D8H engine stuck

[RStecik]

Not seeing water in the oil. It’ll either be home or sold by Tuesday (shipping pending) Did the old power shifts have a tendency to lock up or fail by sitting?

If I decide to work on it I’m leaning towards it being a labor of love as opposed to profit.

 

[56wrench]

at one time mine sat for a few years but the exhaust was covered and once I got the pup engine running it fired up with no problems. if it has the torque divider like mine, it should be ok and there is not much to fail in the powershift unless a valve sticks( not likely ) if it was working ok when parked it should be good. if the undercarriage is in reasonable condition its worth spending some time and money on. also, how are the final drives? the good thing is that there were a lot of them made and you can still get parts for them. in my opinion they are a good old machine. if you get it loose, you will need to check the turbo for seizure and water damage. it likely has the big old rotomaster unless someone has changed it .

 

[hosspuller]

If I decide to work on it I’m leaning towards it being a labor of love as opposed to profit.

Many a man has done for love … much to his ultimate d…

delight or dismay ?

 

[RStecik]

I’m going with “what could go wrong” mostly everything hahaha

 

[RZucker]

I’ve poured a bunch of smoo down the exhaust. Logic being that if that’s where water has gotten in the oil should get in there too. Should charge a membership fee to get people to come out and try. People pay to go gym and lift heavy things

You have probably created a hydraulic lock condition by doing this. Get the injectors out, vacuum the cylinders out with a suck bucket or any other vacuum device available. I use an air powered chip vac and a piece of air brake nylon tube that will fit through the injector bore into the cylinder (same as sucking fuel and oil out of a 3406E cylinder.) Then do what you can to turn the engine. Don't use the fan... Not going to work.

 

[Puffie40]

If you have a inspection camera, pulling the injectors and taking a peek inside will give you an idea which cylinders are stuck.

King of Obsolete swears by carburetor cleaner for soaking stuck pistons. Others have freed their motors up by soaking for a few days in kerosene/diesel, then lighting it on fire. You will get the best results of any procedure by drying the piston and cyilinder of water and cleaning as much surface rust out as possible before soaking.

(On that thought, I wonder how electrolysis or evaporust would work for cleaning a cyilinder?...)

One other thing to consider with water flooding is you will undoubtedly be dealing with stuck valves as well, so I strongly recommend that you pull the head.

 

[RStecik]

I’m leaning towards pulling the heads. Big issue is right now it’s parked a long ways from home so I’m just doing minor things until I can get it moved. I don’t want to dismantle it and lose pieces before it’s hauled. Was being hopeful I could get it fired up and move it to a better spot for pickup.

Pulled the forward valve cover and no visible rust there so it might not be as bad as it seems, it could be so so much worse (woohoo insert credit card to continue playing lmao)

 

[Dave Neubert]

pull the injectors and see if they have any rust on them then you know that cyl has some water damage

 

[Puffie40]

Pulling a dead dozer will be fairly simple. Disconnect the blade,(Those D8's will need the blade taken off for transport anyway.) Tie both steering levers back and it can be pulled around by a large tractor or another bulldozer.

 

[56wrench]

do you have a service manual and parts book for this machine? if not, pm me and I can provide you with scanned pages of mine or if you're interested pm me your phone# and I can call you

 

[RStecik]

That would be awesome 56. Once I get it home I’ll definitely take you up on the offer for scans from the manual. Found a fair amount of books for the later serial numbers but nada for the older ones. Don’t know what the rules are for phone numbers on this forum but I’ve got it advertised on Kijiji ($12,000 but open to any offer lol)

 

[old-iron-habit]

If it is difficult to move, hook to the top of the tracks back a ways from the end you are pulling and you will effectively double your pull. I have been around enough of these stuck machines to tell you that you are probably going to be disappointed when you discover what else you destroyed by forcing it over. My guess is that the slight movement you are finding is simply taking up slack in the front gear assembly. Pull the heads, often only one cylinder that happened to have the closest open valve will be stuck and rusted bad. Not sure about that model but often you can unbolt the rod and bring the stuck sleeve and piston out as a unit.

 

[John C.]

I've been through a few D8H engines. No mufflers on the units means the water has a straight track down the pipe, into the manifold and down which ever exhaust valve happens to be open. If the water has been down there a long time you would have found water in the bottom of the oil pan. But you never know for sure until you pull the plug. Your saving grace is that those pistons are the size of coffee cans and they have a big dish in the middle of the piston that will hold more than a pint of water. Forget about pulling an injector and looking down the hole. These engines are pre-cup motors and use button injectors. You also don't have to hold the steering clutch handles if you are going to tow the machine. The clutches are hydraulically operated as is the transmission. The machine will freewheel by itself. Just make sure the park brake linkage isn't stuck on. It is a ratchet mechanism that holds the right side brake on. The big resistance to moving will be how deep the tracks have settled into the ground and how much rust has accumulated in the tracks and rollers. I don't know about transport laws in Canada but we moved D8s with the blades on all the time in Washington State. It just took an over width permit and pilot cars. I don't see them much anymore but there used to be hauling companies that had trucks with the big winches mounted behind the cab. I've seen a few dead machines winched onto the low boy trailers back when D8Hs were pretty common.

Good Luck and keep us informed!