My JD 4400 is acting funny.

[Old_Hickory]

I was running my JD 4400 today and had been running it for about 2 hours at about 2400 RPM's. I was doing some dirt moving with the back blade. My tractor has 838 hours on it and I have put all of the hours on it so I am quite familiar with the usual characteristics of my tractor,while operating it I noticed the exhaust odor had a slight sulfur odor and I never thought about it too much. Before I new it it started smoking very much and running rough,I tried increasing the RPM's to the "540 pto" lettering on the tach,it would not rev up that much,then it really started to run rough and miss and backfired and fire actually came out of the exhaust when it backfired.The tractor then settled down and would run smooth at full throttle and idling. I went ahead and ran the tractor another 2 hours and it never acted up again. The rest of time I was running it after it 1st acted up I noticed the exhaust still had a slight sulfur odor and it smoked slightly more than usual,not a lot though.
My fuel is Chevron on road diesel and I have been using from 15 gallons I had bought earlier and never had any prior problems. Could the injectors be in need of a cleaning ?Do I need to buy an additive ? If so, what should I buy ?
Any suggestions/thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks
Old Hickory

 

[rockyridgefarm]

What's the weather like? Where are you?

 

[Old_Hickory]

In the 30 degree range.

 

[PeterT]

COLD about 19 degreeeeeeessss sorry my hands are cold

PeterT

 

[Old_Hickory]

Rocky,
I am in eastern Ohio.

 

[fgross335_2210]

I would start running a good quality diesel fuel additive with anti-gel. I think this is just good common sense when the tesmps get near freezing. Even with marginal fuel you'll get by if you're running DFA.

Good luck.

 

[rockyridgefarm]

Well said! That is where I'd start....

 

[Old_Hickory]

I found some Stanadyne on my shelf and added it to my fuel tank before refilling today and went out in the woods and worked the tractor for about 3 hours and the tractor ran good.

 

[art]

I think it could have been a slug of water or sour fuel.. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[Old_Hickory]

Art I agree. I added the Stanadyne before I added the fuel and I went to the woods and it ran fine. The spell it had yesterday though I was ready to get headed in the direction of the house because it is no fun to work on the tractor in the woods especially during the winter.