You pulling the truck with that little 318 should be a new John Deere commercial

Really shows Bill was well favored over the years and after a good engine rebuild that thing will be ready and excited for another 30 - 40 years

The Onans are hard to kill. You might try adjusting the valves before tearing it down. The intake lash is only .005", so it's pretty easy for them to wear and start hanging open.

After pullin the 750 with the TLB and trailer, bill has earned his full restoration!

Well worth doing a rebuild on the old 318 . Another great video

Fun video! I love the little 318’s and I think it’s worth saving no question about it!

That was fun to watch, I'm still leaning towards saving Bill

Never know what to expect from you but it’s always fun and entertaining. I’ll bet Wes is on to something. Not much of a “green” fan but old iron is old iron. Being old myself, I vote for a second chance.

I’m not surprised we always moved big loads of corn in our yard at combining in the fall

You were right... her smile made her look guilty! Does she have something in for poor ole Bill? LOL My first lawn tractor was a JD400. I bought it used. It had rear wheel weights, a mower deck, front blade and rear tiller. When I test drove it, the engine ran well but it didn’t seem to have any power. The seller told me that was because it needed new spark plugs... that didn’t ring true.... but, I wanted it really badly. So, I brought it home. After changing the spark plugs, oil and air filter.... I put it to work. Mowing the lawn it did pretty well. I could mow in low range, at full throttle and half peddle in the hydrostat. It would drive down the road in high range and full pedal. Then, I put the tiller on the back. The 3-pt could barely lift it. The PTO had just enough power to mix sand... once it touched dirt or even skinned a worm... it bogged down and played sick. I deduced that the hydrostatic drive was shot. After reading everything I could find (pre - Al Gore’s gift of the internet), I went to the JD dealer to get a quote in rebuilding it. They laughed as they quoted me diagnostic fees, overhaul, wait time the half life of sequoia tree... etc. So, I asked them about trading it for the diesel version... I think it was the JD420. First of all, they had none in stock. Second, none of my attachments would fit it, with the exception of the wheel weights. And C, they were only going to give me $250 in trade, for the tractor and all my attachments. The salesman delivered this news with a smug, over confident attitude... like, this is the best deal you’ll get, Chump! So, I pulled my trailer across town to the Kubota dealer. I told him about the hydrostatic drive issue... and he walked me over to a compact diesel tractor. It came with a 5’ mower, four wheel drive, bucket loader and a 52” tiller. His deal was, $1000 for my trade, one year in-house financing at no interest and $1500 less base price than the JD420. Since it was in-stock, I drove home with a trailer load of orange toys! I have never regretted making that change. I have been running pumpkin colored tractors every since. My brother-in-law is still using that B1700 today. A few days afterward, I got a call from the JD salesman. I told him that I wasn’t interested in their deal. I also mentioned that the $250 trade-in was an insult. He said they could offer $400. I then told him that Kubota gave me $1000 and a better tractor for less money. He finished the conversation by telling me that he hated for me to settle for a second rate brand.... and that he’d be there for me just as soon as I learned my lesson. And, the JD400... a few weeks after trading it, I went back to the Kubota dealer to pick up oil and hydraulic filters. It wasn’t there. I asked the salesman where the JD400 was. He told me that they had changed the hydro fluid in it. When they pulled the strainer out, they found it plugged. After cleaning it and changing the filter, it ran like a new one. It only sat on their lot for two weeks! I personally don’t have a problem with JD equipment. I’ve used quite a few pieces of it. But, that whole arrogance and over pricing thing still rankles my spine. I’ve made a few trips back to that dealer... they were sold out to a company that has five or six locations. They built a huge dealership that covers about 20 acres. The salesman that I dealt with is no longer there... but, it is apparent that before he left, he trained all of their other salesman on his art of customer service! Last year, I decided to trade my second Kubota (a BX24 sub-compact Tractor, Loader-Backhoe) for a new one with quick change mounting and SSQA bucket mount. It was in excellent shape and low hours, I just wanted more convenience and versatility. I decided to give JD another chance. From the time I pulled into the lot... the salesman’s look of pity, over confidence, unwillingness to deal on price or trade.... sent me right back across town to load up my new Orange BX23S! Neil, I was wondering.... dealers don’t seem to get the message. But, perhaps tractors do. Is there a chance that threatening to spray Bill with a little orange paint might improve his outlook?

