IDLING DIESELS

[bkc]

I HAVE NOTICED THAT IF I LET MY TRACTOR IDLE IT SEEMS TO "LOAD UP".WHEN I GOTO TAKE OFF WHITE SMOKE COMES OUT OF THE EXAUST AND IT WILL SPIT AND POP.IF IRUN IT DOWN THE DRIVE WAY OR JUST SHUT IT OFF LET IT SIT FOR A FEW MINNITS IT SEEMS FINE. I THOUGHT DIESELS WERE MENT TO RUN. SHOULD I NOT LET IT IDLE?

 

[dieselsmoke1]

Never heard that idling was "bad" for a diesel. May get a puff of black smoke or extra rattle when tached up, but that's about it. Not unusual to see one idle all day on the farm.

 

[jwcinpk]

Sounds more like bad fuel than a problem with the fuel system. Deisels idling don't present a problem they just burn fuel.

 

[Phil_R]

Engine is "wet stacking"... cooling of cylinder wall causing fuel to condense, and/or a bit of carbon building up on injector disrupting fuel pattern.

A higher idle-speed may help... diesel engines are meant to work. (70% load is about ideal) Wet Stacking usually occurs at less than 40% load. (Some engines are more prone to wet stacking than others... )

Wet stacking is not good for an engine, better to "shut it down" than idle long enough for wet stacking to occur.

 

[Charlie_in_TX]

My 2615 owners manual says to not let it idle bellow 1500 rpms for extended periods of time. It says the warm up and cool down should be done at or above this speed. Warm/cool only takes a couple minutes.

 

[bkc]

I DIDN'T THINK IDELING WAS BAD THATS WHAT'S CONFUSING ME A LITTLE. WHEN I SAY IDELING I MEAN ONLY LIKE 5 MIN.,LONG ENOUGH TO HOOK A CHAIN TO FEL OR HOP OFF TRACTOR TO STACK WHATEVER IN THE BUCKET. MAYBE I HAVE SOME BAD FUEL. WOULD RUNNING DIESEL FUEL TREATMENT BE BAD FOR ENGINE IF IT DOSEN'T REALLY NEED IT? ALSO IT "LOADS UP" IF IM JUST PUTTING AROUND. -READ NO LOAD ON ENGINE- SHOULD I TRY TO USE A DIFFERENT GEAR TO LOAD THE ENGINE?
I DONT WANT TO SOUND LIKE IM CONPLAINING I LOVE THE TRACTOR. JUST A LITTLE ISSUE I WOULD LIKE TO RESOLVE.
THANKS AGAIN

 

[LAWALLSTRACTOR]

1st Where in western NY are you? 2nd Are you maybe running off road fuel?

Galen LaWall
Your Mahindra Tractor Dealer
Batavia NY 14020
585-343-0770

 

[BamaRob]

Just curious... Why would the diesel being "off road" make any difference in how the engine performs? Off road fuel, at least to my knowledge, is just "on road" diesel with dye added. Is this not correct? Am I damaging my engine because I don't pay the higher taxes for "on road" diesel?

I can say that I see a lots of variation in the "purity" (for lack of a better term) in the off road diesel that I buy. One place I buy doesn't sell a whole lot and it (apparently) sits in their tanks for a while (it shows when filtered through my Mr. Filter(R)). Another place I buy it services lots of logging companies that buy lots of fuel for their skidders and such on a daily basis. The fuel I get there appears to be "fresher" and cleaner.

BR

 

[3RRL]

I would suspect you've got a lot of moisture....bad fuel in there. Your diesel should idle at least long enough to switch chains etc without doing that. I've noticed "white" smoke may indicate a "lean" injector pump setting, vs "black" when too rich.
Putiing in a diesel additive should not harm the engine. Try a little Power Service in recommended dosage. That may help if the fuel is bad.
Also noticed your "Caps Lock" is stuck?

 

[hudr]

We used to always let our tractors idle through lunch, planter reloads, etc. On our bigger JDs (100+hp) we tried to always set them just above idle. Otherwise they would "slobber". Price of fuel these days we tend to shut them down if its going to be more than a few minutes.

 

[bkc]

I'm located in chautaqua county Galen. The tractor only has 40 hours on it and has only had on road fuel in it "dyed green".I have put fuel treatment in the last fill up per the bottles directions, don't remember what the name of it is but got it at tsc. Thought maybe water in fuel from condensation in tank, treatment sayes gets rid of water so I'll give it a try
Been working on cars and trucks since I was a kid, pretty good mechanic, just no diesel experiance or computer experiance sorry bout caps lock.
If per chance it is just water will it pass or should other actions be taken?
thanks Brian

 

[GaryCrowell]

There should be a water seperator drain somewhere around the fuel filter, try draining it. If that doesn't work I honestly wouldn't worry about it. It's likely that your fuel control unit is shooting too much fuel into the cylinders when you advance the throttle and some of it isn't getting burned, therefore the white smoke. Most of the older diesels would do this. I wouldn't expect that out of a new kubota, but mahindra is mostly "old school" technology so it wouldn't suprise me. If it's running okay then I wouldn't worry about it.

Idling doesn't hurt a diesel, and I've never bought off on the wet stacking idea. I've let my dodge/cummins idle for up to six hours (while I took a nap with the A/C running) and never had a problem from it. It's got 320K miles on it now so I guess it hasn't hurt it too much.

 

[Mike_Lipke]

Wet stacking is real, just not on every engine and not under every condition.
I used to run an over the road truck (Mack) and if I let it idle for a long time, especially in cold weather (below 20 deg), raw fuel used to be visible running down the outside of the stack. Very real.
That wet fuel is everywhere in between the end of that exhaust pipe and the valves in the head.
Now, when you put that engine back to work, under a load, especially if it has a turbo, you can get flames coming out of that exhaust. Not a good thing, and on a big engine, it can melt and warp things.
If you run it easy till everything heats up and evaporates that fuel, no problem.

 

[bkc]

Thanks guys, must have been water or bad fuel I did add fuel conditioner and everthing has cleared up. No more smoke thanks for all the imput.
Brian

 

[Tim_in_IA]

I've got a 6500 4wd. After reading this thread I realized that I dont use the tractor at full power a whole lot since it has so much. I am getting ready to run a round baler that should work it pretty good, but wanted to make sure I didn't have this white stacking issue. I was driving down the road and revved it up to pto speed and about a 1/2 second white poof came out and then left. Thanks for posting about this. I'll make sure to give it a good workout every now and then to keep it cleaned out. I use the fuel additive as well so that probably helps me out.

Only other thing I have read in the manual about idling is that to make sure you have all of your gear selectors in neutral or damage to gears may occur (Forward/reverse, hi-low, and the gear selector).