Mahindra 4035 starts and runs good, but after about 15 minutes, it will start sputtering, get worse, and then die.
- Thread starter Mopedal
- Start date
Welcome to the forum.
When it starts to sputter then die, does it idle OK or even at idle it dies?
What's the color of the exhaust smoke when running and when it sputters/dies?
Something stupid but sometimes happens - when it starts to sputter, open the fuel tank cap. If the cap vent is clogged, you can get this situation.
Does your tractor have more than 1 fuel filter?
Have you looked inside the fuel tank for debris?
When it starts to sputter then die, does it idle OK or even at idle it dies?
What's the color of the exhaust smoke when running and when it sputters/dies?
Something stupid but sometimes happens - when it starts to sputter, open the fuel tank cap. If the cap vent is clogged, you can get this situation.
Does your tractor have more than 1 fuel filter?
Have you looked inside the fuel tank for debris?
Thanks for your reply. When it starts sputtering, it starts at a high RPM and if you reduce the throttle, it will flatten out and run right for a few seconds and if you take it down to idle, it will run good for another few seconds, but then it will start missing and die. You can try to crank it back up and it won’t even hit. You must let it get cold before it will start up again and it goes through the same procedure.
The smoke looks light instead of dark like fuel smoke.
It only has one fuel filter, that I know of.
I haven’t looked in the tank for debris, but I did cut the old filter open and found very little trash.
In case you’re wondering, it has 500 hours on it.
I started it up and let it run until it started missing. I took off the fuel cap and it made no difference. But, I thought about pushing the primer for the fuel pump multiple times and quit missing or sputtering then and about a minute it would start sputtering again. That tells me that there’s a restriction in the fuel line or tank. Do you think I’m thinking correctly?
The smoke looks light instead of dark like fuel smoke.
It only has one fuel filter, that I know of.
I haven’t looked in the tank for debris, but I did cut the old filter open and found very little trash.
In case you’re wondering, it has 500 hours on it.
I started it up and let it run until it started missing. I took off the fuel cap and it made no difference. But, I thought about pushing the primer for the fuel pump multiple times and quit missing or sputtering then and about a minute it would start sputtering again. That tells me that there’s a restriction in the fuel line or tank. Do you think I’m thinking correctly?
Not necessarily. What you described is indeed a common symptom these injection pumps can (and will) exhibit under certain conditions of fuel starvation. Except for one thing. The fifteen minutes. Fuel restrictions don't come and go every fifteen minutes.
Having seen this condition (and frequency) a number of times, it's most often been a timing issue. Unlike most other engines, Mahindra uses a timer to control the cold start advance on the VE series Bosch injection pumps. No matter what the ambient or engine coolant temperature the timer turns on every time you start the engine. It runs for approximately twenty minutes then shuts off. When it's on, it supplies battery voltage to a shut off solenoid on the side of the pump. The one that's out in the open and easy to reach. There's another one on top of the pump up at the front behind the fuel lines that actually shuts the pump off.
You need to do a little experimenting. Next time you use the tractor (for more than twenty minutes) pay attention to the amount of time when the sputter starts. Stop and kill the motor. Wait a few seconds, start it back up and go back to work. Is the sputter gone and the engine runs right? Continue on for another twenty minutes and see what happens. If I'm right you will see the pattern repeat. If that's the case, then come back and we can discuss options to correct it.
Having seen this condition (and frequency) a number of times, it's most often been a timing issue. Unlike most other engines, Mahindra uses a timer to control the cold start advance on the VE series Bosch injection pumps. No matter what the ambient or engine coolant temperature the timer turns on every time you start the engine. It runs for approximately twenty minutes then shuts off. When it's on, it supplies battery voltage to a shut off solenoid on the side of the pump. The one that's out in the open and easy to reach. There's another one on top of the pump up at the front behind the fuel lines that actually shuts the pump off.
You need to do a little experimenting. Next time you use the tractor (for more than twenty minutes) pay attention to the amount of time when the sputter starts. Stop and kill the motor. Wait a few seconds, start it back up and go back to work. Is the sputter gone and the engine runs right? Continue on for another twenty minutes and see what happens. If I'm right you will see the pattern repeat. If that's the case, then come back and we can discuss options to correct it.
I started it up and let it run at about 1500 RPM and I drove it around and I worked the lift and drove it around and work the lift and in 10 minutes 46 seconds it started sputtering so I cut it off. Let it set for a few seconds and on the third try it started back up. Raised the RPM back up to 1500 RPM and within a minute it started sputtering again. I cut it off. Let it set a few seconds to a minute and finally got it started again after about five tries and as soon as I started increasing the RPM, it started sputtering and I shut it down. I took the inlet line off the filter and blew 30 pounds of air pressure through it and had no problem hearing it out the filler cap. Primed the filler and restarted. (It sat for about 3 hrs before I restarted). It started the cycle over again. Can you guys think of any thing else I might try? I appreciate all your help!
Okay, I think we can rule out the timing for now and get back to fuel restriction. Your tractor will be particularly vulnerable to that due to where they put the fuel tank. One thing I learned early on is to replace the el cheapo fuel lines Mahindra uses. Simply cut through the crimp sleeves and pull the hose and sleeve off, toss it in the garbage. Replace the hoses with standard rubber fuel hose and #4 worm type hose clamps. Do this on ALL suction lines. While you're working on fuel hoses, also pick up a standard duty low pressure electric fuel pump. I've done this more times than I can count. Find a place to mount the pump so the inlet goes to the current tank outlet. Pressure side of the pump goes into the line that came from the tank. That pulls a constant supply and pumps it into the system keeping everything charged and under a few PSI of pressure so air leaks simply can't happen. You can just hook it up with jumper wires to start with to prove the point, you can wire it correctly after you decide one way or the other. For the most part Mahindra doesn't use a lift pump. They rely on making the injection pump pull fuel from the tank (often uphill) through filters and then into the pump. Bad idea. There's still questions about the integrity of the fuel supply outlet in the tank, so you might want to start out by dropping the electric pump suction line down into the fuel tank filler neck and doing the experimenting. Tie a couple bolts on the end of the hose to keep it near the bottom of the tank.