I prefer the 6 cylinder engines of Deeres over the small 4 cylinder Isuzu's in the Hitachis. The Isuzu's supposedly burn less fuel than the Deeres, but the deere engines 'feel' more powerful, sound nicer, and Deeres just seem to move through dirt a little faster and more forcefully. Plus, a big engine would probably outlast a smaller engine producing the same power (though Isuzu fans often say the opposite - I've never seen a bad Isuzu engine myself. Most of them seem to go 16k+ hours without a rebuild if you aren't doing much cold weather starting.)
I can also confirm that the pumps and cooling setups in Deeres (120-350) are different than those in Hitachis, probably due in part to the bigger engines using up more space, and John Deere's engineers' preferences.
I have a Deere 200LC with rebuilt engine and new pumps and so far I'm pretty pleased with it for the most part. It's very smooth and powerful, it'll definitely outdig a CAT 320BL (it's main competitor from its time). Maintenance is a bit of a headache though due to the idiotic machine layout. Here's an example
<slightly off topic rant>
Oil change on a CAT 320BL (cat's equivalent of 200LC at the time):
1. Place bucket under machine.
2. Open hood but undoing 2 latches.
3. Open oil drain valve.
4. Unscrew and replace the conveniently located and easily accessible oil filters right in front of you.
5. Close oil drain valve and fill in new oil.
6. Close and latch hood.
Easy, that's it.
Oil Change on my Deere:
1. Crawl under machine and remove 6 bolts to remove bottom access cover.
2. Reach into the abyssal hole above you and remove drain plug, and then get your entire arm covered in oil because you had to reach in there.
3. Quickly get out of the way and put bucket where you were sitting to minimize oil spill on floor.
4. Clean your arm.
5. Reach way into the abyssal hole under machine and feel oil filter at the limit of your reach. Put a big vise-grip on the filter.
6. Open hood by undoing 2 latches.
7. Fetch a crowbar and try to rotate filter from above by pushing on the vise grip located in the middle of the machine.
8. Try unscrewing filter. If unsuccessful, reposition vise-grip.
9. Repeat steps 7-8 as necessary.
10. Struggle to put in new filter in abyssal hole and get filter gasket covered in caked-on mud.
11. Clean and re-grease new filter gasket and keep on trying till you get the filter on while it's clean.
12. Replace oil drain plug.
13. Try to put the bolts for the bottom access cover back on using your hands while supporting the cover with your feet.
14. Climb back on top of the machine to fill the new oil. Fill the oil.
15. Close and latch hood.
My first oil change on that machine really pissed me off.
At least they've partly fixed the problem on the new D series machines by putting the oil filter in a more accessible location (the C series are just as bad as mine).
</slightly off topic rant>
