Kubota G5200 garden tractor with the D600 3 cylinder 14 hp diesel

[Kcu320]

New member…I just joined. I have a question that could have been posed in either the projects or Kubota. I chose Kubota. I am modifying my John Deere 318 to receive the D600 Diesel engine. On the donor tractor, the Kubota G5200, the engine was placed in backwards; I.e. the water pump was closest to the operating station and then the fan and radiator. Cub Cadet also used the Kubota D600B in their 782d and a couple others. I’ll stick with 782d for this question. In the 782d the engine is faced in the opposite direction as the Kubota G5200; meaning, the radiator, fan and water pump are at the extreme end or front of the tractor (like a car/truck). So, not thinking, I thought I would set my tractor up like the Cub Cadet 782d. The mounts we made fit nice, I didn’t have as much notching to do of the frame, etc. Just as we were about to weld in the mounts my friend said “WAIT!”. We discussed which direction the engine rotated. So here we are two grown men walking around the tractor waving our fingers in the air in circles mimicking the direction the engine turns the shaft to the hydro. We discovered that the engine could only work if we undid our work and placed it back 180 degrees from the way we had it; in other words, like we had it in the beginning. So we had to make new engine mounts, cut mounting brackets off the engine, etc. We were set back a whole day of fabricating.
My question is: do you think the “B” in the D600B was a special made counter-rotating engine made special for Cub Cadet? I haven’t been able to discover any info on that. I have several D600 manuals but no D600B. Also, we figured you can’t run a hydro the opposite way because you have a non-pressure side and a pressure side. Did we make a mountain out of a mole hill or was it a save at the last possible second? Thanks for sticking with the story and helping me understand if I made the right call or not.

 

[TMGT]

Sounds like a fun project! I have a Deutz Ultima 1920 (simplicity sunstar) that I'm swapping a D662 into, I also have a G5200 that I plan on putting the engine into a Case 444 one day.

The Cub 782d has the engine in the same orientation as the G5200, the cub just put the radiator in the front and runs the fan off the flywheel side of the engine so rotation is the same.

The B designation most likely refers to some small change done for the cub application, possible the cooling fan drive system?

Some hydro's can be reversed, the Sunstrand 15 in the 318 should be capable but I can't remember what all needs to be done to change it.

 

[4570Man]

Does the motor actually spin backwards or just sit backwards?

 

[TMGT]

Does the motor actually spin backwards or just sit backwards?

Standard counter clockwise rotation when looking at the flywheel side.

 

[Baby Grand]

I seem to remember reading somewhere that the "backwards" G5200 engine orientation was to move the fan and radiator to the back of the engine compartment in an attempt to reduce chaff and dust clogging the airflow though the radiator. Since the engine's rotational direction was not changed when they flipped it around, you absolutely pulled off a last minute save!