What should I do?

[RoyJackson]

It's no big deal. People drive their tractors out in rainstorms. What's the difference ? It's got a cover on the air filter.

Steve

Well, the difference is his tractor wouldn't start initially and when it did, it only ran 5 minutes.
I don't know about your tractor, but both my old 670 Deere and current 790 have the air cleaner intake under the hood. Might get a little misting down the intake, but not the water that would have come from a washed filter.

 

[TripleR]

I am sure will point out my mistake, but how would a restricted air filter cause black "soot" to come out, smoke maybe, but not soot as this takes a while to accumulate.

Two things that happen at the same time are not always related, so I would not be overly concerned. I am sure many of us have ran a little water contaminated fuel through one of ours at one time or another with no adverse effects; how would ingesting a little water from a damp filter be any different? Some may have even run an engine with a restricted filter; again nothing catastrophic.

If I was concerned, I would probably buy a new filter; don't wash mine anway and check the fuel filter to make sure it is clean and then run it.

What am I missing?

 

[flyingcow]

Agreed. We are hearing about two unrelated occurrances.

Take special note that the OP cleaned the OUTER air filter.

It sounds to me like you got a bit of water down /in the exhaust when you were washing it and then it blew it out when you fired up the tractor. just my 2 cents

I'll second this thought.

 

[backdoor]

I'm with the water in the exhaust thinking, too. Could be that some settled in the turbo. That's happened to me before. I wash my outer filter several times before replacing it with a new one. I follow the washing instructions in my owner's manual. I have a precleaner that catches an amazing amount of dust and debris.

I would check the filter to make sure it was not damp enough to be damaged by the air being pulled through.

 

[Flatheadyoungin]

i have a lot to learn on diesels but i've put partially wet filters back in atvs and had them choke down to where they'd barely run (run very rich)....so i would assume the same is possible with diesels.....

we've also hit mud holes and flooded the air boxes, having to remove the filter just so we could ride the atv home......

just thought i'd throw it out there....i had black smoke in my mind, not a soot that could settle on to things around it....

is it still doing it?

I am sure will point out my mistake, but how would a restricted air filter cause black "soot" to come out, smoke maybe, but not soot as this takes a while to accumulate.

Two things that happen at the same time are not always related, so I would not be overly concerned. I am sure many of us have ran a little water contaminated fuel through one of ours at one time or another with no adverse effects; how would ingesting a little water from a damp filter be any different? Some may have even run an engine with a restricted filter; again nothing catastrophic.

If I was concerned, I would probably buy a new filter; don't wash mine anway and check the fuel filter to make sure it is clean and then run it.

What am I missing?

 

[Chilly807]

Unless it continues to give you trouble, run it as normal. In fact, the sooner you run the engine the sooner the airflow through the filter will continue to dry it.

Water in the intake of a diesel in SMALL quantities is not a problem. We normally water-wash the compressor side of large turbochargers to remove dirt and salt crystal buildup as a regular maintenance item. The engine is at full power when we do it, and about a litre of water is slowly fed into the turbo inlet.

Chilly

 

[KennK]

Though I'm always embarrassed to admit it, the time that I accidentally put gasoline in my diesel fuel tank it acted exactly as you described. Luckily it smoked, sputtered, and died somewhat quickly and I didn't try to run it until I got it repaired.

A drained fuel system, a new fuel filter, and a replaced fuel injector or two later its running great.