5045e running poorly, white smoke, possible loss of coolant

[Verticaltrx]

Recently our 5045e was put to use on the square baler (which we normally pull with a much larger tractor), and the tractor got worked really hard for about three hours. Operator said temp gauge never got above 3/4ths and it ran well for the first hour or two. Near the end it was really loosing power and blowing a lot of white smoke. The next day I inspected everything and found the coolant to be almost a gallon low, oil was fine (not milky and no oil in the coolant), no external oil or coolant leaks, air filter clean, nothing really out of place. I put the tractor on the hay tedder and after about an hour of work it would intermittently loose power and start blowing white smoke. Checked everything again and all was normal, so I continued, at about the two hour mark it was down to about 50% power and blowing white smoke all the time (temp gauge still normal). Parked it and finished with another tractor. Saturday they used the tractor for several hours stacking round bales in the barn and it ran completely fine, but that was very light work at mid throttle.

Not sure where to begin on this one, the smoke is white and is like a diesel would smoke when not fully warmed up (unburnt fuel). Haven't seen any coolant loss since I originally refilled it. Only seems to happen after working the tractor for a while.

A few possibility I have thought of:
-something in the fuel system (I'll change the fuel filter ASAP and see if that has any effect)
-something wrong with the turbo
-intermittently burning coolant
-burnt valve(s)

None of those fully fit the symptoms in my mind, but maybe TBN readers have some better insight. Thanks in advance.

 

[AKfish]

Recently our 5045e was put to use on the square baler (which we normally pull with a much larger tractor), and the tractor got worked really hard for about three hours. Operator said temp gauge never got above 3/4ths and it ran well for the first hour or two. Near the end it was really loosing power and blowing a lot of white smoke. The next day I inspected everything and found the coolant to be almost a gallon low, oil was fine (not milky and no oil in the coolant), no external oil or coolant leaks, air filter clean, nothing really out of place. I put the tractor on the hay tedder and after about an hour of work it would intermittently loose power and start blowing white smoke. Checked everything again and all was normal, so I continued, at about the two hour mark it was down to about 50% power and blowing white smoke all the time (temp gauge still normal). Parked it and finished with another tractor. Saturday they used the tractor for several hours stacking round bales in the barn and it ran completely fine, but that was very light work at mid throttle.

Not sure where to begin on this one, the smoke is white and is like a diesel would smoke when not fully warmed up (unburnt fuel). Haven't seen any coolant loss since I originally refilled it. Only seems to happen after working the tractor for a while.

A few possibility I have thought of:
-something in the fuel system (I'll change the fuel filter ASAP and see if that has any effect)
-something wrong with the turbo
-intermittently burning coolant
-burnt valve(s)

None of those fully fit the symptoms in my mind, but maybe TBN readers have some better insight. Thanks in advance.

Gotta be Number #3 - intermittently burning coolant. I'd bet that you've got a cracked cylinder head. Crack expands enough with higher temps and starts seeping coolant into one of the cylinders. As long as the engine doesn't get above 1/2 on the temp guage - it's probably Ok. Crank up the work load and when the gauge creeps up to and over the 3/4 mark - starts burning anti-freeze.

My $0.02.

AKfish

 

[Henri88]

My money would be on #3 also, for the same reason mention by AKfish.

Henri

 

[Verticaltrx]

Thanks for the replies.

A bit of an update, I changed the fuel filter yesterday and it seems to be running better. I bush hogged for an hour and couldn't get it to loose power or blow white smoke. However, I also couldn't find anywhere to work it hard enough to get it above normal operating temp, so that may still be an issue. The coolant is down a little since I originally filled it, maybe 1/2" in the overflow jug.

So it sounds like my problems could be both #1 and #3, which #1 is now fixed. We had lots of problems with gelling fuel this winter and have had to change the filters on most of the tractors this spring.

We should be able to take the tractor down to another one of our farms with some heavier bush hogging on Wednesday, so that will be a good chance to check it out then. Aside from filling the coolant to the Cold mark on the jug and noting usage, is there any other way to see where it's going?

 

[AKfish]

Thanks for the replies.

A bit of an update, I changed the fuel filter yesterday and it seems to be running better. I bush hogged for an hour and couldn't get it to loose power or blow white smoke. However, I also couldn't find anywhere to work it hard enough to get it above normal operating temp, so that may still be an issue. The coolant is down a little since I originally filled it, maybe 1/2" in the overflow jug.

So it sounds like my problems could be both #1 and #3, which #1 is now fixed. We had lots of problems with gelling fuel this winter and have had to change the filters on most of the tractors this spring.

We should be able to take the tractor down to another one of our farms with some heavier bush hogging on Wednesday, so that will be a good chance to check it out then. Aside from filling the coolant to the Cold mark on the jug and noting usage, is there any other way to see where it's going?

If you want to get the tractor up to a higher operating temp - you can add a couple pieces of cardboard to the front of the radiator - and go bush hog with it! However.... it may just be a case of temporary overheating and a partially blocked fuel filter as well.

If your hired hand boiled the tractor over and dumped 1/2-1 gallon of coolant out the overflow combined with a choked off fuel filter (white smoke) that could explain the low coolant level, white smoke and power loss. But, I assumed that the tractor DID NOT boil over (per the driver's word) and went with the white smoke and loss of power - i.e. burning coolant determination.

That leads one to believe either a bad head gasket or a cracked cylinder head or pitted cylinder liner. A bad head gasket or pitted cylinder liner will generally result in having coolant mix with the engine oil. That's not the case, here. So, you'd lean more strongly towards a cracked head that's seeping coolant into the combustion chamber - especially when the engine gets a bit overheated.

You could run a compression test on all the cylinders and see if one has a consistently quicker "leakdown"; might point to a cracked head... or not. Overpressurizing the cooling system could also illustrate if one of the cylinders has a coolant leak. The engine would blow white smoke upon starting.

As things now stand; I'd run it and watch it. (Maybe keep it away from the earlier operator, too...)

AKfish