# Low running hours Long 2360 blue smoke and misses



## Ken1945

zrtman, had a problem like this awhile back and there was no solution posted. I'm hoping either he or someone else knows the solution to this problem.

what resolved your blue smoke issue? I have a 2360 with 440 hours. The oil level stays on the full mark, does not leak any tranny or lift oil and is on the full mark. Starts right up even in cold weather runs good even though it misses some now when cold and at low rpm's. Please read below for what I'm experiencing and have done to try and correct.

It was running great one morning a few weeks ago and while idling it started missing on one cylinder and pumping blue smoke. Prior to this it only smoked a little during cold start and warm up. I have cleaned injectors, installed new tips, drained/cleaned the tank (had gotten dirty fuel in one can), installed fuel filters (both), pressure tested injectors using my injector tester (set them as close to 3350 psi as possible). Range is 3250 to 3350. And she still misses at lower rpms and has blue smoke most of the time now.

I've been thinking my pressure setting of 3350 might be two high and have been thinking resetting them down around 3250, or maybe one of my new tips is dripping after the spray. But then I've been under the impression that to rich is black smoke, like when a semi truck blows a turbo and can't get enough air for the fuel to burn clean. If I used oil I'd be thinking it was rings or valve guides, but with only 440 hours and the engine is always full on the oil stick I ruled that out.

I think I read somewhere the higher the pressure the more fuel is sprayed in a shorter time and the lower pressure the less fuel sprayed over a long time.

Anyway I'm at a loss as to what the problem might be and I hope someone has found a solution that you might share with me and others.

Thanks, Ken


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## sixbales

Howdy Ken, welcome aboard the tractor forum. 

With the engine running and missing, crack open the injection connections one at a time to determine which injector or cylinder is causing the problem. Then swap injectors and see if the miss moves to the other cylinder. This will allow you to determine if you have an injector problem or a cylinder problem.


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## Fedup

I agree that swapping injectors is a good next step. I do however, question the 440 hours on the tractor. Possible, yes, but a twenty plus year old tractor with those hours would mean an average of twenty or so hours/year? Does your knowledge of the history of the tractor confirm this, or are you simply making an assumption based on numbers on the meter? If this number is indeed accurate, the rings would not likely be worn, but possibly stuck from non use. I would swap the injectors next and see what that brings. 
As for the nozzle opening pressure, I too have seen the spec you mentioned, and although it seems much higher than necessary to me, I doubt that 100 psi one way or the other would ever be noticed in operation.


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## FredM

is the tractor used to putter around on or worked reasonably hard ?, you would know that puttering will glaze the bore and this will produce blue smoke, just asking.


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## dozer966

FredM has a good point. When I bought my tractor the PO was using it to put around and never put enough load on the engin so it was glazed. Black goo on the tip of the exhaust, studer at low rpm and blueish white smoke. My remedy was to lend a hand and tractor to the Farmer behind me. Worked the crap out of it. At first it slobered all over the place and in a couple of days it all cleared. Runs great since.


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## RC Wells

Your symptoms look to be piston ring related. 

As a rule of thumb with diesel engines, white smoke is low compression or cold engine.
Black smoke is unburned fuel from failing injector, too heavy of an injector pump setting, bad injector tip, etc.

Blue smoke is engine oil getting past one or more of the oil rings, or a cracked piston skirt. Unless it is also billowing white smoke with the blue it will not be due to low compression.

Because you had the tractor running fine and the problem began all at once, I would suspect a broken oil ring or cracked piston.

The usual cause of either of those issues is cold loading, or putting a heavy load on the engine when it has not fully warmed to operating temperature.

The fix is to pull the head and look at the pistons from the top of the crown. The wet one will be the culprit, and then will need to be pulled to fix either the oil ring or replace the piston. However, normally the engine will not miss when either of these are the cause.

Blue smoke can be from an oil passage in the head gasket leaking oil into one or more pistons, or from a cracked head allowing oil into one of the exhaust ports. The miss would lead me to suspect a small leak in the head gasket between one of the pressure ports to the valve train, or one of the drain back ports. Normally you would not see much of an oil level drop with a small head gasket leak, but would see blue smoke and missing. Also, the hotter it gets as it is worked the smoking and missing would diminish as the oil more thoroughly burned.

If the tractor does not generate blue smoke when fully warmed, and has plenty of power and no white smoke, it could be a glazed cylinder. However, those do not normally just happen at once, but start showing symptoms over time in the way of increased oil consumption. 

If the problem was accompanied by a woodpecker sound in the engine, then I would suspect a broken wrist pin and scored cylinder.


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## Ken1945

It is and was a putter tractor. I got it from and man that used it to tend a small garden and mow his lake front area. 

It is 20 years old and only has 440 hours on it, hour meter is working correctly. I use it to run my 5 foot yanmar rototiller and 76 inch culivator bar tending mine and my neighbors garden. It doesn't get used much.

It will pull like a "morgan horse" cold or hot, and only misses and smokes when idling or rpm's below 1500 cold. Once up to full operating temp it quits missing. 

Maybe I need to do like dozer966 said and work the crud out of the cylinders for a while on a real farm using the rototiller or an 8 ft disc set.

Have to take some time for visiting the grand children for Thanksgiving but when I get back and determine the problem, even if I have to take it to a professional, I'll let everyone know what the problem is... professionals are hard to find here in south Georgia now, everything is computerized.

Happy Thanksgiving to all, Ken


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