John Deere smoking at start up

bh3zfc · Sep 4, 2012

purchased a JD 5045E and at start up some of the time it smokes alot and you can smell diesel strong, any encountered this before? Dealer stated they alll do it.

Also can someone tell me what break in oil changes and filter changes they would recommend for a new tractor.
And would they use the JD oil as recommended by the dealer?

BlackRaptor · Sep 4, 2012

They normally smoke when cold it's the way of the diesel. you should have seen my 2520 smoke when it was -25F outside on a cold start boy did she run rich on start up.

When i do my break in oil change i just switch to Shell Rotella T 15W 40. It's what i've used in the big 8400 and the 4430 and it's always treated me well.
I'm debating on running Full synthetic on this new tractor but undecided. But Rotella is the only thing I will run in my diesel engines.

greg_g · Sep 5, 2012

My owner manual specifies (a) John Deere Plus-50 or (b) Torq-Gard Supreme. But apparently this doesn't mean much to the dealers. At my 100 hour service, the invoice indicates they put in "part number 1540Q" which is actually Pennzoil Marine 15W40 Heavy Duty. So I don't see any problem with you stickin' to conventional Rotella. I've always maintained that - if an engine didn't come with synthetic when new - that you should permit sufficient time for break in before switching to synthetic. As such, I'm going synthetic blend at the next oil change, then full synthetic after that.

//greg//

TripleR · Sep 5, 2012

All of our diesels smoke to some extent on start up; nature of the beast. Another member posted something on You Tube, to see if his was normal; don't know if that is an option for you.

megaboz · Sep 5, 2012

I believe the owners manual will probably state 50 hours, probably best to follow the JD guidelines.

This is pretty much a topic that has been discussed many times before. There has been speculation that JD has put in break-in oil and such in their engines and that you should wait to the 50 hour mark.

I highly doubt there is break-in oil in the engines unless they don't drain them after testing that they run at the factory. And if the latter is true, I would change it as soon as I got it home (if I had it to do all over again). That all being said I changed mine at 50 hours following the manual specifications.

As for running JD oil, it also has been speculated that they wouldn't sell a bad oil. Truth be known, their oil is an adequate oil (9 times out of 10, you will sail through the warranty period without issue and probably even years afterwards.)

There is most definitely better oils out there. Do you need them? Probably not in normal/most conditions. It really just depends on how the equipment is treated by you and the other factors that are out of your control (temperature , humidity, and other forces you can not control.)

catdozer · Sep 5, 2012

The smoke is just unburnt fuel, if you think about it, the motor is cold and cannot burn all the fuel during combustion. So the fuel exits through the exhaust. Once the pistons are warm their is more heat distribution.