Some general tractor questions (dealing with engine warming)

[Will Herring]

Okay, I have a few questions...

First, if I have a diesel tractor, how long do I need to let the engine warm up when I first start it up before I go kick it into gear and work with it? How about a gas tractor?

Secondly, how long should I let my tractor sit in idle before shutting it off? I usually wait about 30 seconds.

Also, about how often should I change the oil in my older tractor if I don't really use it to do more than pull a trailer around and never put it under heavy loads.

 

[old]

On both a diesel or gas you need to warm it up enough that you get the oil pressure up and then go. As far as cool down time it depends on how hard you where working it and how hot it is out. If you didn't work it all that hard you can idle it for just a minute or so. If you worked the devil out of it a little longer. As far as changeing the oil twice a year. One time in the spring and once in the fall
Hobby farm

 

[georgeky]

Will all this varies some depending on engines. Before working really hard it is best to let gas or diesel come up to a normal operating temp. Now that doesn't mean you can't put it in gear and drive it to the field or wherever. That just means it should warm up some before working it hard. As for shutting down that to depends on how hot the engine may be. If it has been worked really hard and temp is higher than it would be just raking hay or other light chores. On my diesels I let them idle at 1500 RPM's for about 1 minute, more if really hot, them I let it idle for another minute or a little longer at 800 to 1000 RPM's. I think if you just watch your gauge and wait until it as at a normal light duty temp it is OK. This is more important on turbo engines. I always heat and cool all my gas or diesel engines for a short time. I figure better safe than sorry.

 

[Allan in NE]

I generally let the outfit warm for 3 or 4 minutes and then do a round or two in a lower gear and at reduced throttle until the tractor is up to temp before putting it into the tugs to make it pull hard.

I let it cool for 4 or 5 minutes at the end of the day also to get those valves cooled back down.

I try to change oil every 100 to 150 engine hours which works out to about every 1 or 2 years depending on the tractor.

Allan

 

[Anonymous-0]

The others gave you good warmup and cool down information. Thirty seconds is too short if you any significant load on the tractor. If just pulling around a light trailer in the barn lot, at lower engine speeds, thirty seconds is OK. When to change oil is a difficult question. I would like to change spring and fall like Old, but I might only have 5-10 hours on a tractor. The combine gets 25-30 hrs a year and I change the oil every year but recently I have been changing the two filters only every second year. The tractors get changed every year along with the filters, with the exception of the retired ones which get 1-2 hours/year at best, so they get changed every two years. Eventually I might regress to a filter change every other year on the tractors receiving the yearly change. Never get over 50 hours on an oil change. If I had one tractor rather then nine, I would change oil/filters every year. Everything either gets CIH or JD oil.

 

[Dan-IA]

I was taught the following rule of thumb:

Warmup on a gas tractor is really not that important. Some gas engines don't seem to want to run on all the cylinders until it's warmed up a bit, once it's running on all of 'em then that should be good enough. You won't hurt a gas tractor by pulling it hard enough to kill it, and also you don't need to worry so much about the piston rings needing to expand on startup. Okay, in the dead of winter we also let gas tractors warm up until we have heat at the heater core too.

Warmup on a diesel tractor, you want to at least feel heat on both the heater hoses, that means it's warmed up enough to have the coolant warm and thermostat open. At this point you could work it hard if you don't have a temperature gauge that works, but you should go by where the green is on the gauge.

As for cool-down... For hard work like tillage, never less than 3 minutes at a slow idle. But if you have an exhaust gas temp gauge, run it until the temp is down below 450. That'll protect the valves and not melt the aluminum fins out of the turbo. Also if you stop the engine and the gauge starts going back up, restart the engine because the head is still way too hot.