Two engines making oil?

This is a new one to me. I?ll try to be brief.

Bought a Deere 323D skid steer new. At about 600 hours the oil return line for the turbo sprung a leak and it caught fire. The dealer repaired it but it was plagued with gremlins. Four new head gaskets. New head. New hydraulic pump. Each time it came home with a new malady. In the end it started making oil at a pretty good rate and they couldn?t figure it out. Two sets of injectors. Two rebuilt pumps. Transfer pumps. The list went on and on. I was almost ready to throw in the towel when they brought out a loaner because it began overheating after 10 minutes of run time. The owner of the dealer has always been good to me and would do anything to make things right for the folks who have been by him since he started.

The loaner is a 323 E and I?ve had it about 18 months now. Yes, 18 months. I?ve asked him to quote me a price to trade and he says don?t worry, we?ll figure it out. I?ve put 250 hours on this one and it?s a good machine. Better than the other ever was. When he quotes me a price I?ll buy it.

The other day I checked the oil and it is 3/4 inch over full! I haven?t checked it in a while, but there is 125 hours on this oil change done by me and filled right to the full line. They told me this is a completely different engine, but how can it be making oil, too? I?ve put tens of thousands of hours on tractors in my farming career. I owned and drove school buses. I?ve got diesel pickups and semis. I know there are exceptions (like when the IC buses came out), but I have NEVER had an engine make oil. What is going on?

I don?t idle them. I don?t overload them or lug them. I use them respectfully and don?t abuse machines. It gets to operating temps each time I use it and usually run it on something like a tree puller so it isn?t putting around feeding a bale or something. Heck, I?ve got the 4020 that came here new with 24,000 hours and one rebuild on it now and it only uses oil when it gets dirty and close to an oil change. I?m sure it isn?t me. I would have never made it farming all these years without going bust if I ruined every engine.

Any Ideas? Oddly, this one has about as many hours now as the D did when it started making oil. They replaced everything trying to figure that out and it still sits behind their shop. A young service tech actually asked me if I thought that someone might be sneaking up to the farm and adding oil to it without me knowing. You can bet how well that went over! It?s just a puzzle to me.

I'm not familiar with the Deere machines in particular, but have worked on skid steers before. These points come to mind:

1. Does the oil smell like diesel? Not a conclusive test whether or not fuel is getting in the oil, but better than nothing.

2. Is the coolant dropping?

3. How do the pumps mount on the back of the engine? Some have a gearbox to split the power to two separate pumps. I worked on a New Holland leaking from the hydraulics into that gearbox. If there Deeres are a similar setup, the splitter box oil may be making its way to the engine. Check your hydraulic oil level too, if the hydraulics are leaking to the splitter box, it may also have pressured up the gearbox and blown the crank seal on the engine as well. May be worth looking into on your old skid steer as well, if it has the oil-filled splitter box that is.

That's about the only things I can think of that could cause fluid movement into the engine oil. Unless it has something exotic, such as a hydraulic oil/engine oil combo cooler, but can't really see it.

I can't help at all, but I do have a tip. Take a white piece of paper and put a drop of oil from the dipstick, let it set a few minutes.If the spot is round with smooth edges it is oil,if the edges look like a snowflake it has diesel in it. I learned that from an old diesel truck mechanic.

What engines are in these units ?? I am thinking what Lyndon
is saying. Is this diesel contamination ? Or more oil
contamination? Got to have some pretty worn out injectors for
that problem.

Or some exotic crankcase ventilation system that does anything other than just letting the crankcase breath.

notjustair,

Perhaps a sample of oil could be sent to determine the source? I thin that our samples are around 20 bucks. Good luck.

D,

notjustair,


An engine , gas or oil , can't just make oil . The only way for it to be getting over full is that there has to be something else fluid wise leaking into it . Wheather it be gas , diesel , radiator water / antifreeze , or some other oil like hydrostatic oil wheather it be for the lifts or the steering . There could be a bad seal somewhere or a blocked / bad vent for an oil reserve bad somewhere on the machine or a blown head gasket or a bad / cracked head . The throttle body , or what ever mixes the fuel and air could be bad as well as a bad pump or a PVC valve bad somewhere not letting to engine sump breathe . If an engine could make its own oil we would probably never have to change it and a motor would never blow from lack of oil unless you knocked a hole somewhere and lost all oil at once . last , but not least , is there someway that rain could be getting into motor ?


Whizkid

Pull the stick
wipe it off
stick it in and read it again

capillary or whatever

some sticks creep much worse than others

use the oil extractor till you are satisfied with the results. then just watch it.

wrap your whole world around thinking it matters

I think the suggestion of an oil sample to determine the source of the extra oil would be money well spent.

Both of these machines sound fairly new, what sort of exhaust after treatment do they have? Do they have an EGR cooler?

I'm not familiar with the J.Deere, but I remember this past summer when I got my Kubota back and the oil was checking all out of whack. Turned out that by reading the owners manual, I was checking the engine and trans oil all wrong. I was doing things as I always had and that can not be done on the new machines. With the engine oil coolers on the new ones the oil level will read over full until it is started and the oil goes to the cooler. When it is shut off it will run back down and be way overfull. Not saying that is the problem but sure sounds like the problem I was having. ahope you get it figured out. Keith

If it's one of the newer engines with injectors under the valve cover, that could be the source. Might also be an engine driven hydraulic pump. An oil sample test should reveal what the extra fluid is.

I hate to say it but I wouldn't discredit what that mechanic said to you about some body adding oil or some thing else to your engine. There are some really sick people out there these days. A reason to do this you ask??? Could be a mechanic that is jealous of another and wants to create a situation where there work will look bad -- could be a nut job hunter that is insulted that he cant hunt on your property . There could be any reason for this and just because you have never had this problem before dosent mean it wouldn't happen. Most construction equipment have lockable doors or some way to limit access to viral components for this very reason as they sit out doors in remote areas. I would change the oil (have it analysed) and devise a way to lock access to the engine compartment. Hope you luck improves -- have a happy new year.

Whizkid and others, imagine an engine "making oil"!! Why we would all be in the oil business, this country would never import another barrel of oil. When my diesel tractor started "making oil" it was time for the injection pump to be overhauled so fuel was not filling up the crankcase. gobble

An engine that actually made oil would go right along with the perceptual motion machines and or the free energy devices that are prevalent on youtube -- he needs to do a analyses of the crankcase oil to see what it is being contaminated with. I am really surprised that given the history of the story told here that the shop hasent already done this --- perhaps they are waiting for the results to come back?

Don't know what the issue could be but those 2 machines have completely different engines.
323D has JD E4024HT 146.5 cu in turbo charged engine
323E has Yanmar 4THV98CT 203 cu in turbo charged engine

Stand practice for turbo engines is to idle it for 2 minutes before shutting it down, allows the turbo to cool down to prevent cooking the oil when the flow stops.

(quoted from post at 17:21:05 12/26/19) Whizkid and others, imagine an engine "making oil"!! Why we would all be in the oil business, this country would never import another barrel of oil. When my diesel tractor started "making oil" it was time for the injection pump to be overhauled so fuel was not filling up the crankcase. gobble

Click to expand...

Apparently that colloquialism is not common where he's from.