L3130 Small Radiator Leak.

[smittyd3]

Hi,
I was pushing up some brush and hedge when a large piece of brush made its way up the inside of the right front tire, it bent the engine side cover, cracked the shroud and caused a small leak at the bottom of the radiator. The leak is very minute, say a drop every 20 seconds.

Has anyone one ever put Bars Leak or another brand of stop leak in their Kubota? I would like to go with stop leak, but I may need to pull the radiator and have it repaired.

Thanks,
Smitty

 

[Barnboy]

Just my opnion but i would never use the stop leak stuff in any of my radiators. It will just stick to the insides of the core and could cause you problems. It would be more expensive to remove the radiator but for a new tractor like yours I would find it time and money well spent.

 

[ccsial]

Just my opnion but i would never use the stop leak stuff in any of my radiators. It will just stick to the insides of the core and could cause you problems. It would be more expensive to remove the radiator but for a new tractor like yours I would find it time and money well spent.

Dittos

 

[smittyd3]

Yeah, you're right. I'll take it off and get it repaired.
I'm also going to get some shielding for the bottom side of the tractor to help prevent this or something worse from happening.

Thanks,
Smitty

 

[InlineDieselFan]

I hope they can fix it, I destroyed mine and the plastic shroud, I was able to clean up the rough spots on the fan blade.

The radiator was about $300, and the shroud about $50, then $40 in shipping.
I spent a day looking for after market stuff, but no luck.

steve

 

[Casey1]

I had the same thing happen to mine except worse. There are two knubs at the bottom of the radiator that sets in rubber ringed brackets. Both of mine had been pushed back hard enough to crack and leak all the fluid out in a few minutes. To my surprise the bottom and the top of the radiator is plastic. I took an ordinary soldering iron and melted the cracks back together pulling down extra plastic from the knub itself for extra fill. Maybe I was lucky but I had two horrendous leaks that I repaired that way. I have put on about 50 hrs since then with no problems. I would think that a tiny leak like yours would be an easy repair, that is if the leak is on the bottom plastic section.

 

[SPYDERLK]

Hi,
I was pushing up some brush and hedge when a large piece of brush made its way up the inside of the right front tire, it bent the engine side cover, cracked the shroud and caused a small leak at the bottom of the radiator. The leak is very minute, say a drop every 20 seconds.

Has anyone one ever put Bars Leak or another brand of stop leak in their Kubota? I would like to go with stop leak, but I may need to pull the radiator and have it repaired.

Thanks,
Smitty

Dont go with Bars Leak it can stop things up. Put in a couple table spoons of ground black pepper- - like out of your shaker. It will form a clot at the leak. If its a tightly constrained hole this will work great. If a crack that moves as the radiator pressurizes it may not work well except as a temporary fix. But it is essentially free and wont do any harm in your system. Give it a try.
Larry

 

[herringchoker]

I would also try the black pepper. It's worked for me before.

 

[woodchuckie]

I completely broke one of the nubs on mine and was able to repair it with epoxy made for that application. I got it from AutoZone. I had to pull the radiator. It has lasted over a year now.

 

[rdsaustintx]

I took an ordinary soldering iron and melted the cracks back together pulling down extra plastic from the knub itself for extra fill. Maybe I was lucky but I had two horrendous leaks that I repaired that way.

WOW! I would have assumed that radiator parts wouldn't be thermoplastic.