Oil & Fuel Syntheic oil at 50hr service? Old topic, but want fresh ideas

[eepete]

I talked to my dealer about this. I have a 2009 4520. He said change the oil to normal oil at 50 hours. I also asked about changing the hydrostatic at 50 hours (both/either oil and/or filters). He said just follow the manual and change it all at 400 hours. He also said that these things keep changing, but this was what was OK for the John Deer Power Tech engine which is a Tier 4 design. On the hydro fluid, he said that is what they are doing now and they have seen no problems. He said Deere also tracks failures and uses the track record to adjust service intervals and requirements.

Soon he will be off to the the Deere mothership for training and says he'll ask and verify all this.

I'll probably change the hydro oil at 2 years into my 3 year warranty, but it's clear that all these times can't be that critical, they are engine dependent and change as time goes on and tractor technology and manufacturing techniques change.

So other than the 50 vs 100 hours on break in, I'm in Spudland_Dave's camp now. I suspect that it is not that critical and what your manual and dealer says will be close enough. This is probably also why there is such a wide range of "this works for me" suggestions.

Do whatever allows you to sleep good at night...

Pete

 

[saskman49]

Now I don't have a tractor like yours but for my 2320 the dealers suggestion was oil changes at 25 and 50 with fresh breakin oil and then switching to whatever I wished at 100. The thought was that the Yanmar diesels are so easy on themselves that the extra help from the breakin oil extends their already long life further.. Not what the book suggests but they are one of the top 10 dealers chains in Canada so I am inclinded to believe them.

 

[msteele469@hotmail.com]

For what it's worth, the dealer told me 2 weeks ago that my new 3038E came with breakin oil. He also suggested 50 hrs at initial oil change then go every 100 hr and not the 200 the manual says.

My last tractor was a Kioti LB1914 and I ran RotellaT 15w40, once in the spring and again in the fall, regardless of the hours (typically 150 in summer and 50+ in winter). Some may feel that is a bit (or a lot) of overkill, but longevity is my primary concern.

I plan on either using RotellaT 15W40 or go with the JD 50 synthetic.

All of my other 4 cycle engines get one form of Mobil 1 or another from the push mower to the log splitter and every powerwasher in between.