L6060 Breakin Procedure

[ovrszd]

I hear stories like that - and yes, I've seen the same thing on stationary engines. One thing it might be telling us is that they do a pretty good job of running them in at the factory.
rScotty

The Grader I referred to had 4.1 hrs on it when delivered. Would you suggest that's enough for break in?

 

[oosik]

My Op Manual for the 2009 Kubota M6040. 1) do not put the tractor under max load for the first 50 hours. 2) no sudden stops 3) no lugging 4) no "jump starts"

Otherwise just "use" the dam thing like a normal human bean.

 

[groundcover]

255 horse grader, that has to cost more than twice what DR gets for their pull behind rig !!

 

[jdtractor]

I will have to agree with ovrszd. Run it ! I致e been around lots of equipment heavy and farm ... work it ! But don稚 abuse it!

 

[SDT]

Ya gotta wonder about so called break-in. I've installed many Cat and John Deere generators up to 750kva and the break-in procedure consists of filling them up and starting. They go to 100% power and RPM in less than 10 seconds and do it hundreds or thousands of times even in the coldest wether. I've never seen an engine failure so you be the judge.

Bingo, Orezok.

SDT

 

[ovrszd]

255 horse grader, that has to cost more than twice what DR gets for their pull behind rig !!

$1K p/HP.

 

[bdhsfz6]

I've owned six Kubota's over the years including my current L6060. None were "babied" when new nor were they abused. I performed the routine maintenance as per the manual and never had an engine related problem on any of them.

When I was a teenager, my grandmother gave me her 1949 Mercury after she had to give up driving. She was very gentile with the car and it looked like new with just 20K miles on it. Being a hot rodder, the first thing I did was take it out on the highway and open her up. When I hit 80, the engine started clattering and smoke billowed out the exhaust. I broke piston rings in all 8 cylinders.

A 1949 Mercury isn't a Kubota by any means but my point is, there is such a thing as babying an engine too much.

 

[MHarryE]

My engineering career was all with equipment having engines needing to be operated at max rpm for the machine to function. We are talking about machines with the same engines in tractors from sub-compacts where we used a 25 HP engine in vibratory compactors to combines with upwards of 400 horsepower. First time run at max was within 10 minutes of start when they moved into test and adjust. Yes, even the manual on my M7-171 says 50 hours, but the operation part with my KVT states to use it and the KVT will adjust to the optimum engine speed, which in much of my use for tillage is full power. Very conflicting. At Gleaner, Case-New Holland, or Caterpillar, if we told the customer to idle their machine for 50 hours before using it they would tell us they would buy someone else’s. But we did take that option away - electric throttles so engine was either at low idle or max speed. Like mentioned above for gen sets, you cannot run the engine at half speed and do the job for which it’s intended.

 

[OrangeMuscle]

Interesting thread. On my first L6060 I purchased last year, I took it a little bit easy. One thing I tried not to do was run at one RPM for too long. I made sure I was meandering through the range. I made sure I warmed up the engine before working and also making sure to cool down the turbo before turning off. Next week I will have my second L6060 delivered.

What is funny is that I have purchased over 25 brand new vehicles, and each and everyone of them had the same break in procedure. I would warm it up on the dealer lot, and then floor it immediately upon pulling out of the dealer. I would bring them all to redline through all the gears. My theory was I wanted to bore out the engine and let it know where the limit was right out of the gate. Even though it's an engine, I felt in a sense there was a lesson for the engine to learn. A lesson that could not be taught after babying it for a 1000 miles. Pistons and lifters and all the other goodies needed to know their full range of motion. For some reason I feel differently about doing this to the tractor. Not sure why?

 

[CMelder]

Decades ago I worked for Massey-Ferguson and we would "dyno" each tractor utilizing the PTO prior to delivery. The dyno run consisted of gently warming up the tractor systems and then pulling an initial 100% load and recording the max. h.p., and continue to run it at 25%, 50%, 75% load (2 hour intervals) for the next 10 hours, and then do a final 100% load and record h.p. The old Perkins diesels would increase in h.p. during that 10 hour dyno run every time. Usually the initial h.p. would be close to advertised PTO HP, and the final h.p. would be slightly higher than advertised. Upon delivery the farmer would immediately hook it up to the biggest piece of equipment he owned and go check it out. We knew this, so this is why we did the 10 hour run-in on these tractors. Of course, it is was an initial break in, and would basically lap in piston rings, etc. Many of the engines back then and now don't really get broken in until they reach 1,000 hours or more. Modern engine design, lube oil systems, lubricants are much better today and friction/heat is the enemy, so they usually do a great job in handling this, which in turn creates a more durable engine system. Keep in mind, the engine of your tractor is one item being broke in, but there is the remaining items behind the engine which need breaking in too. Probably to a lesser extent, but still require some break in time. My conclusion is similar to others on this post: With 38 hours on it, you have broken in the initial items and the remainder will take many more hours so use it like you need to, but don't abuse it. This really applies to normal operations, use it but don't abuse it. Gig'em!