Fair play to yer Jam, you certainly aren't scared to get stuck in with the spanners!
If I recall they all used to go bottom end, but they all ended up being sorted by Finnings so we never got the actual story just a loan machine whilst they were fixed.
The one that blew on me was a classic, I was putting in long lengths of land drain in a huge arable field as part of a restoration job.
Nobody would touch it with a trencher as it was all sand and gravel, so I got the job with a 312BL and Draining Bucket.
I used ranging rods to line myself up and used to slew around and eye myself in each pull.
Without any warning, I slewed around 180 degrees and moved the machine and then began to slew back to the trench. On the return I began to see the tracks were black and dripping with oil, and when I caught a view of the trench it was completely blasted with black oil and all the surrounding grass also!
Obviously I grabbed the key, but she had gone! Sump completely empty in the time it took to slew half way around.
I hate to admit it, but we had a brew and then threw a load more oil in it and tracked it out of the field and onto the low loader to Finnings!
It is hard to say if you should start doing a minor recon, as you will perhaps know what the machine owes you and how much longer you may keep it.
The one thing I will say with utmost confidence is that if you can get into a 312c sooner rather than later you will not regret it.