UhOh

Hi, James, I just signed up to connect with you on this project. What Kubota engine are you using? How is the adapter plate working out? I am looking at one of these vehicles (2006 4300D) and the owner says that it struggles starting cold (but runs fine otherwise): he got a few of these Workmans and this was the last of them- it was minus the motor so he picked up one from a mower- it, this engine, supposedly had 2,600 hours on it. When I went to look at the vehicle the owner and I installed a new set of glow plugs (verified the resistance was good on them) and also ran a quick compression test. Cylinders #2 and #3 showed 560 psi while cylinder #1 showed about 480 psi. These are likely higher than actual (cheap diesel compression gauge, but most reviewers say that it works well enough to determine compression drops), but what is important is the differences, and the difference with #1 falls outside Mitsubishi's range (43 psi): I did some math, which I won't bore people with, and I come up with it being about 25% to almost 50% greater than their threshold. The compression (even the low cylinder) isn't as bad as I've seen/heard elsewhere. I just don't know if it's the cause of the starting problems. We did a quick check on the valve lash and didn't find any valves that were too tight. I don't know whether the glow plugs helped with the cold starts- the owner has this vehicle stored a ways from where he lives in which case he's not readily able to check this out (I'm going to see if I can't ask him to verify, but he may say he doesn't want to spend the time- he may just tell me that if I really want it then I should buy it). I am trying to plan in case this engine is bad: I might get lucky and it's just rings; might be that the block needs to be bored and then the price of a rebuild just gets crazy (w/o any real assurances that it'll turn out fine). You are the ONLY person that I've found to have installed anything other than a stock engine in one of these things! If you've been able to make it work then it gives me a possible route to take should I find that the engine in this Workman that I'm looking at is trashed. I have a lot of faith in Kubota diesels and would be willing to go this route (would prefer it over the Mitsubishi).