Disaster!

ChrisAus · May 10, 2013

Hi,

Having taken delivery of my YM135D during a very hectic week I finally had the opportunity to take it on its maiden mowing voyage today.

It ran perfectly for just under an hour before coughing and spluttering and then it stopped completely. The radiator cap was gone and I wish I knew how I could check the whole machine but overlook a missing radiator cap but in this case it seems as though I did just that.

It had very little coolant left so I drained the remainder and it was a very unhealthy brown colour which makes me suspect that I've blown a head gasket (it overheated no doubt due to the missing cap and subsequently low coolant.

Any advice on where to go from here? I've replaced the radiator cap and installed a temp gauge but I was hoping that an experienced Yanmar owner might be able to offer his/her thoughts on changing the head gasket. I am mechanically capable so I will be doing the work myself but if you've got any hints or tips, hit me!

Cheers,
Chris

winston1 · May 10, 2013

Have you tried cranking up since the incident? Do you know the head gasket is blown? Sending you a pm.

ChrisAus · May 10, 2013

Hi Winston,

I filled the radiator with water after it overheated (I let it cool for about an hour first) so that I could move the tractor. I only ran it for about two minutes to put it under cover and it started and ran perfectly. I used water rather than coolant because it was drained as soon as I parked it as I wanted to check the radiator contents given the overheating.

In terms of how it runs, it seems fine but it didn't run for long enough to warm up let alone get hot once I'd topped up the radiator. I'm concerned about the head gasket due to the aforementioned coolant colour. If the previous owner had skimped on costs and used water instead of glycol then it could be dirty/rusty water rather than oil contamination.

Would it be safe to put coolant in it and try again now that I can properly monitor then temperature on the gauge?

Dr Dave · May 10, 2013

I would refill with a 50/50 mix of coolant and water, use as normal and watch the temp. The brown color of the coolant, may be due to lack of maintenance from previous owner.

Be sure to put on a new radiator cap, you may want to install a new thermostat at this time also.

Dave

winston1 · May 10, 2013

I would just try water first, if a problem you won't be wasting your coolant. When you crank it up cool do it with the cap off and observe the radiator. Be looking for bubbles to appear. Be sure and check the oil for possible coolant in it. If it is milky colored I wouldn't run it. You could slowly loosen the drain plug after setting for a good period of time and allow a half a cup or so of oil to come out watching for water. The water will settle to the bottom given a little time.

Did you read my pm?

rrrkkk · May 10, 2013

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.

Dr_Zinj · May 10, 2013

An evaporated radiator is going to have that evil brownish fluid at the end because that's the color the coolant changes to once you've reached maximum condensation and concentration. As long as there's no oil in the coolant, no water in the oil, and your tractor starts normally after refilling the radiator; count yourself very lucky. Run it for a couple of minutes and then recheck the coolant. Do the check again at 10, 20, and 30 minutes, watching the engine temp all the time. If everything is nominal, then you're probably good to go. Otherwise.... well, either you have a problem with the cooling system, or you've blown your seals and you're looking at good sized repair bill.

California · May 10, 2013

And as we reply every time there is an overheating thread -

Use the compression release on every start, until you have determined that you aren't losing coolant. Cranking with water in a cylinder will break something.

These little Yanmars are simple to work on. A torque wrench for the head bolts, and the I&T shop manual ($30 Ebay) are the only specialized items needed.

That model was sold by Yanmar dealers in the US. Do you have dealer support in Oz? Also a Deere mechanic should be able to work on it, or order parts. The small Deere models from that era were built by Yanmar.

Gale Hawkins · May 10, 2013

Dr_Zinj said:
An evaporated radiator is going to have that evil brownish fluid at the end because that's the color the coolant changes to once you've reached maximum condensation and concentration. As long as there's no oil in the coolant, no water in the oil, and your tractor starts normally after refilling the radiator; count yourself very lucky. Run it for a couple of minutes and then recheck the coolant. Do the check again at 10, 20, and 30 minutes, watching the engine temp all the time. If everything is nominal, then you're probably good to go. Otherwise.... well, either you have a problem with the cooling system, or you've blown your seals and you're looking at good sized repair bill.

I agree. I would just use tap water at first. If it works fine (I expect that will be the case since it had not got hot enough to boil all the coolant out of the block) to need to drain and refill several times to help clean out the cooling system and fresh water is not as hard to deal with as coolant.

Cooling System Treatments | Car Care | Products | Prestone®

Not sure if you have access to Prestone products but I use the Prestone Cleaner for 6 hours (not 6 hours non stop but over time) with water with good results. Not a fan of the 10 minute chemical FLUSH product because I do it myself and have the time for the slower process to work. I keep draining and running engine for 10+ minutes and refilling with fresh water until it stays clear and with few solids coming out when I drain it. That can take 5+ times.

knotweed · May 10, 2013

I tried commercial products to flush with no good cleaning. I got info from this site to use Cascade dish powder and the results were great. It stopped overheating.
Like you, when I got the tractor, water was brown and found out (again on this site) that typical filling of the radiator in the rice fields was from the water available, the rice fields. It's been 2 years since using the Cascade and no overheating.

ChrisAus · May 11, 2013

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 · May 11, 2013

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

Good luck:thumbsup:

Johndeere3720 · May 11, 2013

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 · May 11, 2013

rrrkkk said:
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 · May 11, 2013

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 · May 12, 2013

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 · May 12, 2013

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 · May 12, 2013

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.