Rings lo boy 185

[Husk8806]

Be gentle still fairly new. I need to do my rings, I've got horrible blow by, two cylinders are getting soaked. I'm not seeing an easy way to do these. Do I have to take the motor completely out?

[SONNY]

Motor needs to come out! ---- To do it right , Block needs re-bored, oversized pistons installed, crankshaft re-ground, head and top of block lightly milled, flywheel trued up, (so clutch don't grab), or at least checked. Valves ground, guides checked.
All of this work has to be done by a machine shop, so have deep pockets before you go in!
I have a 185 sitting because of this same problem! I might have an eye on another 185 with a good engine that I will swap IF the price for the parts tractor is right! He parked it because of a major transmission input shaft oil leak, engine ran strong and no smoke, so that's another option to overhaul.

[tst]

sonny is right if it is all worn out but you can drop the pan and pull the head, pull the pistons and rods out, measure the cylinder bore to see if it is within specs that are in the manual, if it is in specs and the cylinders are in good shape you can do just rings, if it is worn out it would be wasted time and money to put rings in it and it would not be much better

[outdoors4evr]

I would start by dropping the oil pan and removing the head.
Pull the pistons that have a lot of blowby and look at the rings. Sometimes the rings have all their end gaps in a line and this is allowing compression gasses into the crankcase (and giving oil a passage to the top of the engine). Each ring should have its end gap rotated approximately 180 degrees from the next ring. This way the compressed gasses need to go 1/2 way around the piston to reach the next gap.

While you have the piston out, it wouldn't hurt to remove the top compression ring from the piston, slip it into the center of the bore and measure the end gap of the ring. Compare your measurement to the tolerance given in the manual.

[Gary Dotson]

I would start the process even slower than mentioned above. I would pull just the head to get a look at the cylinder walls. Roll the engine by hand to view as much as possible. You can even take some crude bore measurements, with a dial bore gage,(or even snap gages) to get a preliminary idea of where it stands, wear wise. if you do decide to re-ring it, don't ignore the valves, it's the time to attend to them too.
Another thought, have you given it the Sea Foam treatment? You may just have stuck rings on those 2 cylinders, which can get better with Sea Foam and hard use. It's certainly worth trying that first.

[Jim Becker]

I would start as Gary suggested, then work my way back up the list of suggestions as far as needed based on measurements.

To get back to your original question, I never tried removing a pan on a numbered Lo-Boy. Clearly you can do what Gary suggested with the engine in place. But it seems like trying to pull the pan without removing the engine would quickly make removing the engine look like the way to go.

[Eugene]

Follow Gary's and Jim's suggestion.

Pulling the engine will make it much easier to work on, bench or engine stand.

Might as well do a complete engine over haul, rod and main bearing, new seals.

The C60 is actually a small engine. A lot of engine overhaul tools for a large engine will not work on the C60.

[Husk8806]

Thanks for the replies. I've covered some of that already. I had the top off last year. The two cylinders leaking oil are glazed. I may just have to hone em and clean up the pistons and rings. Valves are good. By the look of the pistons and valves looks like they were redone within 5-10 prior to me owning it as they all look pristine. And yeah I keep seafoam in all my oils, gas is eh. Tractor I keep seafoam in the gas pretty regular. Every other tank or two. I'll pull em and update. I cant do a complete rebuild right now as the season is changing i need this thing running. Even with two cylinders leaking oil i was still mowing in 2nd here and there. Shes a beast.

[Husk8806]

New question. What did the original rings look like? I pulled the pistons, I'm think someone redid them and bought some knock offs they are in too good of shape to be original but idk what originally was in. The tops been off before for some work but dont know what got done. It's unlikely they are original they are in too good of shape, but my cylinders are pretty straight. Not sure if it just really never got ran much before I had it and these are original or it was redone and these were just junk rings. Look nothing like any ring sets ice seen for the 185

[Eugene]

Steiner

Due to the many different piston manufacturers, there can be as many as 8 different ring set available for one particular engine.

[Gary Dotson]

Ring sets from different manufacturers can vary a great deal. What Hastings believes will work best may be very different from what Perfect Circle will provide. (names are only examples) Piston ring technology has changed a great deal since your 185 was built. Don't be surprised (or concerned) if replacements are not like ones you remember. They are likely better.

[Eugene]

New question. What did the original rings look like?

Guess. All three rings on the piston were probably one piece. Reason, at the factory/assembly plant, faster to install a one piece oil control ring than a 3 or 4 piece ring.

[tst]

you cannot tell the cylinders are straight by just looking, you have the pistons out, measure the bore, top,middle and bottom to see if it has a worn cylinder

[Husk8806]

IH seemed particular when it came to the lo boys. I know the PTO clutch came in two styles. Well documented. They seemed way too particular on the lo boy to have so many different types of rings put in. I was just wondering if they were original. I didnt just look in. Measurements are all good, middle is decent (.01 low end ish) next winter I'll bore it. I was just curious if it actually had an original spring set in.

[john2189]

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