I have a 4 cylinder diesel tractor. Case 885 XL.

TractorData.com CaseIH 885XL tractor information

Starts & runs ok in the main, however, soon as it gets warm, it starts playing the silly goat.

It'll run normally for a bit then all of a sudden the revs will start to drop, and over the course of 4 or 5 seconds the engine speed will drop to a faltering idle no matter what I do with the throttle.

If I just sit there with the clutch down and leave the throttle alone, it'll then falter (couple of hundred rpm) for a few seconds before picking up again & returning to normal running.

It'll be ok then and be able to do work ok for a while.

This cycle then starts to repeat. At first it happens every couple of minutes, but as the running time gets longer and the engine gets hotter, it starts happening more frequently until after maybe half an hour & full temperature, it's doing it every 30 seconds or so & it's really hard to get anything useful done in between times.

At it's worst, the faltering starts to give way to full stalls. But even at the worst, it's always possible to perform an immediate key restart, and after each key restart you get a good 30 seconds at least of completely normal running. Before another falter or stall..

I've noticed it seems to be going through a lot of coolant, although on refilling I can't see it's dribbling out anywhere seriously. A cursory look at the engine earlier revealed the diesel injector pump to be pretty much covered on the outside with fresh diesel, and I fancy there might be some wetness on the outside of the cylinder block coming down from the head area, but I've not yet really got stuck in and cleaned the hell out of everything, let it dry, and look closely to see if these reappear and if so from exactly where.

I can see one fuel filter, at a glance the fuel inside looks clean & there doesn't seem to be appreciable sediment or water in there,

Just wondered if any other forum members have experience of this type of engine & have maybe encountered such problems before? Any ideas?

So far I'm vaguely thinking algae jellyfish in the tank; fuel filter blocked; old collapsing fuel line; radiator / hose / rubber coolant hose leak; water pump leak; unknown nightmare inside injector pump; head gasket blown... ???

 

I do not know your machine, but I do work on Diesels as well as ATVs and 2-strokes.

First, you have got to go to TractorByNet, the best place for the issues you have. You will get lots of responses, guaranteed.

IMO, you have a fuel delivery issue, which explains most of your symptoms. Since you have leaks around the FI pump, then you may have inadequate fuel pressure to one or more cylinders. You can even get air in the lines, You are right to be concerned about fuel contamination, but you said your filter bowl looks clear. If your fuel tank has a drain valve, it can be used to reduce the sludge you are sure to have in the bottom of the tank, The pickup tube is above the bottom, but the sludge (from diesel bacteria or algae, most likely) could have built up to the intake. Blowing backwards on the line with air might help for a short time.

 

Thanks. I'll try blowing back the line. Not too hard to do & might shed some light on things

 

Yep you were 100% right, fuel delivery.

These tractors normally have 2 canister/bowl type filters from the factory, turns out someone's added a 3rd inline filter in the line between the tank and the original filters. That's the one I could see & was referring to.

I found a local guy with a lot of experience with these, to come & help.. he spotted it straight away - "that's a filter for a small petrol car not a diesel tractor". He pulled it out & replaced it with a fatter, apparently ok-for-diesel one.

Straightaway the manual primer pump, engine side of the bad filter, began operating ok (it had seemed 'stuck', because of the vacuum) & there was a massive improvement in starting & running, seems like a new machine.

Needs a new radiator. Pretty ok with that, least it's not the head gasket losing the coolant! :-)

 

Glad you got it fixed!