Komatsu 220-6

[Jake Erickson]

Hello all,

I’ve read a bunch of past posts. I recently bought a 220-6 and they advertised it had low horsepower. When I got it home it seemed to work pretty well. Until about 1/2 hour then I notice a significant drop in power, changed filters, checked banjo bolt and screen. New fuel line. Even changed hydraulic oil and that seemed to hell the most, I ran it for 1 hour then and all of a sudden it did it again. Seems like once the oil gets to operating temp it does it. I’m out of ideas. Anyone got any advice. The function that seems to be the worst is the boom out. That’ll almost kill it. I can easily kill the machine if I don’t let it recover and regain rpm. Does it while tracking too, as well as boom, bucket controls. Dunick from Willmar owned it before me. 12,750 hours but well maintained, had a concrete breaker on it before too.
2000 komatsu
220lc-le-6

 

[John C.]

Have you checked for codes on the monitor panel?

 

[Jake Erickson]

How do you check for a code?

 

[John C.]

Watch the video.

Good Luck

 

[Jake Erickson]

Thanks. 101, 102, 303,227 are what I found

 

[Jake Erickson]

E303, the circuit of the rotary stroke control solenoid valve is broken. This confuses me and I don’t understand what it means.

227 engine speed sensor, I did unplug this once to see if it made a difference and plugged it back in.

the other two codes aren’t important. Looking for some bell on the 303 code. Thanks

 

[Jake Erickson]

E303, The rotary stroke control solenoid valve circuit is open.

This is what I meant

 

[John C.]

You have something odd with that E303 code. That coded is not listed in US marketed machines. I seem to recall it was on some of the gray market machines and was told it had to do with a factory installed auto grease system. It also could be for some attachment that Komatsu may have installed as well. The le in the model designation meant something but I don't recall what. If you go to the monitor mode and bring up code 10 and start the engine, it will give you the engine speed. That will tell you if the speed sensor is working or not.

If that is OK, I usually went to the hydraulic stuff. Check the hydraulic return filter and suction strainer for debris. You can check hydraulic pressures on the monitor in codes 11 for the front pump and 12 for the rear pump.

 

[Jake Erickson]

Thanks for the help. I still haven’t figured it out, it does have an old auto greaser on it but it’s not even being used. I can’t get it to get any codes now after resetting them. Pulled speed sensor out and it looked good. It definitely does it after getting up to operating temperature. I will check pump pressure next time I can run it. Where in the world is the return filter? Is it in the tank?

 

[John C.]

There are two covers on top of the hydraulic tank. The one with the fill cap is holding down the pump suction strainer. The bare plate with the four bolts is the hydraulic return filter. Make sure you crack the fill cap loose before you take the filter cover loose.

Somewhere in the video is shows pulling the filter and strainer on smaller machines. Machines are a bit different than yours but the process is the same.

 

[Jake Erickson]

Thanks!

 

[Jake Erickson]

I pulled the suction screen off & this is what I found. Seems like part of a hose? Screen wasn’t plugged up terribly like I was hoping.

 

[Roger Shuttlesworth]

Jake, I have the same or similar problem with a PC138 excavator and I am wondering how you finally fixed your problem! I started off thinking I had a fuel problem but my hydraulics act the same as you described right down to the ability to stall the unit doing very simple digging etc! I thought it might be low on hydraulic fluid as well and filled that! Changed five fuel filters and now I have bleed the injectors with no improvement! Do the komatsu units self prime? I am wondering if I have air in the fuel system that I am not bleeding! Any comments or thoughts are very much appreciated!

 

[LACHAU]

KOMATSU PC220-6LE and they advertised it had low horsepower. When I got it home it seemed to work pretty well. Until about 1/2 hour then I notice a significant drop in power, changed filters, checked banjo bolt and screen. New fuel line. Even changed hydraulic oil and that seemed to hell the most, I ran it for 1 hour then and all of a sudden it did it again. Seems like once the oil gets to operating temp it does it. I’m out of ideas. Anyone got any advice. The function that seems to be the worst is the boom out. That’ll almost kill it. I can easily kill the machine if I don’t let it recover and regain rpm. Does it while tracking too, as well as boom, bucket controls.

Thanks. Error codes: 101, 102, 303,227 are what I found

E303 means "SWING STROKE LIMIT SOLENOID VALVE DISCONNECTION".
it's an optional function, it's not related to engine overload symptoms.

 

[LACHAU]

E101 means "ABNORMAL DATA IN ERROR HISTORY"
E102 means "ERROR IN CLOCK DATA IS DISPLAYED".

They're not related to engine overload symptoms.

 

[LACHAU]

Only error code E217 can be related to motor overload. Please note that it is only one of many causes of engine overload.
The reason is that the damaged pf engine speed sensor will prevent the CPU from being able to output the control current to control the PC-EPC valve.

 

[LACHAU]

I suggest that first:
1/- Check the temperature of the engine, the temperature of the hydraulic oil, hydraulic pressure...
2/- Check all the things that can reduce engine power: blow-by pressure, compression pressure, exhaust gas color, air filter, turbocharger...

 

[Jake Erickson]

roger,

I actually just had a mechanic from General look at it today. Haven’t gotten the bill but he was here for 7-8 hours just trying to figure out what was wrong. He thinks it’s the main hydraulic pump. Thinks…. Very nice guy but I am not sure if he’s the expert on excavators in Fargo. He was on the phone a lot.

I did pick up a few things he did that you should try. So if you hold the joystick in the out position either side and it about kills it without doing anything else that somewhat narrows it down. Hydraulic pump or the valve stack i think.

One thing I would do is I pulled out the suction screen and checked that. It had some long wire looking things in it like brass, he said that was probably from the pump. There are also screens in the hoses coming into the pump rhey I didn’t know about. They were full of particles. So i would check those as well.

Does anyone know if these pumps can be rebuilt and if so how much? Any recommendations?

Jake, I have the same or similar problem with a PC138 excavator and I am wondering how you finally fixed your problem! I started off thinking I had a fuel problem but my hydraulics act the same as you described right down to the ability to stall the unit doing very simple digging etc! I thought it might be low on hydraulic fluid as well and filled that! Changed five fuel filters and now I have bleed the injectors with no improvement! Do the komatsu units self prime? I am wondering if I have air in the fuel system that I am not bleeding! Any comments or thoughts are very much appreciated!

 

[Jake Erickson]

does your machine smoke when it’s struggling?

Jake, I have the same or similar problem with a PC138 excavator and I am wondering how you finally fixed your problem! I started off thinking I had a fuel problem but my hydraulics act the same as you described right down to the ability to stall the unit doing very simple digging etc! I thought it might be low on hydraulic fluid as well and filled that! Changed five fuel filters and now I have bleed the injectors with no improvement! Do the komatsu units self prime? I am wondering if I have air in the fuel system that I am not bleeding! Any comments or thoughts are very much appreciated!

 

[Jake Erickson]

does your machine smoke when it’s struggling?

itll blow black smoke right before it dies