I just stumbled across your videos and I love watching. I say restore bill and let us see that journey. You and your wife have a beautiful property and I can tell you guys take pride in everything you do. Keep up the good work!

Still say restore bill. These machines still hold a value

"I know what I'm gonna do, but..." Such a tease, lol.

I always get a kick out of your videos Neil. Some useful content and always entertaining.

First things first.... A 318 is a Garden Tractor (GT), not a Lawn Tractor (LT). A garden tractor is designed to use ground engaging equipment, IE mold board plow, sweepster,etc.... Lawn tractors are for mowing and pulling lawn trailer and a fertilizer spreader. I've pulled some really amazing things with my re-powered 318 that many people didn't think was possible for it to do. BTW.... Great videos

Excellent video! Using the engine drive attachments definitely loads the engine more then anything else. If you ever get time I’d love to see more of your toy tractors, trucks and such I’m seeing around on the shelves! Have a great week!

Great video, I have a 318 I'm facing the very same decision on, I need to narrow down a bit more where my problems are coming from. I get a good bit of blue smoke under load changes, the PTO actually ALMOST stalls out the engine when I engage it. I've got too much time into working on this machine to stop now, so the "recycle" option is off the table for me. I hope to see you keep Bill alive and well, either from a rebuild or repower. Great video. Those little machine sure can pull.

Back in the 80's I helped design a 3 wheel all terrain gas/electric wheel chair. As we were shooting a video on it, had a delivery semi come to shop. We hooked up to it, and as we started to pull it, the driver just shook his head in dis-belief that a power wheel chair was pulling his truck with the 35' trailer.

We had/have a 318 used at our boat marina from 1990 to 2015 ish and it’s still kickin. This thing has lived the hardest life ever by far. We have a hydraulic Quik hitch on the front with a hitch ball welded on it, big weight box on the back. This thing would spend hours each day moving 5-6000 lbs boats around the yard. Tandem axle trailers, whatever. We just beat the absolute piss out of it. You can do reverse full speed then slam the hydro to forward and wheelie til the weight box hit and let it slam down. She loves it. Broke all the mounts off the transaxle multiple times. Weld it back together and the thing just keeps going. It literally will not die. Just an amazing machine. So I say you have no choice but to restore and keep this thing going

I know this is an older video, but I'm new. 8) Mine is a 1999 320 named JD. Not very creative I know but it just stuck. My 2500 HD Silverado is named Angie. She is "silver" color, so when she didn't have a name after a whole week, I used the name from the chart, Ag for silver, so "A" an "G" is "Angie". My very first truck back in 1973 was named "Hemorrhoid", guess why? LOL Anyway, I love my 320 JD! When I bought her I wanted one with an automotive type steering, HD hydro drive, hydro lift and the larger tires, Got it! The 18 HP Kawasaki engine has been great! I do 2 oil/filter changes/year, and always run Mobile_1 straight 30 wt. Beside 2 batteries, she has only had 2 repairs. A new 'air clutch' for the PTO and a strange one, the threaded valve adjuster on the intake of 1 cylinder backed all the way off! The 2 nuts, bolt and rocker arm were laying in the valve cover when I took it off!! I put a new push rod in, and all other parts, adjusted the valves on both cylinders and she runs like new! Factory mistake, Mobile_1 extra slippery LOL, nobody knows. 8) Sorry for long post 8( Cheers, --gary

beautiful property

Enjoyed watching a d listening to the reasoning of the issue.

from the Netherlands thanks for the video Neil and Mrs.Koch

I can't recall the stats on the hydrostatic version of the transaxle in the 318, but the Peerless 2300 geared version is rated for 750 lb/ft of torque (!!). They used the same transaxles in aircraft tugs in the 70s to shuttle around 737s. 😉 While I don't have one sitting around to confirm, I look forward to some serious stump pulling after the engine swap is done!

No one noticed the mint Honda three wheeler in the background?? I'm a big three wheeler guy... On a side note, I just bought my first 318 today from an older lady selling her house. I got the tractor plus a twin cylinder plow and the snow blower for $2350. I will now be following all these videos 👍

This video sealed the deal, I’m buying a 318 tomorrow 😁. Awesome video

I just fired up my JD 318 after about 5yrs of sitting outside and now I want to have mines rebuilt. 👍🏼😊

As an old mechanic once learned me (aggressively I might add), “They can’t make mechanic in a bottle!”.

