HP increase module? Deere 3038e

[kenhar]

The physical size of your tractor is that size for a reason. All the parts are coordinated and should complement each other. Make a major increase to one component, you are overloading another. Something is going to be overloaded and break. Get a bigger tractor.

 

[CoyPatton]

Have you checked to see what the pressure is on your tractor? Not unheard of for the pressure to be below factory spec.

My son a few years back (years get away from me so probably more than I think) bought a JD tractor (it was during the Covid low supply period). I think it was a 3024. One of his concerns was being able to unload some frequently shipped to him (he drives a tool truck) at a general weight of around 1300lbs. He bought the tractor on the basis of being available sooner than other brands, and being able to lift the loads. To shorten the story, the tractor wouldn’t lift the load when the time came. A call to the salesman, got him connected to the service department, where it was walked through the process of how to turn up the hydraulic pump pressure. I’m not sure what that procedure is. He was happy, while I said his dealership/salesman owed him—as pressure should have been turned up prior to delivery as that was part of his purchase decision.

 

[JeepHead]

I don't share some of the opinions as others in this group. For example, the engine that is used in my Kubota is detuned to meet a certain HP rating. It is used in other platforms where the same engine is putting out much more HP. So I know that my engine is capable of operating at more RPM and HP than what it currently is operating at. Not only that but I also know engineers never design something to operate on the edge of failure, they allow a safe margin well under what something will handle. I have also seen several guys increase the HP on my tractor and have operated with the increased power for many years with zero issues. I also don't agree with the same old boring story of buying a bigger tractor. I could have easily bought a larger tractor, money wasn't a deciding factor for me. I wanted a new tractor, and I wanted one without emissions or electronics. So I was stuck with a HP limit.
With that said, I would have no issues modifying my tractor to put out a little more power, and actually have done so. If your goal is to increase lift capacity, HP isn't going to get you there. What you need to do is either increase the PSI on your relief valve, or replace your cylinders with ones of a larger bore. They have kits for that, or if you're good at measuring you can buy the cylinders separately yourself and save about 1/2 the cost. Shimming the relief valve is pretty simple, you need to take your pressure reading before and compare to what the factory specs are ( I have seen many tractors not even at factory specs), and then add shims until you reach the desired PSI. I have had mine turned up about 400 PSI for a year and a half and it functions perfectly. This adds little wear to my pump or system because I rarely ever hit relief pressure and even when I do, it's only momentarily.

HydrosPlus Lift Plus 300 Max NSL

HydrosPlus Lift Plus 300 Max NSL works on all 3E Series loaders (300E, D160, and 305). These cylinders have a 2" bore with a 1.25 black nitride rod and increase your lift capacity by ~75% for a given pressure over the stock cylinders. Check out this video for an install overview and to see...

hydrosplus.com

 

[Bentrim]

More power. More lift. Cheaper tractor. Those are the most requested wants of tractors.
1. More power-- That can be taken care of by turning the fuel higher or adding a turbo. Both may be detremental to the life of the tractor. Adding a turbo may be a way to inprove fuel economy by adding a turbo and turning back the fuel. Most manufacturers lower the static compression ratio when they add a turbo, use larger wrist pins, and add piston coolers etc.
People with 8N Fords used to add six cylinder inline or V8 flatheads with a kit made by Funk Aircraft company. from 28 to 95 horsepower! Either an overbuilt tractor or people carefully used them.
Be aware the life of the tractor and repair bills may be affected.
2 More lift -- A hyraulic system can be setup for a certain limit. The pump simply moves oil at a certain capacity it does NOT create pressure. Pressure is greated by the amount of load. The heavier the load the more pressure required to move it. If the current system does not move the desired load the are two ways to "fix" it. Raise the pressure thru the relief valve or use larger cylinders. More power or a larger pump will NOT fix the problem. Too much pressure can cause pump breakage and blown hoses, along with damaged machines
Just remember the manufacturer spent a lot of money on engineering and testing, then build the machine to give a satisfactory service life with minimal repair cost.
Be sure to buy the tractor and loader you need or bigger than you need. Then make sure everything is within specs. As for price just as in racing speed costs money how fast do you want to go?
My son when he was young had a go kart and wanted more speed, he thought by installing a twin cylinder engine with no other changes it would go faster. Then I explained to him that if both engine top speed was 3600 so he would go no faster, just get to speed sooner.

 

[Fallon]

I nearly rolled my L3200 lifting large bails helping a friend I had a rotary cutter on the back & 2 50 lbs sacks of something on the back of the cutter. Lots of ballast weight with even more ballast leverage due to the cutter length. I think I had loaded rears by then too. It would barely lift the bales, so lack of hydraulic pressure was my concern. Right up until the back end got light & things got squirrely. Bale fell off & I didn't roll. A while later under warranty the front axle seals started leaking. Dealer changed out the seals & bearings.

I can't say the bales caused the front axle issues, but I'm sure it didn't help.

HP & hydraulic pressure aren't the only limits on these machines. I'd much rather have my hydraulics go into relief than my contact between the tires & the ground or front axle go into relief. Much cheaper & less likely to kill me

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

I ordered the module and salesman said that's the same tractor the company owner has. I have a liquid filled pressure gauge & just need to plumb it in. I'm going to boost pressure a bit. Mainly hp is for a rotary tiller I want.
I lifted a hay bale last year...or tried to. It almost made it. I just unload bales by hand now, but I'm thinking about the future. I'd only be moving them about 50 feet max.

