Little help: International 234 Hydro. Where to start?

[mission16]

So my neighbor has given me a IH 234 Hydro with 822 hours on the clock. It looks surprisingly good for being stored outside for the last 9 years.
So why is he giving it to me?
Well, it seems that 2 summers ago, another neighbor borrowed it to bush hog. When he was done, said neighbor parked it and didn't say anything about any issue. But NEXT summer, same neighbor asked to use a different tractor to bush hog. Hmm. In Vegas, I think that is called a "tell".
Anyhow, the neighbor giving it away thinks (don't know why) it's the head gasket. He doesn't want to fiddle with it, just wants it out of the yard.

So, while I'm a handy guy and can read a shop manual, I've never worked on diesels and escpecially that cute little guy in that tractor. I believe I want to invest in an I&T manual, right? But before I even buy that book, what should I be looking for to determine what the issue might be and whether this is something I want to even tackle or just part out?

Any and all info, thoughts, comments and recommendations will be greatly valued!

Thanks to all.

 

[topbuilder]

Welcome to the site.
I see you are not familiar with diesels... You are not giving us much to go on. What have you looked at/done so far?

 

[mission16]

Well, I opened the hood...

Pretty much just looked it over visually: tires all up, no leaks noted, nothing missing that I could see. Come June 8, I'm going to tow it over to my garage. My wife will be out of town for 6 weeks so I have that time to do it what I am going to do to it.

And that is why I am here now. Just trying to formulate a plan of sorts BEFORE putting wrench on it. So a couple of questions then:
-neighbor thinks head gasket: what's my quick check for that?
-I&T manuals don't have a lot of troubleshooting, IIRC. Should I rustle up an operators manual too?

 

[aircommuter]

Have you tried to start it?

 

[Ed of all trades]

Have you tried to start it?

That would be my second step, the first would be to check the fluid levels and condition. Ed

 

[mission16]

First thing I have to do is tow it from neighbors to my garage. It's a Hydro, so is there a bypass I need to use to tow safely?

 

[mission16]

Well, she's in the garage now. Pulled the oil dipstick out and got a gush of coolant. That's probably not good, I suppose.

 

[topbuilder]

Yep. Time to decide to you are willing to throw money at it. Could just be a head gasket, could be worse. Might check and see if there is a good mobile tractor mechanic in tour area willing to do a tear down and evaluate for you.

 

[art]

Often bush hogging the grilles fill up, they overheat and destroy the engine,

 

[coolreinfarm]

It will be interesting to read what you find out, I have the same tractor with almost 1800 hrs runs like a champ. It starts at 0 deg. without heating the block. My wife runs it more than I do, only problem it's hard to shift in high range, I hope it's only a head gasket. The tractor is a Misubishi mt180, some parts available online.