I'm a very ender, and finding your videos in the middle of the morning is killing my work efficiency. I appreciate the Monday Morning break! Your wife is such a good sport. Do you Remember me mentioning her interrupting your video with a blower a while back? Well, yesterday my wife fires up the blower right as I set up the GoPro for a video. You know what I told her - NOTHING, absolutely nothing! ;-)

Ole' Bill's still got some giddy up and go!!! Those old gt's are tough as nails!!!

Saved a JD 318 from being pushed into a dumpster, with a snow blower and mower deck, used many Miller welding machines and they used Onans that were as old as me, and they had never failed even on 24/7 jobs, just stopped for refuel and a oil check and they ran round the clock, many of the newer machines with offshore engines could not handle it and exploded on some of those welding jobs, but the Onans slogged through and never quit, so i took the 318 home and patiently sorted it out years of neglect, It retains the Onan it came with, did not want to shove a china engine into it and have it explode like the welding machines with china engines did, It runs as new and looks like it too, great unit the 318.

You need to deck the heads, seat the valves, set the lash and clear the carbon deposits, basicly a total head job with new gaskets and possibly new head bolts! You a lucky man with a gorgeous wife and beautiful daughters that are willing to help you with work when needed!

LOL Neil what a test, can't wait until the Big Question what's next. R R R!

Seafoam it - it helps with the valve deposit buildup. Would make for a fun video series to see which "fix ups" work before taking the heads of and rebuilding.

I used Restore in a smoking forklift, took about 6 months and stopped smoking. Worked for me

I bought a sears ss18 that had good compression with the valves slightly out of adjustment. After adjustment it ran better, and I believe it is a very similar engine to what's in your 318

Yeah rebuild the old girl and do the same test will be a good comparison and another vid for us all to watch 👍

That's a good hydro in that thing. I would try valve adjusting since it is part of maintenance. Fairly easy to do.

I have been thinking about buying an old John Deere garden tractor to cut my grass pull a plugger and spread fertilizer after watching your videos I’m sold on the old 300/400 series love them old tractors

Nice tractor! My dream garden tractor 🚜 is a 318 also.

Ha, "till the enders" and a cliffhanger! Rebuild is my gamble, but I guess we'll all see.

I have a 318 with a 5 foot Snow plow on the front and has wheel weights but it has turf tires on it and it likes to spin but it has a tremendous amount of power I'm not surprised at all that you could pull that much

Bill is a ‘beast’. I was shocked it could pull your truck and trailer. I think John Deere should sponsor you and Bill. Repaint it and make it pretty. I was firmly in the scrap it camp but that was an impressive display! Even if it didn’t cut grass it would be great for moving a boat around in your shop haha!

pulled quite a few stuck cars out of the snow with my 322. with the cab,blower and weights. it is just over 2200lbs. didn't spin a wheel especially with chains and ice.

I would save it, I have heard of some people recovering with the predator engine. Honda and vanguard also. I love my 318 like you do. Mine never mows, I have a 4 foot mechanical tiller. It does all my garden tilling duties

I really like the originality of the. "Paint job" on Bill

During your pulls, it sounded like the governor isn’t responding to its best ability. That might be another reason why it’s down on power. It just goes down with the load, instead of trying to compensate for the load. As for the sudden dying, it sounds like it’s losing ignition all of a sudden. That compression does suggest that the ole Onan is tired - I’ve seen good engines reach 120PSI. Personally, I’d rebuild it. Those Onans are torque monsters, and are a great engine if they are rebuilt and cared for right.

