Yanmar 3TNE88 diesel Water Cooled Engine Oil question

[ohiogar]

Hello from Ohio,
You know how after each oil change on a diesel, the oil gets dark in color immediately.
I have a Yanmar 3 cylinder 37hp motor , build date roughly June 1998.
Question: From NEW how many operating hours does it take
before the motor oil starts to darken in color?
Nice Problem...I bought JD4400 tractor number 2 off of the assembly line in Georgia. This tractor was given by deere to a technical school in Georgia. All of the sheet metal had been robbed from it along with the dash panel but the frame and motor were amazingly intact.. I brought it home, cleaned it up and prepared to start it. The insides of the motor looked absolutely clean and pristine from every available orifice Including the motor oil which I decided not to change before starting. After running it for about an hour now the crankcase oil is barely even amber in color. See Photo below.
THus the question...How do I guage the hours on this motor? I think they are extremely low but how do you make an accurate educated guess?
Sincerely searching
Good Day All, Gary

 

[ptsg]

When I bought my tractor new and had to do the 50 hour service, the engine oil was pretty much nice and clean as if it had came out straight from the container.

After the new oil was put in, it took about 150+ hours till it just started to get somewhat dark.

 

[bmaverick]

I too would echo PTSG. My 1981 restored YM2610 fro UTDA Fredricks was clean. I ran it from the 14XX hours on the meter to 1650 hours. Wasn't even yellowed. I still changed it. The machine is almost at 1800 hours and still looks as clean as the bottle it came from.

As yours is a JD, you do know that the 5W30 and the 10W30 are used in these Yanmar engines. Old school domestic tractors (American iron) use the 15W40 stuff.

Do you plan on getting a few panels and the dash put on the machine?

 

[RalphVa]

My Isuzu driver on the generator is a little gem. Its oil never really turned color at 50 hours when I changed it. Now around 150-200 hours (haven't looked at the meter lately but checked the oil recently), the oil is amber in color.

No where NEAR where the BLACK oil was on the 1983 240D Benz both before and after each oil change.

The 2025R's oil is between amber and black at 340 hours. Think it was even near black at 50 hours.

Ralph

 

[ohiogar]

I too would echo PTSG. My 1981 restored YM2610 fro UTDA Fredricks was clean. I ran it from the 14XX hours on the meter to 1650 hours. Wasn't even yellowed. I still changed it. The machine is almost at 1800 hours and still looks as clean as the bottle it came from.

As yours is a JD, you do know that the 5W30 and the 10W30 are used in these Yanmar engines. Old school domestic tractors (American iron) use the 15W40 stuff.

Do you plan on getting a few panels and the dash put on the machine?

Thank You for the interesting comments.
PTSG Wonderful job on your Crawler.
Thanks for the heads up on the oil
I will keep that in mind.
Yes I have the panels on order...Aftermarket. As for the guage cluster, I agree with you all that this machine has very low hours. I had bought a donor machine with 3,780 hours for the fuel tank, the hydro pedals and a lot of little things that the dealer would have driven me bankrupt for.
I actually posted on here wondering if it would be above board to put a new zero hour guage cluster
on a machine that I have basically restored every nut and bolt, excepting for the internals that I feel have extremely low hours. I had even thought of running it up to maybe 100-150 hours
Attached are some pictures taken to date of the 4400 tractors' progression. Any comments/disagreement with my thoughts are appreciated.
Regards Gary

 

[bmaverick]

Thank You for the interesting comments.
PTSG Wonderful job on your Crawler.
Thanks for the heads up on the oil
I will keep that in mind.
Yes I have the panels on order...Aftermarket. As for the guage cluster, I agree with you all that this machine has very low hours. I had bought a donor machine with 3,780 hours for the fuel tank, the hydro pedals and a lot of little things that the dealer would have driven me bankrupt for.
I actually posted on here wondering if it would be above board to put a new zero hour guage cluster
on a machine that I have basically restored every nut and bolt, excepting for the internals that I feel have extremely low hours. I had even thought of running it up to maybe 100-150 hours
Attached are some pictures taken to date of the 4400 tractors' progression. Any comments/disagreement with my thoughts are appreciated.
Regards Gary

Since this is a total restore project, having the meter starting at zero hours seems just fine. Even with the 100+ hours would be fine too.

