasoline that turned bad maybe? No signs of corrosion or rust anywhere and the engine was super clean inside other then this.

A decomposed rubber intake hose (from ethanol, age, or methanol, would leave a deposit like that. as the material got soft and ran nto the intake, the heat toughened it up into a tar like material. Best guess. Jim

I have seen build up like this in modern tractors from engine oil drawn into the intake system via the PCV system. The oil gets into the intake tubing of the turbo and instead of burning it gets in away baked into a sticky tar-like substance. While I realize a modern turbo diesel is a completely different animal but there could be an issue with the oil bath filter. Maybe wrong oil or amount allowing some to get drawn into the intake of the engine. This is the best I can come up with off the top of my head it will be interesting to hear once you figure it out.

Have you checked the oil breather?

I seen that on a neighbors 8n. He drained 5 year old gas out of a car and put it in the 8n. Ran good, he let it set for a week. Then it would not start. It would spin real fast. All 4 intake valves were stuck open. I had to take the valve guides out to get the valves out

Agree with other replys but one I have seen is disolved o rings. You talked about a shaft. Yup that ethanol is wonderful stuff. When gas is old don't dump it into something else!!!. Do yourself a favor. To get sticky problems solved I would tell you to change the oil to 5-20wt. Synthetic blend. Has done some pretty amazing cleaning in stuff I own. Also doesn't carbonize like straight Dino oil will. The synthetic stuff will allow tight parts to move much more freely. Sounds like ya done good on a tractor rescue. By the way. If you have gunk still all over the place go to the gas station and by a few gallons of E-85. A paint brush and that stuff will take almost anything off. Just be careful cause it can take crummy paint off too.

I've seen this twice in the last few years, once on an old GMC "270", and later on a Chevy 292.

Upon bringing an engine that has sat for a while back into service, old deposits gum/"varnish" on the valvestems gets partially dissolved by today's gasoline and becomes sticky, and after the engine is shut down and no more "today's gas" is flowing past the intake valves it solidifies and gets unbelievably NASTY, and STINKY.

Don't know. My oldest son had that happen to a lawn mower a couple of years ago. Used it I think in OCT then let it set over winter. Come May and it wouldn't start. Carb and gas tank were both plugged up like that. He claims he used "quality" gas. I suspect he that "quality" gas came from the cheapest source. The bad part is I taught him as a kid that you run/drain the gas prior to storing something like that when it's gonna be put up 5-6 months or more.

Rick

Should add, I never thought of the old gas angle. He may have had that gas in a 5 gallon can more than a year old. When he lived where he was I bet he didn't burn a tank per mowing. Tiny lawn.

Rick