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Thought I would brag about a CA, and admit my stupidity. Parked my '53 CA last fall. It has a 60" woods mower and sits outside. It's common for water to get in the exhaust manifold since the muffler is laid back due to mowing under trees. Battery was dead this spring. I checked the radiator, it was full. I expected to see some "cream" on the oil dipstick. The level was high, and some black sludge. Uh Oh!!! Block wasn't cracked and the oil pan wasn't buldged. I removed the drain plug and 2-3 gallons of clear water came out, and then the black slime. Uh Oh!! I let it drain overnight, installed the plug, and then poured in 2 gallons of diesel fuel as a mild solvent/lubricant/flushing agent. I removed the spark plugs, rotated the engine with the crank to remove the water on top of the pistons. The engine was free, never locked up. I let it sit for 24 hours, drained the diesel. Added another gallon for final flush. Cranked the engine with the starter to get things circulating. Not sure if the old oil pump is good enough to pump diesel fuel?
Drained that diesel, cleaned the oil filter housing, installed a new filter, added oil, reinstalled the plugs and cranked with the starter. Removed a couple spark plugs, to see if they were wet. No fuel yet. Drained/cleaned the sediment bowl, drained the carb bowl to make sure fuel was flowing. Cranked with (2) plugs out. Started to pop. Installed all spark plugs. Started w/o choke. Started running on all cylinders. Let it run for a minute or 2. Shut off and checked OK. Restarted, let it warm up, and then cut the grass!!!
These little tractors sure are resilient!!! Obviously, I'm not recommending any of this, just sharing a story about the abuse these tractors can take, and still perform OK. I'm sure I just subtracted 50 years from it's life!!!
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