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3 Cylinder life

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holstein05
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 16 Missouri
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2006-02-07          124199

Quick question. Coming off of a farm I am used to the big machines with 3000-4000 hrs on a tractor not being all that unusual before an overhaul. Now however, I am looking at some 3 cylinder tractors (I'm no longer on the farm) for small jobs I have, and was just curious, what kind of Engine life do these smaller engines have?

Thanks
Holstein05


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Art White
Join Date: Jan 2000
Posts: 6898 Waterville New York
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2006-02-07          124206

The use predicts the life more then the number of cylinders. If simular design then they should all be equal for life. I've seen them exceed ten thousand hours of use and still running well of all sizes three,four or six and I've seen some fail in the three thousand hour range. ....

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holstein05
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 16 Missouri
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2006-02-08          124214

That's good to know. I tend to always lean to the over maintenance side instead of the lack of maintenance side, so things should be good. Also, thanks for the added info on # of cylinders. ....

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Art White
Join Date: Jan 2000
Posts: 6898 Waterville New York
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2006-02-09          124304

Maintence helps but so does hours one after the other with out need to constantly restart a diesel to get to an hour on the tach! The longest life engines run more hours in a day then low houred units. Heat is needed for a diesel to have long life and that is through continuous running. That is why I often am recommending smaller tractors so that they might run longer to achieve proper operating temperatures for longer periods of time. Diesels when run cool don't burn all the fuel and some goes into the base and often glazes the cylinder and will give oil consumption and a loss of power. Many of the internal parts look like new with disassembly and the hatch looks perfect on the cylinder, but yet you can't feel it at all! This allow's compression to be lower and oil consumption to be high! Enough. ....

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ncrunch32
Join Date: Dec 2003
Posts: 762 Kingston, NY
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2006-02-12          124415

Art, I guess this means that homeowners like me are going to have more power loss and oil consumption in general than a tractor used in commercial operations. Assuming you do not use your tractor for mowing - even if you have a smaller tractor like a BX most tasks performed by a homeowner take less than a couple of hours. So are we homowners who have a second machine for mowing doomed to loss of power? Or are there precautions we can take against this?



....

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Art White
Join Date: Jan 2000
Posts: 6898 Waterville New York
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2006-02-12          124418

Engines that aren't run up to temperatures gas or diesel will wear out sooner then one that is. Your shorter life on a diesel is still a couple of thousand hours longer then a gas. There are other things that come into play here which go back to the materials used to make an engine and of coarse the quality control in the building process. So what I'm refering to is life span within the manufacturer with comparable engines. Here in the northeast with the cold temeratures it is extremely important to check the operation of thermostats on engines. ....

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Murf
Join Date: Dec 1999
Posts: 7249 Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada
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2006-02-13          124438

For tasks that require a run-time of less than a few hours it is critical for the long-term life of the engine to get it warmed up before starting.

I try to get people to do two simple things to help prolong the life of their CUT's. First is the shut-down, when you have finished your work, park the tractor, with the idle set to about 1,000 - 1,200rpm, and let it sit like that for a few minutes, this will allow everything to uniformly cool down. This also has a second benefit, by merely turning off the key at that throttle setting it leaves the tractor in the perfect setting to be re-started later. Racing a cold engine is tough on it, this ensures a quick smooth start. Once started, leave it at this fast idle for a few minutes to come up to temperature. This will also help with distributing fluids and so on to help ease the start of work on the machine.

Best of luck. ....

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Chief
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 4297 Southwest MiddleTennessee
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2006-02-13          124440

The proper use of engine block heaters and transmission oil heaters will go a long ways towards getting the optimimum life out of your machine. If the temp is below 50 or so, I plug in the block heater for an hour or so, longer if it is colder before I start up the engine. Never put the tractor to work until it has reached full operating temp. I keep the rpms between 1,200 to 1,400 until fully warmed up and then go to work. The block and oil heaters really speed up and aid this process. ....

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Art White
Join Date: Jan 2000
Posts: 6898 Waterville New York
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2006-02-15          124582

Given time to warm but within actually a half hour or less as agood block heater has done it's job by then a good run is enjoyed by a diesel for a couple of hours nonstop. Now to just run for a hour with cool down? Once in a while fine but not the normal or perfered as much as it's the norm. The thoughts of what you loose vs the gain for the money is well worth it. It's still with the hopes of the perfect life time tractor if properly sized. ....

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brokenarrow
Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 1288 Wisconsin
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2006-03-05          125581

Many of the local folks by me that are in "the buisness"
seem to all let their deisel's run. Since we have next to no theft of vacant "left" running vehicals/machinery in my area they can do this. I always wondered why and if what I read has any truth behind it. Thanks Art/Chief/Murf for the added info. So in otherwords, when I run my tractor I should try and use it for longer periods of time?
If a job is to only take 10 minuits or so should (after proper warm up) we let the machine run for a longer time?
This is where I get a bit confused. I see most of my buddy's that "LOG" for a living leave their machines runn all day in cold weather. I realize that this is also so they dont have to try and start up a cold machine again in sub freezing weather but it also makes me wonder about the actual working hours on a machine. If the actual working hours on a machine is 5 but the "run time" of the engine is 8 isnt this kind of a false reading of what a contractor/buisness owner is getting for hours on his machine? Lets say a home owner warms it up for 15 min. and works it for 5 hours then turns it off. Verse The contractor who works it for 5 and lets it sit (but running) for 3 while off doing other things over the life of our rigs wouldnt this add up pretty fast to alot of false reading hours? ....

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Art White
Join Date: Jan 2000
Posts: 6898 Waterville New York
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2006-03-05          125592

The enigne at an idle that doesn't run up to temperature will still be wearing out. Some harvesting tools currently have two hour meters, one for the machine and one for the hours on the engine. ....

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Murf
Join Date: Dec 1999
Posts: 7249 Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada
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2006-03-06          125614

Art's right, besides, the 'old days' of leaving a mchine idling are long gone.

If we have to park a machine for anything longer than about 5 minutes we just plug it in. It's far cheaper to keep the machine warm with electricity than it is doing it with diesel fuel.

On 'remote' sites, ones where there isn't a connection into the grid we just use a genset. The same goes when we trailer units in cold weather, which we do all the time, we have a genset putting along in the back of the truck, with an extension cord to the block heater & battery warmer / charger.

Best of luck. ....

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