Disaster!

[ChrisAus]

An update:

I spent all of today working to fix my tractor and I think I may have discovered the cause of the overheating and filthy coolant. I used a strong mix of radiator flush and flushed it four times in total. The amount of sediment and muck removed by the first two flushes was frightening. I left the coolant from the first flush to settle in a jar and it ended up looking reasonably clean except for the sediment.

There was no sign of oil in the coolant at any stage. The colour was why I suspected the head gasket but having changed the oil (and filter of course) as well, I suspect it fell prey to a lazy/cheap previous owner rather than catastrophic mechanical failure.

My logical side thinks that the problem was use of water, and a lack of a radiator cap allowing a huge amount of dust into the radiator.

I'll run it under light load tomorrow and assuming I'm right, it should be up and running properly. Many thanks for all your advice too!

 

[kenmac]

It's amazing how some people will neglect equipment. It's important to know who you're buying from

Good luck:thumbsup:

 

[Johndeere3720]

It sounds like you got the situation pretty well figured out. I have worked on a Jeep that had a muddy brown coolant in it, pulled the over flow bottle and dumped out 2" of slimy mud. I ended up figuring out that the Jeep had been submerged under water while off roading, made sense why they would replace the engine as it was hydrolocked when submerged. Best thing you can do is flush the system as good as you can, in your case I think you did the right thing. In my case I spent a whole day doing everything I could to flush all of that muck out of this poor Jeep. (I even took pictures!) You can also see the thermostat in this Jeep wasn't doing too good either, I replaced that as well as the t-stat housing (I accidentally cracked the old one).

 

[gered121]

If you don't know how to pressure test the radiator, or do a leak down test on the cylinders. I suggest you need someone capable of replaceing the head gasket.

We're here to offer encouragement and advice...right?

 

[clemsonfor]

Fill with water and run it. There will be no problem running it with a bad headgasket for diagnostic purposes if its blown. Obviously you don't want to get it to hot that it seizes but you will realize that before. You have been given some good info here. FGollow it and don't be afraid of the tractor.

 

[ChrisAus]

Well it now has me stumped. After two full days of repairing all the things the previous owner neglected, it ran fine but after about 10 minutes at idle and a few minutes of being under moderate load, the temp gauge read about 104c. That's with a 50/50 antifreeze and water mix. I let it idle and it cooled down but each time I put it under load it got hot again. I didn't let it actually boil but it must've been close.

I might be getting a bit vague in my older years but if my 135D has a thermostat I can't for the life of me find it anywhere, and that includes searching the manual for any reference to a thermostat. Have I missed something? Everything else seems spot on including the fan and fan belt so the only other possibility I can think of would be a thermostat if it's got one.

Thoughts?

 

[willi67]

G'day cobber
don't know anything about these things but that won't stop me giving advice LOL .. some of these old tractors have no thermostat or water pump, they are called thermosiphon.

When your tractor is hot see if you can run your hand across the radiator to see if its uniformly hot, you may have some blocked tubes if you find cooler spots, the tubes might have blocked when you ran it nearly dry .. other than that I dunno

cheers

 

[Neat 1500]

I am not familiar with a 135, does it have a water pump and thermostat ? if it doesnt 50/50 is too much. go 25/75 (25% coolant) and try again. thermosyphon systems dont like high glycol mixes.

 

[winston1]

Yanmar Tractor Overheating

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Taking the radiator to a good shop for testing can be helpful.