Jeffersonville, OH | tedbear - 3/27/2026 11:19
We had our trusty Deere 8310 overhauled over Winter. It has been extremely reliable through the years but an overhaul was needed. It was done by a local farm repair shop which I trust.
After the overhaul they ran it for a couple of house on a Dyno. Everything checked out fine. I drove the tractor back home and everything seems in order.
They mentioned that it would be best to put it under a good load at first to help "seat the rings". I have heard this before and it makes sense to develop heat to help with the seating process.
Unfortunately, we don't have a good way to put it under a heavy load. It's main tasks involve working with manure either with a large spreader for cattle manure or a large Nuhn for hog manure. The Nuhn creates a fair load since it is in the ground. The spreader not so much. A good share of the time, the tractor would be idling while being filled. There would be a fair load while transporting to/from the field.
I have since heard of a process to help seat the rings. The process as I understand it is to get the tractor warmed up and then drive around on some less travelled gravel roads. This would be without any implement. I believe the idea is to run the tractor at fast idle down the road and then purposely throttle way back. The throttling back is supposed to help seat the rings. This is repeated several times.
This would be much easier than purposely attempting to create some type of load just to help seat the rings.
Thoughts: Worthwhile? Harmful? Unnecessary? Foolish? Any other ideas?
What you're suggesting is my idea of the 2nd worst thing you can do other than idle the tractor.
If you're worried about it, load the Nuhn full of something, water or manure, and just go pull it around in the ground if you don't want to apply manure.
Need to actually work it, not just run it at high idle down the road, then back off the throttle and snap back to wide open...in my opinion.
I always dyno for a couple hours, but then my best recommendation is to co work ground, disc, chisel, something that will pull it pretty decent.
Chris |
Breaking in tractor engine after overhaul?