 

[airbiscuit]

Tell us more about the module, and keep us updated about your project

 

[ptsg]

I don't see much of an issue on increasing the HP. Won't help with hydraulic lift or flow though.

More often than not, the same model is offered on a fairly wide range of HP.

Mine, at one point, was offered from 25HP up to 45HP with the same 3 cylinder 1.7L engine. The 40 and 45 HP variants only had the turbo and different setting on the injection pump, while the 25HP is derated from 35HP, while lowering the max RPM.

The rest of the tractor is perfectly capable of handling any of those HP variants offered. These days, they ditched the 40 and 45HP variants with 3 cylinder turbocharged engine in favor of a 40HP 4 cylinder 2.0L and 48HP 4 cylinder 2.3L engines.

 

[RB5]

You are running into one of the reasons I went with a Deere 4044M instead of the 3 series. I kept thinking the 3 would not do everything I need, and I am glad I went with my gut on this one. I lift large round bales with my tractor with no problem. The only thing I have to be careful about is ballast in the back. I usually keep either an old scraper blade , which I already had, or my mower on the back to keep in balance. I was very happy the first time I was able to pick up 40+ bales and stack them in a row where I could get to them if it rained.

 

[Walter L]

If it's a mechanical injection pump, no, you need to mess with the pump, not electronics. If it's an electronically controlled pump, sure you can spray more fuel in for more power. As long as you have enough air & can keep it cool enough. No way you save fuel & increase power at the same time. Anybody that tries to sell you something that does both is selling snake oil & I wouldn't trust any of their claims

Not always so, i bought a Monaco coach years ago 1999 with a pusher ISB and a 6 speed Allison trans i was living in south Mississippi then and the coach would change from 6 to 5 on any small hill i did a lot of research before i bought a kit for my electric type fuel control but once installed the torque and hp increase stoped the shifts on small hills and i did get a milage increase (up to 1 mpg)with the kit i also installed a turbo temp gauge to monitor the temp as out west on mountain roads it is possible to increase the temp on the pistons and do major damage

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

Tell us more about the module, and keep us updated about your project

The module arrived late this afternoon. Instructions were okay but I had to call tech support. Installation is easy, except a pain because all you do is unplug the controller at end of fuel rail and plug this in. On mine it was buried behind exhaust, radiator hose and lots of cables.
They should say step one: remove right side cover and pressure wash motor.
Every connector has a rubber boot and locking tab you press to unplug. Trying to get in that cramped area, pressing tab getting it apart took over an hour. WD-40 spray was the charm and tech guy should have mentioned that.
Tomorrow I'll mount it properly but I was anxious to see the difference. Module has a switch, off-medium-high. They suggested leaving it on high, supposed to improve fuel use.
Starting, the motor sounded different. It was going to get dark so I tried back blade uphill into a sand pile at 1500 r.p.m. Off engine would push but bog, so I tried high and no bog. I tried a few times, but it's seat of the pants. I'll test it some more but so far does seem like more power!

 

[airbiscuit]

How much was it?

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

$611.69

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

Well...the jury is IN. I mounted module under hood zip tied where it's out of the way in a cool area, near oil dipstick where I can get to control switch, although tech guy I spoke with said leave it on high for better fuel economy.
I have a low spot where previous owner dumped posts which I cleaned all but heavy ones so I put 6" dirt on top. Before I couldn't move one about 18" dia x 8 ft or so but today at 1,600 rpm bumped end with bucket & flipped it over into pile. Then I got a bucket load of red clay having to climb a steep hill. At 1500 it's like the motor never changed pitch.
It's like a different tractor. It should be about 49-50 hp now.

 

[thclimer]

So what is this module doing, increasing the fuel and air?

 

[ruffdog]

So what is this module doing, increasing the fuel and air?

Also, what can this device be doing at only 1500 rpm? The peak HP for this engine happens at 2500 rpm and is probably only making HALF power at 1500 rpm. It would have been cheaper to just rev the engine to normal operating speed, pto speed, so it wouldn't bog pushing that small sand pile.

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

So what is this module doing, increasing the fuel and air?

Since it plugs into the fuel rail sensor, goes through module and back then apparently it controls fuel somehow. The tractor has a turbo already and I asked about if I needed to change air intake & they said no.
I'm guessing tractors, cars & trucks are detuned from factory maybe EPA or emissions similar to performance chips you can buy for cars & trucks for more hp.
Since it supposedly uses less fuel it must be a little leaner I'm guessing.

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

Also, what can this device be doing at only 1500 rpm? The peak HP for this engine happens at 2500 rpm and is probably only making HALF power at 1500 rpm. It would have been cheaper to just rev the engine to normal operating speed, pto speed, so it wouldn't bog pushing that small sand pile.

That's true with any engine...but hp is hp. At the max rpm you're more likely to break traction. I tried module turned off & higher rpm, all it did was spin tires.

 

[thclimer]

My guess, with your tractor having a turbo it is able to modulate it for increased air pressure (volume) and adjust the fuel flow as well.

I was told for my Massey 1736 its same engine is in the 1742 and they just "tune" it for more Hp, they both have turbo's.

 

[kenhar]

You can turn the pump up on most any diesel engine and increase the horsepower. The upside by doing that you get more power. The downside is shortening the engine life span. People do it all the time and get by. Its best to get equipment that's powerful enough and big enough for your job or expectations. Over working small equipment can be dangerous for the equipment as well as the operator. LOL