Air in clear fuel bowl

[Cal270]

I’m seeing a 1/4” of air in the fuel bowl when the engine has been running on this 2014 4060 hstc. The red ring is on the bottom of the bowl so not a water issue.
Had this same issue in early fall and dealer tech came out and drained it and cleaned, said it wasn’t dirty.
Tractor has 463hours. Fuel filter was replaced 70 hours ago.
Will probably have a complete service done this summer.
Did buy it new.

Any reason for concern on air in top of bowl?

Tractor runs great. Plowing snow today.

Thanks
Mark

 

[85Hokie]

Air in the fuel bowl - sounds as if air is getting by the O ring in the fuel bowl.
It is possible to crack the seal of the fuel bowl and allow the air to bleed out?

On the old 8N Fords - the gravity feed bowl would get air in it, had to loosen the seal and allow gas to fill bowl as bowl was tightened. Not sure if this would apply in your situation.

 

[sheepfarmer]

Hi Cal, how is winter treating you? I don't have a straight answer for your question, but first guess is that it is sucking air in somewhere. There is not much between the water separator and the fuel tank, fuel is sucked through the water separator by an electrical pump. Probably the o ring seal at the water separator is the culprit but???

To start with, I spent some time trying to figure out how the fuel system works in these 60 series tractors, and it is really something. This thread has a a bunch of diagrams that might help..


http://www.orangetractortalks.com/forums/showthread.php?t=35336

If I find anything in the wsm I'll add later.

 

[sheepfarmer]

Went through wsm and couldn't find anything specific, but it makes it clear that air shouldn't be there. Ordinarily after changing the fuel filter or emptying the water separator you perform the air bleeding procedure. See manual or my thread. This time of year one hesitates to do anything if it is running. You will have to try to decide if the amount of air hampers the screen from doing its job of filtering out crud and of encouraging water to settle to the bottom.

Bleeding has always gone easily on my 3560, but at some point you or your dealer should figure out where the leak is. I am leery of messing with fuel system downstream of the fuel filter because of the risk of getting something into the high pressure pump.

Let us know what else you find out.

 

[Cal270]

Thanks Sheepfarmer

O ring could be it.

My mechanical ability is oil changes and air filters...

Tractor is running fine.
My concern is can it effect the fuel injection system.
That being can the air pass to and thru the fuel filter?

Maybe a forum Kubota mechanic will offer advice.

Yep, finally have snow in MidMi, but temp is turning warm this week for a few days.

Thanks

 

[sheepfarmer]

The design of the flow system works hard to keep air from getting past the fuel filter. There is the design of the reserve tank, a small rectangular block that is higher than the fuel filter and water separator. It has one line coming out the top that goes directly to the fuel tank, so air coming into it from the water separator from a lower down hose would be shunted back to the fuel tank. During bleeding air in the fuel filter also goes back that way.