Oil & Fuel Cleaning fuel tank

eray1066 · Sep 30, 2015

Last year after 24 years our Kubota L4150 with about 2800 hours started to die occasionally from fuel starvation. I put it down to running the tank too low. This year it got worse. I had tried to look in the tank to no avail. I used a long grabber blindly with no effect. We could blow back from the fuel filter through the priming tube and get fuel flow. But soon it would quit again. My brother and I removed the tank and were able to get small blobs of nasty black gunk to come out the outlet by shaking diesel and then later gas in the tank and letting it drain. We thought we had it made when it ran free and clear. Not so fast. It quit after another hour. There is a two cup sized cylindrical sump at the bottom of the tank to keep about a half quart of fuel near the outlet if you might be working on a sloped area with a nearly empty tank. We figured this must be full of gunk. But the Kubota engineers put the fuel gauge on the other end of the tank and provided no hole to view and service the sump. I inquired about a new tank from our dealer. It was $600 but discontinued and I also came up dry looking on the internet at the usual places (PA etc) So I used a hole saw to cut an access later sealing it with a pipe flange and plug from Plumbing supply. Inside the tank was a piece of white plastic about two inches by nine inches. Also in the sump was quite a bit of glop and a few pieces of crud all of which I was able to pluck out with a flexible grabber. I removed the few metal filings from the drilling of the large hole and the four bolt holes for the captured nuts. I suspect the plastic was the culprit and found its way there from the end of a fuel can spout. Fortunately the sediment bowl and the fuel filter do a great job protecting the expensive pumps and injectors. I have replaced the injectors but both the lift pump and injector pump are original and the machine runs great. Since we have different farm workers fueling and sometimes things get frantic, the big lesson is to make clean fueling easier. I am going to rig a 50 gallon fuel tank with a filtered pump and outlaw the use of plastic jugs. I am a bit worried that Kubota had no tanks at any price for this tractor. What other key parts are they not stocking?

MHarryE · Oct 1, 2015

A fuel tank is an unusual service item. If after a given number of years they have no service parts movement, they are likely to discontinue. Even companies like Deere have a policy although you can still get wear parts for their equipment 75 years old. You apparently had no problem getting injectors - it's items like that I would be concerned about. Fuel tanks and the like for older machines - that's when you look to the salvage yards.