Oil in water - hydraulic?

[loopman]

Hi Guys,

Just after your opinion on a problem I have with an old Ford 4500 Industrial tractor with backhoe & loader. I have been getting a fair amount of contamination of the coolant in the radiator with stuff that would be best described as "grease". To me, it doesn't look anything like engine oil in the water (there is no milkiness etc.), but I am only experienced in gas engines, not diesel. My thinking is, since it has a area at the bottom of the radiator to cool the transmission fluid, that this is a mix of transmission fluid leaking under pressure into the radiator. Do you think this may be the case? I would like to narrow it down a little before I start tearing the machine apart chasing dead-ends. I have attached a photo of the muck that is present at the top of the radiator and on the cap, coolant is fairly clean below this "grease" layer. Engine oil does not have water in it, and is not getting lower. Transmission does not have a dipstick (bolt hole in side of case instead) so is a little harder to monitor. Machine seems to be running fine.

Thanks.

 

[tthopskin@yahoo.ca]

this is a hard one i seen it before but cant remember what it was ..that was over 25 years ago .some one on here will help you thats for sure

 

[Egon]

Maybe flush the rad in question and use some new coolant. Monitor what happens.

 

[loopman]

Maybe flush the rad in question and use some new coolant. Monitor what happens.

Thanks Egon. Yeah should have mentioned have given it a flush, stuff appears again after only an hour or two of use so it is an active leak from somewhere.

 

[LarryD]

Can you pressure test the radiator? If there's a leak, it doesn't matter which system it is coming from. It would at least get you going in a direction.

 

[RickB]

Disconnect the transmission cooler lines and loop them together. leave the lines to and from the radiator open. If coolant appears, replace the radiator. One cooling system flush probably didn't get all the crud out to begin with.

 

[doxford jim]

How about using some sort of degreaser or dish washing soap like Dawn. It is supposed to work very well for cleaning the radiator and engine cooling passages out. Since you are down under in Tamworth, you won't have to worry about freezing at this time of the year and could probably work the tractor and drain and repeat to really clean out the system.

It looks to me to be engine related rather than transmission or hydraulic oil. Is the tractor running well without any overheating ? Does the goo smell burnt as in lub. oil burnt ? It sure does look black to me. take a good sample of coolant and let it stand in a pop bottle and see what settles out, if anything.

 

[Egon]

Thoughts: as I understand it today's coolants can have strange results if mixed. Any chance something like this could have happened. No nothing about this. Just what I've read??

 

[loopman]

Thanks for all the suggestions, it is good to know there are those out there happy to help

LarryD - Haven't tried pressure testing the radiator, may well be an option.

RickB - Yeah good idea, I'll try to track down a suitable joiner in the toolbox and give this a go.

doxford jim - yeah no worries about freezing at the moment, a balmy 37 degrees here today (98 degrees in your scale)! I was wondering the best way to clean it out, once I have the leak sorted I will try your idea. The stuff doesn't really smell burnt at all, but it is a little black, I think I will drain and flush the transmission just in case, not sure what the last owner may have put in there. Also, the wet brakes chatter a fair bit, which I am led to believe can be a symptom of incorrect fluid*. If it turns out it isn't transmission in the water, there will be no harm done. Tractor seems to be running well, it does get a little hot with loader work but I figured this was 1) Due to extra transmission load = hot oil being cooled by radiator, and 2) Inefficient engine cooling because of the gunk.

Egon - Hmmm possibly but probably not. I'm not sure what was in there originally, I did add standard green anti-freeze/anti-boil a while back but since the goo appeared I have been flushing with straight rainwater - any trace of old coolants would be well and truly gone.

Again, thanks for the suggestions, I will keep you updated as I get the chance to try them, and if you think of anything else I am all ears!


(* This is a Ford 4500 with power-reversing (torque convertor) transmission, so transmission fluid also does wet brakes and is cooled through bottom segment of normal radiator.)

 

[RickB]

(* This is a Ford 4500 with power-reversing (torque convertor) transmission, so transmission fluid also does wet brakes and is cooled through bottom segment of normal radiator.)

Same type of fluid, but held in separate reservoirs and will not co-mingle. Separate drain, fill and check locations.