B7610 power loss

goodlookinman · Dec 23, 2008

I have a B7610 that's just short of three years old and has about 225 hours on it. Over the past few months I've "sensed" that the tractor does not have as much power as it used to have. For instance, to come up my rather steep driveway with a bucket full of material used to require that I set the engine rpms at about 1,800. Now, unless I've got the throttle set to 2,000 or above the engine begins to bog down and the exhaust color becomes quite dark. Just driving the tractor around unloaded now requires that the throttle be set to 1,500 rpm where it used to do fine at 1,200.

I thought that I might just have a dirty air filter so I changed that and couldn't notice any improvement.

Is this normal/typical? Do diesel engines "lose" power as they age?

As my warranty is about to expire I'm thinking of taking the tractor back to the dealer for a checkup but don't want to haul it 50 miles for nothing.

Has anyone else had this kind of experience?

Thanks

B2400 · Dec 23, 2008

Have you ever changed the fuel filter? That sounds like a possibility to me. As per losing power with age, It's possible, but age on a diesel is many years or thousands of hours if taken care of at all. Change the fuel filter, they are cheap and should be changed every year anyway.

kolmstead · Dec 23, 2008

I'd be checking/changing the air filter. The dark exhaust indicates that the engine is getting plenty of fuel, but maybe not enough air. Goodlookin, have you been doing a lot of dusty work?

-Karl

johan3400 · Dec 23, 2008

It does appear you are getting enough fuel, but has the fuel quality gone down. I think your tractor should behave as it always has. You said you changed the air cleaner and that leaves me to think fuel. There is always the chance you got some poor fuel and it needs some injector attention. I would look at the fuel quality and then if all else fails haul it to the dealer. The tractor should continue to have good power for a long time.

peterc38 · Dec 23, 2008

kolmstead said:
I'd be checking/changing the air filter. The dark exhaust indicates that the engine is getting plenty of fuel, but maybe not enough air. Goodlookin, have you been doing a lot of dusty work?

-Karl

He said he changed the air filter.