Noticed a few things poking around under the hood of my L4060

[troverman]

My tractor is an L4060, meaning a non-turbo V2403 4-cylinder engine. I noticed it does have an EGR cooler, which sits under the exhaust manifold on the left side of the tractor. The cooler has a pipe which goes around the back side of the engine to the right side and into the EGR valve, which controls whether or not the cooled exhaust gases are reintroduced to the intake side. Since I didn't see an electrical harness, I'm assuming the valve is controlled by vacuum.

I noticed the A/C condenser has its own, easy to remove (vertically) screen. The radiator has its own screen as well, but since it slides out horizontally, you cannot remove it without also removing a piece of lower orange-painted trim. That trim does remove without tools, but this does not seem like an ideal design.

I also noticed the air filter is located on top of the engine, midway back, instead of the usual out front of the radiator location. With the A/C components, there isn't room for the filter here. The problem is that without tweaking the hood over to the left a bit, you cannot remove the access door to remove the filter at the end of the canister. It is doable, but harder than other designs I've seen. Sadly, the primary filter is made in China. The finer secondary filter inside is made in Germany. However, I did notice an air filter restriction gauge which is nice, although I believe older Grand L tractors could notify you on the dash electronically (if you didn't notice the blacker exhaust smoke).

Overall, very nice and well made tractor.

 

[SidecarFlip]

Many Kubota OEM filters are made in China to Kuoota specs. I don't believe anything on your motor is vacuum operated.

Diesels don't make vacuum like a gas motor. If it was, you'd have to have a driven vacuum pump.

Far as the screens go, all the Kubby's I have owned are the same way. Gives you impetus to remove the cowling and remove the screen (and check on various conditions) at the same time. Never been an issue with me.

 

[troverman]

Many Kubota OEM filters are made in China to Kuoota specs. I don't believe anything on your motor is vacuum operated.

Diesels don't make vacuum like a gas motor. If it was, you'd have to have a driven vacuum pump.

Far as the screens go, all the Kubby's I have owned are the same way. Gives you impetus to remove the cowling and remove the screen (and check on various conditions) at the same time. Never been an issue with me.

That's a good point about vacuum...and there's no need to have a vacuum pump like a diesel pickup to run a brake booster. I read the turbo engines use boost pressure to open the valve. This is a naturally aspirated engine. Perhaps if I look closer, I'll find a wiring harness going to a solenoid. Everything is new and painted a shiny gray, so things blend in. All modern diesels with cooled EGR I have ever worked on or looked at use an electronically controlled valve, so I was surprised to hear Kubota was using vacuum or boost pressure. I'll look again.

I don't like things being made in China, even if they are pretty close to JP.

 

[SidecarFlip]

Neither do I but it's a fact of life and global economy. The Chinese can produce quality stuff, so long as they are watched. Given to their own devices, quality gets a backseat to cost of manufacture.

I'm old enough to remember when 'Made in Japan' was also considered cheap junk.

When I took my T&D apprenticeship, I still remember that LS Starett, Weber Gauge and Brown(e) and Sharp were considered the best of the best in precision tools and if you wanted a cheap bang around stuff that maybe worked and was marginally accurate, you bought Mitutoyo. It was cheap, crude and not very accurate. Today, Mitutoyo is considered the world leader in precision measurement.

Amazing how things change.

Like Bridgeport. Lagun copied the Bridgeport vertical mill right down to every nut and bolt and sold them for thousands less that the real McCoy and just about bankrupted Bridgeport.

I wonder who will be the next 'junk' producer. I believe China is on the same course that Japan was. Could it be India or Pakistan? Who knows.

 

[troverman]

I'm not old enough for that, but I've been told. You're forgetting about Korea - it used to be Samsung was garbage and now they are a leader, along with LG. Kia and Hyundai started out as total trash, and they too have improved a lot.

China can produce good quality, but I don't like it.