If you want to take a smaller step before rebuilding, valve lapping or even adjusting the valves. You could try some quick fixes for the top end like "sea foam". Sometimes crud gets built up at the top of the cylinder and prevents the valves from seating properly reducing compression. Before doing that, a diy guy like you might have a borescope with a mirror (they make them now that just connect to your phone) to look down into the spark plugs hole and then back up at the cylinder head.....

i have a 1999 john deere 335. it was my great grandfathers. he only had it for about 3 years before he passed. then i was born a year later. when i was old enough it went to me. now i maintain it. everything from oil changes to $100 drive belts. that thing has only had a small hand full of parts replaced like the drive belt, fuel pump. and as of last year a carb rebuild (only did that to find why it was running weird. turns out it was the clacky rockers that were looser than my you know what after taco bell.) and i used it to pull a 20 foot car trailer UP HILL and was BURIED in weeds with 2 flats on the same side that didnt spin. and... honest to God i though it came off when i started moving. I COULDNT TELL IT WAS ON THERE. also i will say im preeeety sure it could do it ONLY because it has big pleated rear tires. but if you cant do that with a similar mower then thats likely a traction issue not an engine power issue. And I will say that I knew it was WAY more capable than just a car trailer after how effortless it was. And now that I seen what yours was capable of in poor condition. I have enough confidence to say that I think mine can pull the wall off a house

great tests.shocked it pulled all that weight.i think old bill is saying restore medium worth it

Another great and entertaining video, Neil! I agree with Watch Wes Work below. A valve adjustment is a pretty easy thing to do. If the valves are out of adjustment it will affect the power of the Onan and a simple adjustment may give the old girl some new life!

Bill is still a beautiful beast of burden! Well other than the fact that he is one of those green things and not orange as all tractors should be, but we will try to over look that fact. He still has many years to offer with a little TLC.

That JD318 is a beast! Now it makes me wonder what my JD 2210 can tow?! Maybe I’ll do a a future video on that. Can I borrow your dump truck, trailer, and TLB? :)

Damn Neil. Was hoping Restore would work for Bill. I think I was one of the first to suggest it. 😉 looking forward to the next one. Wish I lived closer, you and I have very similar personalities.

Good videos

Impressive I just bought a new x738 I had a few bigger size rocks I want to move to other side of property and was wondering if it would pull those Guy my answer here 😂 Amazing power

Good. Idea I just got my 318 yesterday with a 50 inch deck 54 inch power angle plow and a 48 inch snow blower it is in very good shape it’s a 1992 your videos are good also you need to make sure you use a thick oil in those old onans such as sae30

Those last generations of 300 and 400 series were the best ever! Heaviest frames, axles, hydro's and no expense spared engineering. They just kept improving from 1963 on. CUT's killed the big garden tractors market IMO.

John Deere of those years were the best ever made....

Jees Louise, give Bill a medal, 38000lbs not bad for 18 horses! I would say the only problem is the nut. The one in the seat.

I recently sold my 318 but a couple years ago it could barely drive - just weaker & weaker. Made new plug wires & it was back to normal. I was surprised. Never did check compression though.

Nice video, repower it, spray it with clear to preserve the patina

If you end up selling it, throw it on a 318FB group & I think she’ll find a good home. I’m not that surprised at the outcome. I’ve got a Yanmar L70 I just put into my sears st16, & might put my other engine in my 212 whose engine has stalled out & sometimes wouldn’t start again. It started happening after I added some diesel oil I had on hand/1qt cuz it was low again.

I have a JD 318 that I bought with a broken conn rod. The engine is easy to teardown and rebuild. With a valve leak you probably have some lashing issues. There's an issue with people not putting on their belly pans and grass gets stuck overheating the engine. Valves coud be burnt. Either way if you address those issues you should'nt have a problem.

I was really hoping the Restore would pull something out. Sounds like a good rebuild potential (and bringing in some of your friends and neighbors) to help out. Otherwise, I'd find a 1000cc Harley-Davidson engine and make a puller.

I have a 4-14 8 wheel horse (14hp) drag buses around the lot with it all the time (full size buses) occasional semi now and then As far as the engine restore. I had a 6.0 powerstroke, wiped the turbo. Lost compression. Engine restore made it run for 2 years after that.

I believe I would put the motor out of your 316 in bill because it is obvious the rear end is good and it has split wheel brakes. And sell the 316 for parts.

Dang….Bill is a beast haha

Bill's engine may be tired, but the Sundstrand hydro drive seems fine!

those old hydrostat drives are bullet proof they will move basically anything if you push the peddle down s tiny amount cuz you get a huge amount of torque. we moved a mobile home with a newer jd mower but annoyingly it has a bypass valve that limited the torque but it still moved enough and after all its just supposed to be a mower so fair enough.

