D17 series 1 diesel rebuild

I'm going to tear it down some more, more then likely fully and I'm gonna clean the block out and the head. Any ideas on that? I was thinking electrolysis??

Edited by JosephD17III - 07 Jan 2026 at 8:52pm

you had better magna flux that head with every thing re moved ,     we  just sawed a bad 262d cylinder head up with the band saw at the machine shop  to see what the inside of the casting and what the water jacket looks like.     and see what mine and the other guys can get away with , my machine shop is doing one for some one for else also. their will have to be welded and pinned.        i was just at the machine shop this morning and forgot to take pictures the cylinder head cross sections.       if their is any crack under the valve seats its done for

That would work too, thanks for the idea!

There are a lot of orange tractors that will cost a ton less and be much more dependable.

turbo piston are differant compression ratio if i am correct it  is less  so it would make it a pig

It seems as though the gas 262 engine had a more reliable reputation. The relatively lower cylinder pressure (during the combustion event) of the gas engine vs the diesel engine, evidently has much less impact on the fire rings(which seal the uppermost diameter of the cylinder sleeve flange to the cylinder head, respective to the head gasket that “contains” them). The general theory is that the fire rings, of the factory gasket on the diesel engine, were made of soft enough material that they eventually gave way to the compression (cylinder pressure) and the cylinder sleeves were allowed to move up and down in their bores,in the engine block, enough to wear down the already inadequately small outside diameter ledge -think “jack-hammering”, that located them in the block deck at the correct height for adequate head gasket(fire ring) sealing. After prolonged operation, they would bounce up and down enough to wear out the ledge and “sink” into the block. This causes the infamous head gasket issues, and the major repairs required to actually fix the root cause of said head gasket failures, when overhauling the diesel 262. Sleeves need to have a standout (protrusion) of at least .002”, preferably .004” above the block deck. This is why several people have suggested that the machine work and resulting expense to correctly repair the block is extremely common and important. (Not to mention cylinder head cracking issues). Aftermarket fire rings of a harder material have been used, but it’s not widely known what the specific material or dimensions of these rings were made of. A former member of this forum, who manufactured and advocated for these improved fire rings, has passed away. So, the exact specifications of them may be lost. The gas 262 does not seem to suffer from this problem, regardless of hours on the engine. But, they also don’t seem to be easy to find overhaul parts for either.

Edited by RedHeeler79 - 16 hours 18 minutes ago at 8:51pm

Just a thought, could someone leave the diesel pistons and swap the head to a gasser so you’d have a really high compression gasser?

Diesel pistons with .200" shaved off the top works good. Also be sure to use the thicker diesel head gasket when doing this.

Edited by DrAllis - 26 minutes ago at 12:43pm