Your in-depth restore is much like a UTDA process.
Quality — Fredricks Importing and also here Our Process — Fredricks Importing

In the first link, forward thru the images, yes there are arrows there.

 

[CoyPatton]

My $0.02 worth, I would put a zero hour meter in it and document when and why and work from there.
In my opinion with said documentation, you are more honest with any future owner after you than any guesstimate of hours such as 100.
For your use, it makes no difference.

 

[ohiogar]

My $0.02 worth, I would put a zero hour meter in it and document when and why and work from there.
In my opinion with said documentation, you are more honest with any future owner after you than any guesstimate of hours such as 100.
For your use, it makes no difference.

I appreciate all of your comments.
There is a number of reasons that i feel this machine was never used; Although it sat out in the elements for many years with only the hood on it for covering. There was no "NONE" buildup of dirt/sludge on any of the recesses you would normally find it. The levers/rods throughout still have that "new" patina and the connecting pins have no wear. The range selector functions as smoothly as greased butter. ALL of the original electrical safety lockouts/warning-operating lights function correctly with little to no tinkering with the original wiring harness.
The NEW aftermarket dash panel is installed with zero hours. NOTE- the hour meter is wired through the tachometer so I could not have run the meter up through 100 hours. Zero hours it is.
I feel really bad that I have to use 3700 hour rear fenders and old seat but I have to draw the pocketbook line somewhere. Basically the entire chassis is original to this number 2 tractor though and I take comfort in knowing that it is basically new. Build Date June 08, 1999

 

[CoyPatton]

I appreciate all of your comments.
There is a number of reasons that i feel this machine was never used; Although it sat out in the elements for many years with only the hood on it for covering. There was no "NONE" buildup of dirt/sludge on any of the recesses you would normally find it. The levers/rods throughout still have that "new" patina and the connecting pins have no wear. The range selector functions as smoothly as greased butter. ALL of the original electrical safety lockouts/warning-operating lights function correctly with little to no tinkering with the original wiring harness.
The NEW aftermarket dash panel is installed with zero hours. NOTE- the hour meter is wired through the tachometer so I could not have run the meter up through 100 hours. Zero hours it is.
I feel really bad that I have to use 3700 hour rear fenders and old seat but I have to draw the pocketbook line somewhere. Basically the entire chassis is original to this number 2 tractor though and I take comfort in knowing that it is basically new. Build Date June 08, 1999

Make plans in the future for a new seat and to have the fenders redone. I have seen some old fenders reworked and repainted that look almost new.
We often find that money controls all our plans.
I’ll look forward to seeing finished photos, even with 3700 hour seat and fenders.

 

[bmaverick]

I appreciate all of your comments.
There is a number of reasons that i feel this machine was never used; Although it sat out in the elements for many years with only the hood on it for covering. There was no "NONE" buildup of dirt/sludge on any of the recesses you would normally find it. The levers/rods throughout still have that "new" patina and the connecting pins have no wear. The range selector functions as smoothly as greased butter. ALL of the original electrical safety lockouts/warning-operating lights function correctly with little to no tinkering with the original wiring harness.
The NEW aftermarket dash panel is installed with zero hours. NOTE- the hour meter is wired through the tachometer so I could not have run the meter up through 100 hours. Zero hours it is.
I feel really bad that I have to use 3700 hour rear fenders and old seat but I have to draw the pocketbook line somewhere. Basically the entire chassis is original to this number 2 tractor though and I take comfort in knowing that it is basically new. Build Date June 08, 1999

NICE, very nice. I would say ZERO hours is a winner.

Yes, as the fenders are not on it yet, a bit of re-work and paint would make things brilliant.

Fredricks RESTORES the Yanmars and John Deere machines made by Yanmar. Look at their process images here, and click on the image arrows left/right. Quality — Fredricks Importing

Look at the FENDER process in the first image too. If you ever seen these Japan export gray machines, Fredricks goes thru a full UTDA process to restore the machines to new.

About 5 years ago new seats went from $39 to $59. Now, the SAME seat is $119. It makes your head swim and spin.