Honestly here in the condition you have with your engine it's probably best to lead you to valves and basically Do a valve job on it it's really easy to do and not hard all we have to do is lap devouts on it I would highly recommend watching Terrell fixes all he has good valve job lap in videos or watch a Mr. Beef on KZfaq he has good videos on own engineers John Deere's she has a whole tear down video I would highly recommend him if you have to tear down the engine and we build it

Restor Bill he deserves it 318’s are great tractors

Scotty Kilmer recently did a video on that Engine Restorer...he says it's snake oil.

I have a Craftsman T240 Turn Tight tractor with a Kohler 7000 series 22 horsepower 725cc V Twin engine it's built like a little tank I've pulled my 3600 pound camper in and out of my driveway..

PLEASE restore bill. I love 318s and seeing bill like that hurts me. You gotta save bill+

Maybe do a repower series? Mine has a Honda GX630 and a JD 420 2 speed diff, it's an impressive little machine.

Really thought when the tractor was buckin and doing a wheelie you were going to throw your hat in the air and yell YEEHAW!

As long as the tractor has compression anything can be fixed with the motor, part depending on what you can get. For parts consult your local John Deere Dealer, the should have parts logs for a lot of equipment

Hey I saw John Deere's from 1981 to 1983 I sold the 317 the 318 I like them both if I owned build a 318 I would run it until the engine stopped Keith's oil check and take care of it till then

If you know who has the fields around you ask them if you can run the test in their field so you can put both the backhoe buckets down without tearing up anything that is cared about

Great video! I’ll never look at an old 318 the same. Is that a Honda ATC 200 I saw in the background? I have a 1984 200M in the garage. Love my trike. Little bit of work, little bit of play, and always reliable.

I would love to see it rebuilt , but repower is probably the less expensive way and way you will go .

Hey Neil Love the videos. Have you mowed the grass yet. I have Friday i mowed in the evening.

Build one that has several engines in line on a long frame. For tractor pulls or racing.

My 35 year old sears craftsman rear engine mower pulled a big tex 6x10 trailer with my toro wheelhorse 267-H on the trailer and motherboard wheelhorse I have is 550 pounds about 1800 pounds on the craftsman it did a wheelie so I stood on the front of it and it did just fine

Bill Might Be Tired But I Would Still Like To Have It To Mow Our 2-3 Acres With..We Ben Push Mowing It For 2 Years & That Got Old Very Fast..lol. But No Desent Deals On a Riding Mowers around here Or a Zero Turn So Push Mowing it Is for the foreseeable Future !

Bill is ready for Harlan garden tractor pull day.....

I have a John Deere 300 garden tractor and I use it every fall to pull my camper in so the camper trailer hitch is facing the garage because I want the door to be opening towards the driveway not towards my neighbors The trailer is 30 feet long weighs 10,000 pounds and the most stunning thing is there’s 1300 pounds of tongue weight and the John Deere 300 pulls it without any problem

Great video! I used to have a 318 with a 44 loader but it was kind of a lemon! I bought a 140 h3 about 3 years ago now. One of my neighbors was moving some big boulders out of his yard. He was trying to do it with a 4x4. I went over with my 140 and put a strap to the rock. This rock probably weighed maybe 1000 pounds. It pulled it no problem.

I vote rebuild for bill. Never give up on the onan!!

Can’t wait too see what happens with bill

I'd recommend a re-power with a Kohler Magnum series engine like an 18 or 20HP the one i have it runs smooth and has plenty of power its a 18 and all i did was clean the carb and bought new spark plugs and head gaskets

When you hooked on to the truck and trailer with the backhoe I would have bet good money it wouldn't do it but it did

Runs like a Deere and pulls like a case

Do you have to remove 3 point hitch to install mower deck?

I was having a low power under load and it turned out my intake manifold was missing a bolt. It ran hot as well.

The mow pulled that truck really

How about bad bi-pass valves in the hydraulic motors?

How hard is it to find engine parts or replace an entire engine for these 318s? I was actually looking into buying one...

You don't need that much HP for the Sundstrand Series 15 Model 90 hydrostatic transmission to put a lot of down torque. It's the PTO thats sucking all the HP from that worn out Onan.