John Deere 1-1/2 model E cylinder liner

[Johnny Morris]

Hello all, I have been working on a John Deere 1-1/2 E that had an egg shaped bore, with no compression. I have bored the block about .065" over, and that still did not clean it up totally, but at least it is round now.
I braized the piston up & turned down in a lathe to allow .005" clearance, & installed oversized rings gapped at .012" to .016".
I also cut the ring grooves for .005" ring side clearance.

After all this I still have very little compression, about 40 psi. This is with a 1/2" steel plate w/ gasket bolted in place of the head.

I have noticed the rings gaps keep wanting to line up after a few minutes of cranking.

Anyway, I would like to install a liner so I can go back to an original piston, does anyone know where I can buy a Liner.

Thanks in advance, tired of cranking
Johnny Morris

[Bill Wehrman]

Isn't .005 an awful lot for side clearance on the ring? I would bet that is where your compression has gone.

[LarrapMan]

My JD E has hardly any compression but it still runs just fine, not trying to rub it in or anything but I know how much a liner and piston are going to set you back. Have you ran in it in well? Engines with new rings or which have been disturbed always take a while to get on true form.

[Rob Leonard]

Look up what you need at Mellings, get the part number and do a search. I just bought a sleeve that I needed off Amazon. Rob.

[Pete Nichols]

Johnny,
Check with your local NAPA store. Thats were I get most of my sleeves at !!!

[Johnny Morris]

Thanks Guys for the tips.

I know a lot of the compression is passing the rings & or piston, because i hear a lot of blow-by coming back to the crankcase.

I'm just getting tired of screwing with this one, you know how it is after you've tried & tried to correct something and you realize there must be something you are missing.

Thanks again
Johnny Morris

[Gilbert_Bates]

Originally Posted by Johnny Morris

I'm just getting tired of screwing with this one, you know how it is after you've tried & tried to correct something and you realize there must be something you are missing.

Time to go find some other engines to tinker with and let this one set for a while, come back to it later. This is were having lots of treasures becomes an advantage.

Although most of the time the next project has a headache or two waiting for you.

I've also learned to minimize my time involved with an engine. There aren't too many rare engines out here in Colorado so I now find happiness in taking common engines I get fairly cheaply at auction, and simply clean them up, fix only the things that keep them from running, take the slack out of the bearing, don't even paint them, call it good. Then on to the next engine. Minimizing work on old engines is a good goal and will help keep you from throwing wrenches across the shop.

[BMiller]

I agree with the comments that .005" might be a little large for side clearance on the rings ---- but I also agree that that thing will run with that much compression, and it'll seat in some and get better as it runs.

Put it back together and try it out!! Sometimes easier to start them the first time with a battery & coil, just leave the mag wire hang loose when you do it.

My "E" has a lot of side clearance in the rings, so started with low compression. It took about 6 hours running for the rings to seat and the smoke to quit, but now, even in cold weather, it'll start on the first spin, and will run really, really slow.

Bill Miller

[Kevin O. Pulver]

Bmiller is right, take the cover off, put some heavy oil or STP on the piston skirt/ring area and see if it will run. Actually the wore out ones are the best runners sometimes because they will coast down to a slower speed and still be able to come over and fire BECAUSE of the lower compression. The majority of these engines just sit idling anyway and the slower they're reliably run, the better. Make sure your ring grooves aren't worn "V" shaped. If they are, a new sleeve and new rings won't do a bit of good. (ask me how I know)
The good news is you can cut them square in a lathe, and get spacers OR wider rings. Search the archives here for threads on the topic. Kevin

[Gasengin]

I agree with the above. Run it and hope for the best. .005 ring clearacne is too much, but this could be fixed with turning out the groove more and adding spacers. Compression should get better with running. Until it's ran for a while, don't worry about it.