When did computers and common rail injection start being standard on Kubotas?

[ctgoldwing]

I guess my main interest is knowing when they got computerized enough that a reader was required to unlock things to work on the engine, common rail or no. As I shop for a used machine, it's something I'm thinking about, but tractordata.com isn't detailed enough to talk about computer controls.

Thanks for all the responses so far, I keep on learning!

I shared the same concern when I purchased my 2013 L3800H last year. Low hours, well maintained and no complicated emissions on it.

 

[ultrarunner]

I shared the same concern when I purchased my 2013 L3800H last year. Low hours, well maintained and no complicated emissions on it.

We opted for the same L3800 and zero issues... it was a Harvest Return with 115 hours...

 

[Farmer495]

2014/2015 M7040SU still had mechanical pump. Bought for that reason over M7060 at the time.

 

[MHarryE]

At Caterpillar we began putting common rail systems in production in early 2000’s because our customers wanted better fuel economy. First HEUI so we could get injection pressures to the 20,000 to 26,000 psi range (injectors used in IH engines installed in Ford pickups). The other guys (Cummins) had less than 5,000 psi, more smoke, more unturned fuel out the exhaust. At Cat we could control the injection electronically but with 8 complex injectors. Then along came common rail with lower cost (like my 2003 PowerStroke) and 30,000 psi at lower cost. My 2015 L6060 with common rail replaced my 2012 L5740, a smokey, smelly tractor I was glad to get rid of.

 

[kenmac]

I believe it started in different years with different HP tractors.
When I purchased my 2013 mx 5100, it didn't have computer.
Had I stepped up to a 2013 60 hp tractor, it would have had DPF.
If I'm not mistaken, the DPF tractors had computers.
I think common rail, DPF, computers all happened at the same time. Something would have had to tell the engine to go into regen to dump fuel to burn off the DPF.
All this would have happened on tractors at different years depending on H.P.

 

[rScotty]

I believe it started in different years with different HP tractors.
When I purchased my 2013 mx 5100, it didn't have computer.
Had I stepped up to a 2013 60 hp tractor, it would have had DPF.
If I'm not mistaken, the DPF tractors had computers.
I think common rail, DPF, computers all happened at the same time. Something would have had to tell the engine to go into regen to dump fuel to burn off the DPF.
All this would have happened on tractors at different years depending on H.P.

A complete article on the emissions regulations and which companies signed up for them is over on Dieselnet.com. RickB provided this link:

Emission Standards: USA: Nonroad Diesel Engines

dieselnet.com

But although it is worth reading, it doesn't do much to answer the OP's original question of which years had what kinds of emissions equipment, because the emission standards just gives the time schedule that the exhaust values had to be met. It is up to the manufacturer to decide how to meet those values by that year. Or even whether to do it or not.

The exhaust requirements don't say anything about required ways to meet the standards. How to do it is left entirely up to the innovative ability of the manufacturers.

Some tractor manufacturers have met the standards with particle filters, some with exhaust fluid, some with tuning and EGR, and others have apparently redesigned their diesel engines to meet the standards in other ways.....maybe they just made them cleaner burning in the specified ranges.
rScotty

 

[deereman75]

The sub-26hp machines such as the BX series and the small B series without emissions systems still have mechanical fuel injection.
I was just looking at a 2021 BX23s with a mechanical pump yesterday.

 

[kenmac]

A complete article on the emissions regulations and which companies signed up for them is over on Dieselnet.com. RickB provided this link:

Emission Standards: USA: Nonroad Diesel Engines

dieselnet.com

But although it is worth reading, it doesn't do much to answer the OP's original question of which years had what kinds of emissions equipment, because the emission standards just gives the time schedule that the exhaust values had to be met. It is up to the manufacturer to decide how to meet those values by that year. Or even whether to do it or not.

rScotty

I was trying to keep my answer to his question as it related to Kubota tractors, and what I found when I was looking for a Kubota tractor.

I don't see any way for the tractor to go into Regen, without computer controlled common rail injection.
Those items came in different years depending on HP. At least on Kubotas

 

[rScotty]

I was trying to keep my answer to his question as it related to Kubota tractors, and what I found when I was looking for a Kubota tractor.

I don't see any way for the tractor to go into Regen, without computer controlled common rail injection.
Those items came in different years depending on HP. At least on Kubotas

My mechanical career spanned control systems using mechanicals and computers both. It's an either/or thing.

Most systems can be built mechanically or using a computer. It's just a matter of which one the manufacturer wants to do. Computers are just cheaper and simpler at the manufacturing level as well as being an easy way to keep repairability in the hands of the manufacturer & dealer agent. See any of many articles on "right to repair".

It doesn't even take detailed engineering. I think any old school mechanic could design a workable mechanical regeneration system without needing a computer at all. It would be slightly more expensive, but simple to make and repair. He could start with differential pressure & temperature gauges in the exhaust actuating the throttle and a timer. This would work both with common rail or individual mechanical injectors.

BTW, although common rail works well with computer controlled injectors, there were a number of systems built starting in the mid-1990s using hybrid systems with mechanical pumps to raise the initial pressure and then computer controlled electro-mechanical driving solenoids in the injectors to give higher injection pressures with more precise control than the old traditional 100% mechanical injection.

Some of those dual systems might be on tractors today. I haven't looked at the injection systems since Tier IV came out, so don't know what the most recent systems look like. So just having a mechanical pump may not be the whole story.
Luckily for us tractor nuts, an little study of the workshop manual on any tractor should enable us to see how that injection system works.

Enjoy,
rScotty