Kubota B2150 - weird bogging down behavior

[crazysax9]

Hi Everyone - seems like a lot of "engine bogging down" posts here...sorry for another.

Bought a 1996 Kubota B2150 last weekend. 100 hours on it.

I've been mowing my fields with a King Kutter 4' rotary cutter - just grass (8"-10", max) and no brush. I got through the first hour of cutting just fine yesterday. It's worth noting that my land is on a slope, and the tractor was running just fine going up the slope. Never bogged down. Towards the end of that hour of cutting, I did notice the engine bogging down a little, but it seemed brief.

So now today, I went back out to finish cutting and I'm pretty consistently having problems with the engine bogging down. It seems to happen while I have the PTO engaged and I'm going uphill. It would seem logical to say that the slope is making the engine work harder. My objection to that is the tractor was working fine, with the PTO engaged, on a similar slope yesterday. What's perplexing to me is that the bogging down behavior will persist even after I've transitioned back to flat ground. After 30-60 seconds of running back on flat ground, the RPMs will eventually increase back to what you'd expect at full throttle.

From reading a few other threads, my suspicion is something having to do with the fuel supply: water? dirty filter? crap in the tank?

One observation I've made is that the area on the tank around the gas cap is perpetually shiny with fuel - perhaps there's a leak around the cap, but I don't think that would necessarily impact engine performance?

Any input you have would be much appreciated. Thanks.

 

[DT86]

Your suspicion most likely correct.

1996 model with 100 hours you say? I'm betting the fuel is old, the filter original to the tractor and there may be crud in the tank sloshing over the pick up when going up hill.

Drain the tank into a bucket by removing the line at the filter. Add the fuel to a burn pile.

Clean the tank by duct taping a piece of flexible hose to a shop vac, insert hose into filler neck and go fishing.

Change the filter(s), make sure the fuel line is reattached and add fresh fuel.

Follow the procedure for bleeding the lines and you should be good to go.

 

[crazysax9]

Your suspicion most likely correct.

1996 model with 100 hours you say? I'm betting the fuel is old, the filter original to the tractor and there may be crud in the tank sloshing over the pick up when going up hill.

Drain the tank into a bucket by removing the line at the filter. Add the fuel to a burn pile.

Clean the tank by duct taping a piece of flexible hose to a shop vac, insert hose into filler neck and go fishing.

Change the filter(s), make sure the fuel line is reattached and add fresh fuel.

Follow the procedure for bleeding the lines and you should be good to go.

Good advice. For now, I replaced the fuel filter (back to that in a sec), and she runs like a champ.

I'm going to wait until the winter to clean out the fuel tank and lines. In the meantime, I'll be prepared to replace the fuel filter again. They're fairly cheap and I'd rather not have my tractor out of commission.

Back to the fuel filter. It was CAKED in crud. I'm surprised the tractor ran at all. Here is a pic of what it looked like: