Thank you everyone for making this site my go to when searching for problems. I've never had to post because I always find the answers on here but this is a specific circumstance for which I would like to know what you would do. I just got a 2003 753 bobcat with the kubota motor with 6000 hrs. My buddy owned this thing since 2500 hrs and I worked for him. He never did ANY maintenance ...ever. I tried to push the importance but it seemed like that drove him in the opposite direction. I would be the field mechanic to make repairs on the job just so we could get done. The only time the oil was changed was when the head cracked and injectors fried from it being overheated hundreds of times in a 3 month period. The cracked exhaust poured black smoke into the engine bay till the air filter, caked with soot, would snuff the machine out. we threw a new head on, injectors, exhaust, radiator, alternator 2 years ago and continued to work it hard. That brings us to this year when he got out of the business and on our last job I took the machine instead of pay for 5 days of work (1800$) to use around my 3 acres. Changed engine oil, all filters, drive belt, tensioner. machine suffers blowby from crankcase that I routed out the back. I plan to replace the motor. Hydraulics worried me because they were never touched so I took it down today to change the chaincase oil and hydro oil. It looked alot better than I expected. chaincase was 1.5" low but not milky at all. The case drain filters were clean except 8 shards of metal. I'd describe them as razor sharp 1/8"x1/8. One filter had 7 and the other had 1. Oil was clean with no other metal flake present. That's where I'm at. sorry for the long post
Any pictures? Was it steel or aluminum? It’s going to be hard to identify exactly where the pieces came from. They may even be from some attachment. I would suggest to take a oil sample for analysis. *since you just changed your hydraulic oil, you will likely have to run it for at least 10hrs before a meaningful oil sample can be taken. Oil sample kit usually has instructions regarding this* IMHO I wouldn’t worry about it though. You got the machine for a good price, and probably aren’t going to put many hours on it at your acreage.
Welcome to HEF,Andrew !
I'd run it, like Gary said.
Hydraulics guy at work said he'd run it too. Hydraulics work fine and not sure when they the shavings appeared since the filters haven't been changed in 3500 hrs. I could check them in another 100 hrs just to be sure
Those pieces look almost like drilling swarf from a manufacturing process. I think I'd be tempted to run it too, and take another look inside the filters in a couple of hundred hours or so.
Heres a pic of the filters
Send it.
I found this reamer under the motor with the most shavings buried in the grease-mud. Think they were from a repair? Is there any reason to use a 15/64 bit on the motor or hydraulics?
Are those sintered copper type of filters? I don't get what I'm seeing in the photo. The tool you found looks like an old style EZ out to me.
Yeah, i think the filters are bronze or copper but thick like a porous stone. They sit inside a cartridge you can screw apart. New ones look slightly brighter but bearly.
Yep, that's a straight flute ez-out. Good chance that drill swarf came from somebody drilling out a broken bolt or hydraulic fitting. I'd quit worrying about it and run it. Those sintered bronze filters are made to be washed out and reused.