XR4155 Won't Stay Running

[Cycledude]

I get razed about waiting the recommended time so throttle up and shut down but do it religiously. Hope that prevents a costly repair. Only 330 hours on my machine. Run it at minimum 1700 rpm even when doing light work.

I am also a very firm believer in following the Warm up and cool down time instructions, shutting it off without allowing for the cool down time won’t take long to take out turbo seals.

 

[Snowman87]

I get razed about waiting the recommended time so throttle up and shut down but do it religiously. Hope that prevents a costly repair. Only 330 hours on my machine. Run it at minimum 1700 rpm even when doing light work.

I usually ran a minimum of 2,000 rpm regardless of what I was doing (after letting it warm up) and never let it sit idling for extended periods of time. I got that advice when I bought it due to emissions.

I've logged many hours at ~2,500 rpm running a finish mower to hit PTO speed and moving dirt for ground speed purposes in mid range.

I also only saw regen's every 50 hours as anticipated, one would think I would have seen shorter times if the DPF filter was causing a pressure delta from soot load.

 

[ruffdog]

How much oil was it using and did it emit blue smoke?

 

[Snowman87]

How much oil was it using and did it emit blue smoke?

No noticeable smoke or perceived loss of power, crazy I know... Should feel like a completely new tractor when it's all done.

I pulled my dipstick just for fun. Oil level looks great, but my records show I changed it in November so not many hours. I change the fuel filter and oil every fall, same with my Duramax trying to prep for winter.

 

[Snowman87]

I took some time Friday evening to clean up the DPF and pipe that mates it to the turbo. I watched several YouTube videos and decided I was going to take a 2-step cleaning approach - degrease then acid wash. I decided against using my pressure washer, lots of people doing it but I didn't want to risk damaging my DPF.

For the degreasing I used Super Clean, diluted down 3:1 like a parts washer. I let it soak for 10 minutes flushed with my garden hose on jet setting, and then repeated. It cut the grease really well and brought out quite a bit of the red colored ash as shown in one of the pictures.

For the acid wash I used muriatic acid, diluted down to 7% acid content. I followed the same cleaning approach, soak for 10 minutes, flush, and repeat. It really shined up the DPF housing

I used compressed air ~60 PSI to blow out between cleaning processes and afterwards to dry. I've been rotating leaving it under a fan and pushing compressed air through it again daily to thoroughly dry things before reinstallation.

I haven't heard back from the dealer yet, hoping the turbo is in by Friday. Bonus picture of my turbo cleaned up, it will make for some nice wall art in the shop.

 

[ruffdog]

Keep us up to date on this.

 

[Snowman87]

Well, good news and bad news today...

Good news is it was the first time I've heard my tractor run in a while, bad news is there's still more work to do and parts to install.

I got everything put back together and ready for the dealer tech to come by today. New turbo is a Borg Warner brand with better construction which I was happy to see, though still made in Korea. I'm attaching several pictures of general construction, BW P/N, and dealer P/N. Dealer tech noted we weren't going to do an update because the only thing it changed was a warm up time, and it's a bit of a process to get it done. Need Wifi, a one time access code w/ serial #, etc.

Got the turbo installed and it cranked for a bit before starting. It idled for a minute or so before starting to choke itself out again... This time it threw an EGR code (I wasn't able to write it down). The EGR valve was difficult to remove and when pulled we could see it wasn't actuating as commanded by the dealer software. I didn't get a picture of it but the EGR valve cavity was really gummed up. I cleaned it up and tried soaking the where the valve moves in some penetrating oil, and using my thumb to assist when it was trying to be commanded in but we couldn't get it to stroke fully open or close up all the way. Interesting thing is that he tested it on the original work day and it appeared to be moving so not exactly sure what happened. Definitely lots of crud in the cross over tube, inside the EGR valve, etc. I worked on pulling things down and cleaning things up.

The tech noted they aren't able to get the EGR valve only from LS anymore, they have to do an intake/EGR kit upgrade which I was assuming would be expensive. I was able to find several places with the EGR valve for $550-600, but asked him to check out the kit for me too. He called when he was back at the shop and noted that the new kit is $665 (no P/N yet) and includes everything - intake manifold, EGR valve, crossover pipe, wire harness, etc. My guess is they are selling these at cost to help their customers out on something that was a bad design.

I'm going that route since I have things torn down so far anyway, good to have a better design. I'll grab the parts some night after work when they come in to do the install to save some labor, then have the tech come down again because this does require a programming update.

While I had things apart I decided to also pull and clean the EGR cooler. I was able to get some junk out of that too. Found an old brush I was able to chuck up in a drill to clean out the small tubes. Figured it would be good to have that freshened up and fill up with some fresh antifreeze.

More to come...

 

[ruffdog]

Very interesting thread. Those dirty carbon jobs make it almost impossible to get your hands clean too.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

Jees, what a mess for 500 hours. Was the EGR the catalyst for everything else taking a crap?

 

[Snowman87]

Very interesting thread. Those dirty carbon jobs make it almost impossible to get your hands clean too.

My hands and forearms are stained to say the least