Bought this machine last year and used it for about 3 months before the winter season set in. Needed to do a small job for my son in law yesterday, so I checked all the fluids and everything was full except it was down a few quarts of oil. Topped off the oil and she started right up. Half way through the light trenching job I had to do I noticed a puddle of fluid on the ground. Turns out I have an oil leak on the right hand side of the engine. It is a pretty good leak. I crawled underneath the machine and it looks like it is high on the engine, like maybe the valve cover, but I could not really see where it was coming from. It puzzles me because when I ran it last year, no leak at all. I guess I will have to remove the side cover to try to see where it is coming from. Was wondering what could be leaking on that side of the engine. Is this a common thing with this series JD diesel engine? Would over filling it cause it to leak? I just hope it's not something serious. Appreciate any members thoughts on this. Thanks
It could be the head gasket, but why guess? it should be pretty easy to see where it's coming from.
Yeah, I think once I remove the side cover I should be able to see where it's leaking. The machine has a new long block in it. A municipality bought it new and had an issue with water in the oil so they bought a new complete engine and installed it. When I bought it had about 2000 hours on the new engine so I'm hoping it's not a head gasket, but I guess you never know. Thanks for the reply Delmer.
My friend works logging and he said that allot of the tree skidders use that same John Deere engine and he said they are known for oil cooler leaks. The cooler leaks oil externally or it leaks internally and dumps antifreeze in the oil. Have not had a chance to check it out yet. The batteries were junk so I bought 2 new batteries for it. Was going to install them today, but brutally hot here in RI today.