Oil & Fuel Brand new B3350, should I change oil to Synthetic?

[PHILIP8N]

I see you are in Maine, sound like a cold winter climate. Is your tractor sitting outside? Will it be used for snow removal? Engine staring at cold temps? The factory fill is 10w-30. Not my favorite blend for cold winters or hot summers. I prefer a 5w-40 oil to provide good low and high temperture protection. I drain early. Here are used oil analysis for my Kubotas. The GR2120 was changed at 11 hours. The L3940 was changed at 18 hours. Lots of break in elements were found at time of analysis, I like to get that junk out. I followed up with used oil analysis since these initial changes, and no issues were found by doing an early oil change and switching to synthetic. All of my cars and trucks get an oil change at 1000 miles, and switched to synthetic too. Do what makes you sleep better at night. Good luck! Philip.

 

[mkreitler]

If it was me run the factory fill oil to the 50HR.mark and while running it to 50HRS.remember to very the throttle from idle to wide open to break the engine in and if possible run some sort of load to make the engine WORK at times to help seat the rings and it will be forever grateful. On my M7040 I ran a 6ft.BUSH HOG for the first 25 HRS. changed oil & filter (engine) with the OEM oil & filter then for the next 25 HRS. I hooked up the 3/16in. PLOWS and PLOWED with it for 10 hrs. and after that disked and planted 20 acres at the 50 hr.mark changed oil & filter again this time went with AMSOIL 15W-40 synthetic.Now all I have to do is change it every 300hrs. or once a year witch ever comes first and never worry about me wearing it out and pass it on to the GRAND-KIDS when I'm gone from this world.

 

[Iowan]

between oil changes you mean? are you running Synthetic?

Before going synthetic in a new diesel, I use synthetic in everything I own including the hydros!

 

[chouinie]

I just asked the same questions 1 month ago to my dealer, i own a b3300su and did 120 hours in the last 2 years, and i have been told that if i want to burn money for nothing i can, so i just keep it running on 10w30 tru the year

 

[buck boost]

Modern diesels will run for thousands and thousands of hours following the manufacturers service schedule. As long as the weight of the oil is correct for your temperature operating conditions, just follow the service intervals in the manual.

Side note: I have recently been working with a lot of generators and the service techs (big ones, 200KW and bigger). According to all of them, modern diesel engines (deere, cummings, cat, detrioit, kubota, mitsubishi, ect) are all basically good for 15,000+ plus hours before a rebuild. I showed them a few of my kubota pics on my phone, and every one of them said "with just the most basic of maintenance, you will NEVER, EVER wear out either of those engines". *I put on 100-200 hours a year on each* All of them stressed to keep the air filter clean, crankcase dipstick full, and don't overheat them, and you will likely never have a problem. One of them said if something were to let go (engine wise) before 15,000, you would be just plain unlucky, and changing oil 250 times would still not prevent a hard part failure. That makes sense to me.

 

[PHILIP8N]

The Kubota manual is very out of date in reference to recommended oil viscosity per operating ambient temperature. I would suggest using this chart, well put together. Philip.

 

[Hagalaz14w]

I've made it a rule to go with the manufacturers recommendations.
They designed,engineered and built your tractor. No one knows more about it than they.

 

[repete]

I change the oil every 100 hours or six months, whichever comes first. If I ran my tractor for long durations I might go to a less frequent hourly change but it often sees a lot of half hour jobs in winter and never really gets to full temp to burn off condensation. I have 5500 hours on a L2550 that has seen a lot of work.

I run a variety of oil brands rated for diesel but they are all 15-40. I have operated under the assumption that even medium grade oil that is clean is better than expensive oil that you are less likely to change when moderately dirty.

 

[Gary Fowler]

The only time you might get a benefit from synthetic is extended duration/hours of use between changes with maybe a bit less wear and higher temperature operation without breakdown which should not be of concern if you properly maintain your tractor. Most CUT owners need only change once a year due to lack of hours so not much good is received from the synthetic.

Claims are made of less wear with synthetic, so let assume you can get 1/3 or even double more hours using synthetic. You can get 15000 hours with traditional oil as normal operation so adding 30% to get 20,000 or double to get 30,000. Will you ever get 15K hours on your tractor in your lifetime? I doubt it as most folks who use them a lot may get 300 hours per year = 50 years of use with conventional oil. Do you really care if your tractor lasts 50 years vs 66 or 100 years? Either way it is going to outlast you and likely your grandchildren.

 

[Gary Fowler]

After putting in the above post, I felt compelled to state that I do use synthetic oil in my lawnmower engines as they don't have the 15000 hour lifespan like our tractors so every advantage is needed to keep them in top performance PLUS they run much hotter than diesel engines so a good oil is needed to expand their lifecycle. If I put lots of miles on my cars, I would run synthetic in them, but with less than 5000 miles per year it is a waste of money.