B3350 dpf issues

sheepfarmer said:

Drsii, have you been able to do a parked regen successfully?

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During the summer I completed one auto regen and one parked regen.

I throttled up to 2500 and continued to clear a field. The auto regen completed successfully in about 30 minutes.

After about 20-30 hours of further use the regen light lit up again. This time I parked. throttled to idle and pressed the regen light. The parked regen kicked in and over about a 30-45 minute period it would throttle up to max for about 5 minutes. then it would throttle down a bit and do the burn off where you get the smoke. It did that about 3-5 time until the light went off and what I assume completed successfully.

I should get my tractor back early next week and will report back any further issues. So far the dealer, who i spoke with this morning and who seems genuinely interested and dedicated to solving the issue has done the following.

- Ran diagnostics
- Applied software udpates from kubota
- Replaced the DPF thermostat

I'm told, but will believe it when I see the bill all has been done in-kind from kubota.

Interestingly, I just asked my local Kubota dealer about upgrading my B2650 to a B3350. I was wondering if the B3350's higher HP would offer better snow pushing performance for heavy (i.e., wet) snow. His response, after talking to his manager, surprised me. Net-net, they would not offer a B3350 as an alternative as they have had to return several B3350s due to regen problems in cold weather and Kubota has yet to offer a solution to the problem.

I've had my b3350 back for about 2 weeks now. We've had about 12 inches of snow since then. I was going to wait to report back after next regen cycle. The 3350SU has plenty of power but cannot recommend it at this time.

As I right this my tractor took a considerable time to start this morning, and is now beeping at me again...

Drsii, how are you activating the glow plugs and for how long? The reason I thought to ask is my dealer was out today to deliver some pallet forks for my B2650, and we were talking about its big sister, the 3350, and he mentioned someone was having trouble starting theirs, and they weren't using the glow plugs correctly. Actually not at all. I suspect starting it cold would plug up the dpf in a big hurry. I am sorry to hear you are having troubles.

The biggest reason the B3350 is having DPF issues ( Im told ) is they just don't produce the necessary heat to perform a proper regen every time. I know a Kioti CK3510 owner that blocked half his radiator with cardboard in the winter for more heat in his cab, and it actually benefited his DPF better. Faster regens and longer duration between them.

@sheepfarmer I turn the key to the glow plugs pop on and wait about 60 seconds before attempting to fire. It has been in the teens and maybe I should be waiting longer? I've always been told the longer you hold the glow plug the quicker they quicker they go out.

@madmax31 I am pretty 99% you're correct. The dealer is sending out a tech on Wednesday to install a cold weather kit.

Drsii, max is absolutely right that temperature can be an issue for these tractors.

The reason I brought up the glow plugs when you said it was hard to start is that the 2650/3350 have a different mechanism from my other tractor an L3560, for activating the glow plugs. For the 3560 you turn key one click clockwise and wait until the symbol on the dash goes off, but you may not even see it unless it is really cold. Then you push the key against a spring to activate the starter. The 2650 the first click clockwise only turns on panel lights and you have to turn the key against the spring to get a special glow plug light to come on. Then you start counting. 60 seconds is kind of long.

FWIW it occurred to me that a cryptic remark in the operator's manual:

"When ambient temperature is so low, or when working with such extraordinary use of electricity that the regeneration conditions are not satisfied, the regeneration indicator starts flashing. If the regeneration indicator turns on for a while and then starts flashing, keep on working and rev up the engine to the maximum rpm so that the regeneration indicator stops flashing and remains on".

might refer to the needs of the regeneration system, the reformer and its associated two "glow heaters", for electricity. Both the engine and this reformer gadget are providing hot gas to the doc and the dpf filter. If the gas is not hot enough, regeneration can't proceed. So the first solution, covering the radiator to heat up water coolant and subsequently the exhaust gas makes sense. But the second part of the equation, the gas from the reformer is dependent on ignition from the glow heaters, and the running of pumps and solenoids etc. I am wondering if all the lights and a cab heater were on, if it might be hard to get enough "electricity" for those glow heaters? And then regeneration would be extended or fail?

Anyone with practical experience with these tractors that can shed any light on this?

They work fine here. Sold several, never a complaint. Yet.

Thing is, the 3350 uses the old style mechanical injection. Normally with a DPF system, you'd see electronic injection, making it possible (and easier from an engineering standpoint) to inject fuel into the exhaust stream, which helps make the DOC and DPF work properly. Why was mechanical used? Good question! Probably cost savings if I had to guess. So with the mechanical injection, they had to come up with a way to get fuel into the exhaust stream. Along comes the reformer system; which is a joke, IMO. For that matter, a DPF on anything under 100hp is a joke-those smaller engines just don't have enough latent heat in the exhaust to effectively heat the DPF to make it work like it should. But the EPA doesn't care about us, the consumers, nor do they care about the manufacturers who have to deal with mad customers...all they care is about hugging those precious trees due to a select few people who are "louder" than everyone else.

