Well fellas I did it! I have owned my Kubota L 3400HST for 4 years and it has been a great tractor. I was doing a brush hogging job this past weekend and made a huge mistake. The kind of mistake that you expect only your neighbor, your child, or (sorry sound sexist) your wife to make.
I will start by telling you that I do not like to do tractor work for other people. I have many reasons, but mainly time. I work full time, have a child in middle school sports, help coach a pee-wee football team, and have a farm and home that are 20 minuntes apart. Not to mention the wear and tear on equipment. However, I have an uncle that has always treated me pretty well and slipped me a $20 a few times when I was a starving college student. He asked me a few times to brush hog for him and I finally agreed to do it for him. I decided to try and complete the job in a weekend. It is mostly hill side and few small flat areas. I worked all day Saturday and only had few hours left to do on Sunday. I hate to work on Sunday, but I have football each evening during the week and would have to wait until the next weekend to get the tractor moved back to the farm if I did not finish up. I got a late start on Sunday and was in a rush to get started. I checked the fluids, greased everything, topped off the fuel and went to work.
Somewhere between 30 min and 60 min later the tractor slowly powered down and the engine stopped. The tractor wanted to start but would not fire back up. I decided it had to be a fuel or air issue. I looked at the air filter and it did not look too bad and then decided to clean the fuel filter. I screwed off the fuel filter and immediately realized I had a major problem. I could smell gasoline! In my rush to get started, I stopped at a different gas station to get fuel (usually stop at sheetz) and immediately grabbed the green handle and started pumping(at 7-11). It was 87 gasoline not diesel. I know, I know---how could I make that mistake? The smell, the size of the nozzel, the cost. I don't know. I was thinking about a million different things and received a cell phone call just as I was getting out of my truck. I realized what I had done as soon as I started to screw off the fuel filter, but it was too late. I wanted to puke. I was physically ill and embarassed I had done such a stupid thing. I had convinced myself that the engine was toast. The first thing I did was go to my parents house and ask my dad (back yard mechanic) what to do. I explained the situation and he was positive, which was exactly what I needed at the time. The next think I did was search for related info here in tractorbynet. I did find a similar post that had a positive outcome and couple that were not so lucky. I skipped over the threads that were not good. We went back to the tractor and drained the tank and the lines the best we could, cleaned the fuel filter, added some diesel, cossed our fingers and turned the key. The tractor never hesitated. She purred like a kitten. Wow!! Of course there may be some damage that I cannot see, but the tractor sounds fine and runs fine so far. I am not going to run the tractor until I change oil, oil filter, and fuel filter. I think I got lucky that the fuel tank was not empty before I added the gasoline. I am guessing it was 60/40 gas to diesel.
I will start by telling you that I do not like to do tractor work for other people. I have many reasons, but mainly time. I work full time, have a child in middle school sports, help coach a pee-wee football team, and have a farm and home that are 20 minuntes apart. Not to mention the wear and tear on equipment. However, I have an uncle that has always treated me pretty well and slipped me a $20 a few times when I was a starving college student. He asked me a few times to brush hog for him and I finally agreed to do it for him. I decided to try and complete the job in a weekend. It is mostly hill side and few small flat areas. I worked all day Saturday and only had few hours left to do on Sunday. I hate to work on Sunday, but I have football each evening during the week and would have to wait until the next weekend to get the tractor moved back to the farm if I did not finish up. I got a late start on Sunday and was in a rush to get started. I checked the fluids, greased everything, topped off the fuel and went to work.
Somewhere between 30 min and 60 min later the tractor slowly powered down and the engine stopped. The tractor wanted to start but would not fire back up. I decided it had to be a fuel or air issue. I looked at the air filter and it did not look too bad and then decided to clean the fuel filter. I screwed off the fuel filter and immediately realized I had a major problem. I could smell gasoline! In my rush to get started, I stopped at a different gas station to get fuel (usually stop at sheetz) and immediately grabbed the green handle and started pumping(at 7-11). It was 87 gasoline not diesel. I know, I know---how could I make that mistake? The smell, the size of the nozzel, the cost. I don't know. I was thinking about a million different things and received a cell phone call just as I was getting out of my truck. I realized what I had done as soon as I started to screw off the fuel filter, but it was too late. I wanted to puke. I was physically ill and embarassed I had done such a stupid thing. I had convinced myself that the engine was toast. The first thing I did was go to my parents house and ask my dad (back yard mechanic) what to do. I explained the situation and he was positive, which was exactly what I needed at the time. The next think I did was search for related info here in tractorbynet. I did find a similar post that had a positive outcome and couple that were not so lucky. I skipped over the threads that were not good. We went back to the tractor and drained the tank and the lines the best we could, cleaned the fuel filter, added some diesel, cossed our fingers and turned the key. The tractor never hesitated. She purred like a kitten. Wow!! Of course there may be some damage that I cannot see, but the tractor sounds fine and runs fine so far. I am not going to run the tractor until I change oil, oil filter, and fuel filter. I think I got lucky that the fuel tank was not empty before I added the gasoline. I am guessing it was 60/40 gas to diesel.
