Is frequent short term use harmful?

[newbury]

OP - are we discussing the pre-1990 Bolens G274?
How many hours on it?
Seems like if you do an oil analysis (send it in to like Blackstone) you'd get you questions as to it's health answered, as bad oil will probably be it's main potential problem.

 

[DarkBlack]

My understanding, although it is limited I admit, is that water, H2O is a product of combustion. Hydrogen in fuel, H, combines with oxygen, O, in air to make H2O, water. This can be seen on cold winter days as vapour or even water drops coming from automobile tail pipes. If the engine is driven long enough to get up to operating temp. the water is driven off. If not it stays around causing issues.

True. In the case you described, it’s the running of the engine that’s causing the water, so then you’re running it longer to drive it out, but you’re always making it in the combustion chamber, you just stop seeing in visually because it’s a vapor. Chicken or the egg.
If that was only concern, then an engine that is never run, would not have any condensation in it, but we know that is not true. A big hunk of cold steel and aluminum on a warm humid morning will have condensation occurring on and in it, just like a cold glass of water on a warm humid day. It’s an endless battle in humid environments with large temperature fluctuations. That’s why cold winter heated garages are the best solution no matter how long you run them

 

[Hoobie]

True. In the case you described, it’s the running of the engine that’s causing the water, so then you’re running it longer to drive it out, but you’re always making it in the combustion chamber, you just stop seeing in visually because it’s a vapor. Chicken or the egg.
If that was only concern, then an engine that is never run, would not have any condensation in it, but we know that is not true. A big hunk of cold steel and aluminum on a warm humid morning will have condensation occurring on and in it, just like a cold glass of water on a warm humid day. It’s an endless battle in humid environments with large temperature fluctuations. That’s why cold winter heated garages are the best solution no matter how long you run them

I agree with everything you said. I was addressing only a question posed by CutTheHolesOut member posted above about short run times causing moisture.

 

[Yander]

Just let it warm up appropriately based on outdoor temp per the owners manual. If it's really cold that means 15-20 minutes to warm up. Let it cool down a couple minutes and when using it run it at least 2,000 RPM.

Keep the oil changed every year regardless of hours if under 100hrs.

Stop obsessing over nothingness, enjoy life and your compost pile.

 

[CutTheHolesOut]

OP - are we discussing the pre-1990 Bolens G274?
How many hours on it?
Seems like if you do an oil analysis (send it in to like Blackstone) you'd get you questions as to it's health answered, as bad oil will probably be it's main potential problem.

Around 620 hours. It’s from the mid 80’s I believe

 

[CutTheHolesOut]

Just let it warm up appropriately based on outdoor temp per the owners manual. If it's really cold that means 15-20 minutes to warm up. Let it cool down a couple minutes and when using it run it at least 2,000 RPM.

Keep the oil changed every year regardless of hours if under 100hrs.

Stop obsessing over nothingness, enjoy life and your compost pile.

Please forgive my ignorance but why run it at least 2000 rpm? Is that just so it heats up enough?

 

[kozal01]

Please forgive my ignorance but why run it at least 2000 rpm? Is that just so it heats up enough?

My guess is to ensure it burns off any residual moisture in the engine. Either way I agree with some here. Just run it when you need it and keep up on maintenance and it will be fine. I'd rather use my tractor for 20 minutes here and there than not use it at all.

 

[kneedeep]

I let my old tractor warm up enough to stop the valve chatter, hydraulic takes a few minutes of flexing to get it warmed.
Few minutes idling does the trick.
Reverse procedure with hot engine to cool down.

For few minutes of work, warm up then shut down when done.
Do it often.

 

[DarkBlack]

Cuttheholesout… Look at it this way…. Everything in life is a compromise.

If you only run 3 minutes at a time, you might…..might… have a higher H2O level in your tractor oils. Enough to cause noticeable damage on a machine that will only rack up hundreds of hours in your lifetime at most, not thousands ? Only you can say.
You make no mention so far, of your climate, tractor storage situation, or oil change observations, or frequency.
We can only guess with our suggestions.

Burning diesel to simply heat your engine to evaporate estimated “bad” internal H2O to prevent guesstimated future engine problems has a cost to it, that you have to decide for yourself if it’s worth the negatives.
While you might evaporate some water, and you won’t have to manually charge your battery(positives) , you are paying for a lot more diesel fuel, more hours on your meter giving a probable lower resale, more run wear on the engine in general, especially the injectors, fuel filters, etc….

I imagine from the fuel saved only running 3 minutes, you could put that $$$ savings towards $$ more often oil changes , or oil analysis.

It’s up to you, what’s most important

 

[kneedeep]

For what it’s worth,
My tractors don’t get used much in the late fall and winter sitting months doing nothing.
I keep them full of treated fuel and on battery maintainers.
I will crank them up once or twice on nice days to idle enough to circulate oil through the engines.
No rhyme or reason to any of it!

 

[EricW]

I do the same as kneedeep.

 

[Little Red Tractor]

Cuttheholesout… Look at it this way…. Everything in life is a compromise.

If you only run 3 minutes at a time, you might…..might… have a higher H2O level in your tractor oils. Enough to cause noticeable damage on a machine that will only rack up hundreds of hours in your lifetime at most, not thousands ? Only you can say.
You make no mention so far, of your climate, tractor storage situation, or oil change observations, or frequency.
We can only guess with our suggestions.

Burning diesel to simply heat your engine to evaporate estimated “bad” internal H2O to prevent guesstimated future engine problems has a cost to it, that you have to decide for yourself if it’s worth the negatives.
While you might evaporate some water, and you won’t have to manually charge your battery(positives) , you are paying for a lot more diesel fuel, more hours on your meter giving a probable lower resale, more run wear on the engine in general, especially the injectors, fuel filters, etc….

I imagine from the fuel saved only running 3 minutes, you could put that $$$ savings towards $$ more often oil changes , or oil analysis.

It’s up to you, what’s most important

This seems to be the most comprehensive answer, so I'll add nothing more except to say that I had the "little brother" to that tractor, a 15 horsepower built by Iseki. It was about bulletproof!

 

[YLee Kioti]

I add 15-20 oz. of seafoam in fuel tank for injector health, biocide for the fuel tank and typically run engine around 1500 rpm.
Short run times is same effect as a vehicle that makes short trips in town, acids and condensation is #1 enemy of internals.
One suggested holding off until you have enough chores to have at least a half hour run time.
I agree that it would help engine health.
Not familiar with your model but doe it have a regen cycle?
If yes, then maybe further issues down the road from soot build up?
I'm asking out of ignorance but pose question to ponder if applicable.

 

[Advil]

This is right up there with people who ask me how they should run and charge their laptop so it lasts the longest. The proper answer is use it, and keep it charged. If you don't use it in such a way to make your life as convenient as possible you become a slave to the device rather than the device being a slave to you as it should be.

Technically, yes, you can do certain things to make a battery last a little longer but it destroys the entire point of it being convenient and portable.

Same with your tractor. If it's just super convenient to let a few jobs stack up before you do them, great. If not, don't ever avoid doing a job because you are worried about the tractor. That defeats the entire purpose of owning it.

Maintenance and repair will be necessary over time no matter how you run it. So get lots of use out of it while you can.