As said, they seem to work ok here but I'm not familiar with cold temperature operation and how it affects the DPF. Seems like it would make sense to ceramic coat the exhaust manifold, turbine housing which would help retain some heat in the exhaust system-which could help. I don't know...not an engineer, just a lowly peon grease monkey who has to try to react to the government's stupid mandates.

I 100% agree with you, if you want something screwed up turn it over to the government.

What I don't get is why nobody is fighting back on the EPA? Even with the big trucks I operate, these new emission systems are going on ten years now, and they are still not reliable. Does that not tell you something? That after ten years they still can't make them work reliably?

I can see the manufacturers liking it from a parts and service revenue standpoint, but you would think the initial warranty costs would disturb them.

I wouldn't be surprised if the incoming administration puts the smack down on the EPA, to what extent who knows. The extreme left is up in arms about his cabinet picks so I take that as a good thing. I did read an article the other day in the wall st journal highlighting his pick that oversees the EPA, he feels very strongly that they are an executive branch not a legislative. It also mentioned they've had far too long of writing their own laws, they're only supposed to enforce them.

ItBmine said:

What I don't get is why nobody is fighting back on the EPA? Even with the big trucks I operate, these new emission systems are going on ten years now, and they are still not reliable. Does that not tell you something? That after ten years they still can't make them work reliably?

I can see the manufacturers liking it from a parts and service revenue standpoint, but you would think the initial warranty costs would disturb them.

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Trump voter here, hope he will get the EPA under control, I am for a clean environment, but they go from one extrem to other, no common sense.

Nothing wrong with clean air, but this emissions stuff is doing as much harm as good.

In similar fashion as the B3350, I have been hauling snow at night with my Detroit powered dump truck. Snow is light and hauls are short. It can't work hard and hot enough.

So every night I have to do a parked regen. According to my dash computer, each regen burns 4.3 to 4.7 gallons of fuel. And that is to sit there doing nothing for 30 minutes.
How did that just help the environment??

I'm Canadian.....but if I could have.....I voted Trump too, LOL. I hope he takes over Canada too, LOL.

100% agree with you, leave it to the government to screw up things

Build a delete pipe once the warranty runs out or build one now just do not take it in with the pipe on it
There's ways around this EPA nonsense
Those idiots are doing more harm than good

Southernson said:

Build a delete pipe once the warranty runs out or build one now just do not take it in with the pipe on it
There's ways around this EPA nonsense
Those idiots are doing more harm than good

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Is it just that simple to just install a delete pipe in place of a DPF ??? Trump voter here

Update time.

TLR: After going back to the dealer ship for 3 more weeks. Kubota reps flying out to double check updates. Tractor still has DPF issues.

The dealership I purchased from is Honda Kubota of issaquah. The head mechanic there has been great. I think genuinely wants to solve this problem but at this point I doubt there is much he can do.

My last post was about getting the tractor back in mid Jan 2017 only to have run the tractor for about an hour before getting the dpf light and engine service beep.

They sent a tech out with a cold weather kit and a few exterior add ons for cold weather and snow removal. He wasn't able to reset the computer so they had to pick the tractor up.

About 3 weeks later I received the tractor back. I'm short on details of all that was done and hoping to come back and update this thread. One bit of information I was told was that Kubota reps had come out to look at this tractor and ensure all the upgrades/updates had been performed correctly.

Everything seemed to be working fine but life has been busy and very little tractor work has been needed. These last two weekends I was ready to put the tractor to the test.

1 Hr. I cleaned out the horse stalls.
1.5 Hr I cleaned up our garden area and pulled out some fencing.
2.5 Hr I started building a rock fence and did some minor leveling and excavation to fill in an old ditch.

Boom. DPF light on. I was able to do a total of 5hrs of work before going into a regen cycle. I parked it to let it run but only had about 2 bars of fuel left. I let it run for about 35 minutes but it was kicking off. At 1 bar of fuel I shut it down until I can get into town.

Pretty much done with this tractor at this point.

Have they worked the bugs out yet on the new models ? I was talking to my dealer and he said that if it were him, unless you really need the HP, to stick with the B2650. But that they had corrected all the issues and he wasn't having DPF problems with his newer 3350 rigs ???

Drsii, if it was warmed up since you were using it when the light came on, why did you park it? Did it fail the auto regen sequence first?