Diesel Engine Misbehavin'

[will-max dairy]

In the end, the power loss and "check engine" light issue seems to have turned out to be the simplest explanation... my lack of attention to maintenance intervals. A new fuel filter seems to have brought the tractor back to full steam. I don't know why I had 500 hours in my head for fuel filters...which, in practice means I let it go about 750 hours... the actual interval is 250 hours.

A couple of things uncovered along the way:

There IS a PCV oil separator that is supposed to need maintenance at 1500 hours. Page 76 of the manual specifies that the crankcase ventilation system uses a ProVent 150 oil separator. When I talked to the dealer about it, their system only lists the entire separator assembly for 800 bucks. BUT... if you look up the ProVent 150 on Amazon, replacement elements for it are available for 30bucks. (see attached screen capture)

I asked the dealer about the statement in the manual about draining water from the fuel filter every 15 days... he laughed... said nobody is doing that.

After changing the fuel filter, I got down under the machine while it was running/warming up with the new filter, to look for leaks, and got a better look at where the coolant leak is. At cold startup, during the first few minutes of operation, there is definitely a slow drip coming down the front of the engine, onto the 4WD driveshaft. So... definitely the front of the engine...possibly the water pump, thermostat housing. one of the hose connections around that... something.

 

[Phill Tibbetts]

Do you add fuel conditioner to your fuel? I have a Kubota LX3310 I bought 2 years ago and it has done the regen twice in 60 hours without any problems. when it starts regen I rev the tractor to full rpms until it completes. No problemsso far but I'm expection problem sometime in the future if I live long enough, :79 3/4: now so hopefully it will outlive me. Do you make sure it completes the regen before you shut it off?

 

[caterpillar guy]

Well for your coolant loss it could be an o-ring at a coolant connection like the oil cooler or other places like that Cat is famous for the oil cooler o-rings leaking with age as a cold temp leak when cool and sealing when warmed up to operating temperature. As for all he newfangled nonsense on the exhaust I guess you have a couple options keep an older dependable tractor of it's size to move it or solve the exhaust problem that I doubt will ever be solved. With those temperatures needed for those cleaning exhausts I would not want to park one inside of a barn where hay is kept due to the high temperature of the exhaust and some chaff being blown in around it either during use or setting in there. Now I can see I doubt I will ever own something that new with all those problems. Simple easy to use and fix mechanical operations with few whistles are my choice. I know this does not help- with the problem except for the coolant leak. Any hoses you change get the replacement in a silicone hose and they don't get hard nor change flexibility during cold and warm like plain old rubber hoses do. But do be ware that they can be cut from over tightening of the hose clamp upon installation. Not real likely but can happen. I did it once on one so I just cut it back and moved the hose clamp then limited the tightening.

 

[will-max dairy]

Do you add fuel conditioner to your fuel? I have a Kubota LX3310 I bought 2 years ago and it has done the regen twice in 60 hours without any problems. when it starts regen I rev the tractor to full rpms until it completes. No problemsso far but I'm expection problem sometime in the future if I live long enough, :79 3/4: now so hopefully it will outlive me. Do you make sure it completes the regen before you shut it off?

Phil,

My Mahindra, apparently doesn't do a regen like a Kubota does.

My entire problem was the fuel filter. Mahindras have a tight replacement schedule, and mine was way, way overdue. Other than that, I keep cetane boost in the tractor's fuel all winter. We're getting into warm weather here; and I think we've made it through the rest of the cold weather without any further problem, once I changed that fuel filter.

 

[Fixingfarmer]

So the other thing caterpillar did on skidsteers under 75 hp was use a DOC much like described above to be “Mahindra” design that uses engine heat no def no dpf. It relies on the catalyst in the exhaust. There is a fun green throttle bar that you are supposed to leave it in all day and not go below it would not like 1400 rpm that will soot it up and cause problems 1800 and above. You will burn more fuel but have less trouble. If I the tractor has been operating at the low rpm I’m betting there’s an upstream and downstream nox sensors on both sides of the DOC that could also have too much soot on it.

Previous to 2011 or so over the road trucks had some of this on a much larger scale we had a C13 that all it had was the catalyst in the exhaust no sensors nothing it was acting horrible I put new turbos on the thing as they were worn out and all of a sudden we had 20psi of boost at idle no load. That’s weird. We used it for a couple days and it started leaking at every exhaust connection from turbo back to stack. By now we were pretty suspicious of a plugged stack asked the truck place for a muffler and they said ok that will be 9500 bucks…I said only 95 bucks that’s even cheaper than I thought but it sounded like you added a hundred in there. He flips his screen around and shows me. Anyway a new muffler fixed it for good…it may or may not have been repaired for a price much closer to my number than his…your tractor is new enough with sensors it’s pretty much going to have to be fixed right