 

[sheepfarmer]

My tractor is an L4060, meaning a non-turbo V2403 4-cylinder engine. I noticed it does have an EGR cooler, which sits under the exhaust manifold on the left side of the tractor. The cooler has a pipe which goes around the back side of the engine to the right side and into the EGR valve, which controls whether or not the cooled exhaust gases are reintroduced to the intake side. Since I didn't see an electrical harness, I'm assuming the valve is controlled by vacuum.

I noticed the A/C condenser has its own, easy to remove (vertically) screen. The radiator has its own screen as well, but since it slides out horizontally, you cannot remove it without also removing a piece of lower orange-painted trim. That trim does remove without tools, but this does not seem like an ideal design.

I also noticed the air filter is located on top of the engine, midway back, instead of the usual out front of the radiator location. With the A/C components, there isn't room for the filter here. The problem is that without tweaking the hood over to the left a bit, you cannot remove the access door to remove the filter at the end of the canister. It is doable, but harder than other designs I've seen. Sadly, the primary filter is made in China. The finer secondary filter inside is made in Germany. However, I did notice an air filter restriction gauge which is nice, although I believe older Grand L tractors could notify you on the dash electronically (if you didn't notice the blacker exhaust smoke).

Overall, very nice and well made tractor.

Troverman if you are on this kick of exploring your tractor's engine bay, try following the fuel from tank to injectors! It is kind of interesting. It took me some number of hours and help from a couple guys on here. It was prompted by someone who wrote in after buggering up their 3560 by taking random parts off it to solve a problem created when his fuel gelled. I realized I didn't really understand how it worked. (Hint: don't take off your fuel filter and leave the tractor outside, and then replace assorted fuel pumps and try to bleed it the old fashioned way at the injectors.)

Here is the thread of my odyssey:


https://www.orangetractortalks.com/forums/showthread.php?t=35336

One of my puzzles at the time was getting additives distributed between the two tanks, I am still not sure how long the circulation would take. The 60 series have a feature where if you turn on the "ignition switch" but not to start, it is supposed to sound an alarm if you are filling the fuel tank and get up to the top. There is a ticking sound which I take to be the electromagnetic fuel pump, and it goes on as long as the key is in that position. If that pump is running it may help distribute additive. Or perhaps not significantly. The alarm sometimes works, and sometimes not.

 

[troverman]

Thanks SheepFarmer. Very interesting, I do like getting to the details of systems on these tractors.

The electromagnetic pump is interesting. It seems like an old school vacuum pulse pump, just using an electromagnet instead of vacuum since it needs to function with the engine off, and because diesels aren't making vacuum anyway. Why wouldn't Kubota choose to simply use an electric in-tank automotive style low pressure fuel pump?

I'm intrigued by the 'reserve tank.' I'm not sure what the purpose of this would be unless there are times the electromagnetic pump cannot keep up.

Typically the fuel cooler is used only on the return circuit, so that excess fuel which has been heated by going through the high pressure fuel pump doesn't heat the fuel in the tank, which can lower fuel lubricity.

What type of high pressure fuel pump is used? Is it a single piston design or some other type of design?

All the modern diesel pickups can be primed / purged by just cycling the key on and off 5 times or so. It used to be the GM Duramax engines needed to be hand primed (pump on the firewall) but even those are electric prime now.

 

[Fordtech86]

Troverman, there is a WSM on Kubotabooks.com. Gives an overview of how the systems operate too. I just glanced through it a little. Heres a link.

http://kubotabooks.com/AutoIndex/index.php?dir=Tractor Owners Manuals/&file=L3560 to L6060 WSM.pdf

 

[200mph]

although I believe older Grand L tractors could notify you on the dash electronically

Neither my GL30 or GL40 do this. They both have the manual filter restriction device.

 

[troverman]

Neither my GL30 or GL40 do this. They both have the manual filter restriction device.

My Grand L 4310 had a dashboard light that would come on...

 

[troverman]

Troverman, there is a WSM on Kubotabooks.com. Gives an overview of how the systems operate too. I just glanced through it a little. Heres a link.

http://kubotabooks.com/AutoIndex/index.php?dir=Tractor Owners Manuals/&file=L3560 to L6060 WSM.pdf

That's awesome Fordtech. Thanks!