'95 John Deere 425, 2020 hrs, under valve cover.

[mrsilv04]

Had the "opportunity" to replace the valve cover gaskets on a 1995 John Deere 425 AWS, with 2020 hours on it.

Engine is a liquid cooled Kawasaki 20 hp v-twin. Sees oil changes annually, which is every 125 hours. John Deere specifies changes on a 200 hour interval (or yearly) on this model.

I use Rotella T 10w-30 in it, with either a Puro Classic or Napa ProSelect filter.

With over 2000 hours on the clock, I'm quite pleased with this $10 per gallon oil, and don't really see any reason to do anything different at this point.

This oil has about 20 hours on it, and was changed last November.

 

[hardcore302]

looks great!

 

[The motor guy]

Man what a POS all sludged up and everything!. Just kidding. That looks clean. Makes me wonder why I spend the money to run amsoil on my equipment.

 

[Chris Meutsch]

Wipe it off with a napkin and eat off it.

 

[RC46_Rider]

Thanks for the pictures and post !! Nice to know.

I run Rotella T 10W-30 in my Civic, a Kohler V-Twin lawn tractor and a Honda Shadow bike. Zero signs of any kind of premature wear in any of them. The Rotella family is just good stuff.......

I can't prove it, but I suspect the viscosity of the Rotella T 10W-30 runs towards the upper end of the viscosity range for a 30 Wt.

 

[Texan4Life]

Looks great!

 

[boraticus]

Can't agree more with you mrsilv04!

I've been using various forms of Shell conventional oil for decades in tons of equipment with no ill effect and excellent performance. I've never been sucked into buying high cost designer oils for anything I operate.

With over 2000 hrs. on that engine and the excellent condition it appears to be in, you've proved the point that it's not necessary to dump wads of money for oil!

 

[mrsilv04]

I know that I only have a sample of one here, but I think that I've found good enough reason to start using Rotella T5 10w-30 synthetic blend (silver bottle) in all of the cars and trucks that I service that specify 10w-30, as opposed to something in the SOPUS family that costs up to 50% more, such as Platinum.

I change using the OLM as a guide anyway, so why not?

I stocked up on T5 10w-30 when W-M had it for $11.50 a gallon. After seeing under the valve cover on this engine, I'm now extremely pleased that I did.

 

[JTK]

Love it! The 425's are beasts.

Joel

 

[Johnny]

What has this model and engine been replaced with? It appears JD no longer makes a 425 and they no longer offer the Kawasaki water cooled engine.

 

[mrsilv04]

Johnny-

I'd say that its current replacement is the X724. The X724 is an AWS unit with the Kawasaki liquid cooled twin.

And surprisingly, the list price on the X724 is about the same as it was for my 425 AWS. However, I bought my 425 AWS when it was a year old, but with zero hours, and paid thousands less than list.

This 425 is a full garden tractor. It has the front hydraulics, four wheel steer, cruise control, tilt wheel, and a driveshaft driven mower deck.

There's an X534 all wheel steer, but it is a lighter duty unit, and it has an air cooled Kawasaki v-twin.

 

[Slick17601]

The X540 also is water cooled.

 

[mrsilv04]

Originally Posted By: Slick17601
The X540 also is water cooled.


But it isn't an all wheel steer model.

 

[ARB1977]

Nice pictures. Keep it up.

 

[quietriot]

Originally Posted By: JTK
Love it! The 425's are beasts.

Joel

Glad the owner now knowes its a beast!! Im not sure what posting pics of a mower like that proves? But it makes me laugh!lol

 

[quietriot]

heck, its a beast!!! i hope someone else knows its beast hood? it makes alot of sense posting pics of the the mower?

 

[El_Schaf]

Troll?

 

[boraticus]

Originally Posted By: quietriot
heck, its a beast!!! i hope someone else knows its beast hood? it makes alot of sense posting pics of the the mower?


What exactly is the above supposed to mean?

 

[Texan4Life]

Originally Posted By: El_Schaf
Troll?


I know right.. in my thread about the mouse nest I found under the blower cover I almost added:

"@quietriot: I bet it was one BEAST of a mouse that built that"

But it's not polite to feed to trolls, so I didn't.

 

[cronk]

Looks like your choice of oil and oc intervals are working great for you. Of course it helps when you have a quality machine with a very durable engine!