Why Did The $500 Allis Chalmers 210 Engine Seize?

Make sure you take a look at the entire playlist, to get the back story on this engine! youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgKs8wgBcfDy8zKYeeW4iac…

I love when people troubleshoot the right way. Fixing the symptoms is easy enough, but finding the root cause is absolutely critical and it's exactly what you guys are doing. 10/10.

It was absolutely amazing and incredibly humbling to hear your dad talk about 'Hey, you may have been doing it wrong for 40 years' and willing to learn... we need more of that in this world.

Hello from Newfoundland Canada. Im a retired Heavy Equipment mechanic and I also do some machining. Watched this video, with great interest. many years ago I done an inframe on a DT466 in an International truck. Within 50 miles of engine use, it was starting to seize, let the engine rest then it would restart and when at temp begin to stick. Got the truck back and removed the head and base. It took a bit of head scratching before the problem was seen. The problem was fuel related. #5 piston spray pattern was way out of sorts. Apparently when the injectors were redone at the fuel shop, there was an incorrect part put in that injector, as they say! Reassembled the engine, it wore the truck out. As for Oring lube on the liners, I always used liquid dish detergent, such as Sunlight brand. Dish soap was always considered a trade off. Some orings were not oil friendly, while the one next to it could be oil friendly. Soap was always a sure bet.

As a fellow tractor mechanic, I appreciate seeing y'all struggle as well

My dad is in the business of rebuilding injectors/injector pumps and i did it as well for a couple of years and have seen this exact problem caused by injection timing being to advanced so i would say that this is 100% the issue

I love how you guys very gently told all the internet experts to bug off.. keep on truckin and get that tractor back to work!!! good work and good luck!

30 years as a diesel tech, those pistons are definitely damaged from timing advance. I've been in your shoe's on an inframe case 540 engine. The pump was rebuilt at the same time and set up wrong. I had to do the job again as a come back at 22.7 hours, spent 2 weeks trying to figure out what I did wrong. Sent the pump out and found out it was wayyyy advanced. You guys are on the right track get the pump right and put it back together.

I work on complex cloud based IT systems and I have found when it comes to root cause, it’s usually something simple or a few simple things failing together. Love the parallels

This may be my favorite JAMSI video yet. Having your proud work blow up in your own face is never fun, but the clarity of thought and exposition in this postmortem is just incredible. I think a lot of scientists, engineers, and technologists could benefit to watch this video. Bravo.

I appreciate your honesty making this public. Not every engine builder would have went public.

I realize there is no turbo, but maybe fit a pyrometer in that exhaust to monitor the temp next go around. Never can have too much data Good work guys, love watching your stuff!

Having been involved in performing root cause analysis for big engineering problems, I can say that you two have covered this about as thoroughly as possible, so well done for that! It's also just amazing to listen to two experts in their field discuss the problem and work through it. My background is electrical, so while I have a working understanding of engines and machining, this stuff definitely isn't in my wheelhouse. But you two make it all very accessible, and I understood 99% of what you discussed. Keep up the great work!

This is how troubleshooting is done in order to find the root cause. Lots of symptoms to pick through but doing it right takes time and skill. Well done, fellas.

I would be checking the spray pattern of your injectors. On those early engines fuel injection started as early as 40 degrees BTDC. It does not start to burn until the crank is less than 5 degrees BTDC as the compression is not high enough. A bad injector that sprays fuel to wide can wash the oil off the cylinder walls causing high wear,scoring and extra heat!

I agree with timing. By the look of that piston your spray was out of the bowl. I destroyed a Cummins BT6 marine engine by early injection and the top of the piston looked very familiar.

What you and your dad are doing for the farming community who do their own mechanic work is greatly appreciated!! Your build series has been AMAZING! The diagnostic and troubleshooting information about why this failure occurred is top notch! ! I watched all your videos on the Allison.. keep up the good work!!

I think you guys are on the right track. Years ago, building IH 361-407 engines, we ran into issues just like you guys are having. We would try to build them on the tighter side of spec. It took along time to figure out that it was the injection pump causing the issue. After taking to many people one guy asked if the injector spray pattern was high on the combustion bowl, which it was. Pump wasn't advancing like it was supposed to and the injectors were spraying across the top of the pistons. Ever since then we have the pumps done by a good diesel shop and haven't had issues since. For the sleeves and pistons coming assembled I was told by a Reliance rep that they are done like that for shipping and should be taken apart cleaned and inspected.

Man, you guys really do an excellent job. It's hard in this day and age to put it lightly. Like you said no hard feelings with the injection pump shop but that's extremely unfortunate you lost that information because I am right on board with you. The pump is to blame here. Unfortunately it's like this with everything. I'm a heavy equipment mechanic and I cannot get any other shop local to me to help me anymore than I can help myself. You guys went through it with your crane and your doors and your new shop. There are just not many people out there right now that are really willing to take the extra time and do failure analysis and go the extra mile, and it's really hard not to get discouraged dealing with it.

And I also love how you guys aren't afraid to ask questions and aren't afraid to question your own work that definitely show his pride that is very rarely seen from people now and days