DX(TC)45 Running Hot

[jinman]

Today, I was doing some boxblading and decided to take a few readings. After about 30 minutes of boxblading in 90 degree heat, I took some readings. The temperature at the thermostat was 178 to 181 degrees. I then buried the loader bucket, set the brakes, and revved the engine to 2300 rpm. With the engine revved, I repeatedly pushed against the bucket by pushing down on the HST pedal until the transmission bypassed. I could see the temperature rising some on the instrument panel, but it never went even to halfway up the green scale. After several minutes of heavily loading the engine, I dropped the rpm back to idle and read the temperature at the thermostat. It was 195 degrees. I walked around to the right side of the engine and read the temperature inside the freeze-plug right above the injector pump. It was 150 degrees. That tells me that the coolant leaving the radiator and coming to the engine is less than 150 degrees and coolant leaving to go back to the radiator was 45 degrees higher. It seems that my tractor is running about 10 degrees cooler than yours under load.

 

[JC-jetro]

Good info Jim, it is all good circulation and heat dissipation kind of information that yo can find in a manual.

JC,

 

[RickB]

In my opinion, taking your tractor to the dealer is just not the best solution for this kind of "problem." There is no way your dealer is going to work your tractor hard for several hours to get the temperature up.

I respectfully disagree. Any self-respecting tractor dealer should own both a PTO dynomometer and a hydraulic flow meter. It should be among a manufacturer's requirements for issuance of a sales contract. Using one or both of these tools, I can duplicate almost any heat related symptom in controlled conditions in less time than the same symptoms would appear under normal operating conditions. I very nearly didn't bother to use the word "almost".
Case in point; last week I visited a customer whose tractor had fresh hydraulic filters, clean oil, and a flickering plugged filter indicator lamp after 2 to 3 hours of operation. After connecting the flow meter and loading the hydraulic system at 3/4 throttle, I heated the oil sufficiently in less than 20 minutes to determine that hydraulic flow was maintained at temperature and the vacuum switch triggering the lamp was failing.

Using a PTO dynamometer, a tech can determine in well under an hour whether a tractor will overheat at rated load or not. Probably more in the order of a half-hour in most cases.

 

[RickB]

Today, I was doing some boxblading and decided to take a few readings. After about 30 minutes of boxblading in 90 degree heat, I took some readings. The temperature at the thermostat was 178 to 181 degrees. I then buried the loader bucket, set the brakes, and revved the engine to 2300 rpm. With the engine revved, I repeatedly pushed against the bucket by pushing down on the HST pedal until the transmission bypassed. I could see the temperature rising some on the instrument panel, but it never went even to halfway up the green scale. After several minutes of heavily loading the engine, I dropped the rpm back to idle and read the temperature at the thermostat. It was 195 degrees. I walked around to the right side of the engine and read the temperature inside the freeze-plug right above the injector pump. It was 150 degrees. That tells me that the coolant leaving the radiator and coming to the engine is less than 150 degrees and coolant leaving to go back to the radiator was 45 degrees higher. It seems that my tractor is running about 10 degrees cooler than yours under load.

That's great info. I might add the thermal loading from jk96's A/C condenser is probably the source of most of that 10 degrees. The air entering part of the radiator has already been heated by passing through the condenser. Not to say he doesn't have a lazy thermostat as well.

 

[jk96]

Jim,

thanks for taking the time to check your tractor for me. I went ahead and ordered a thermostat and gasket. I'll change them out and see if it make any difference. While mine it doesn't seem to be running significantly hotter, I don't recall it ever getting even close to red last year during during it's first year of operation. I'll try to get it changed next week and will report back.

Jeremy

 

[jinman]

That's great info. I might add the thermal loading from jk96's A/C condenser is probably the source of most of that 10 degrees. The air entering part of the radiator has already been heated by passing through the condenser. Not to say he doesn't have a lazy thermostat as well.

Rick, I think you are absolutely correct. I realize that I probably didn't even heat up all the oil in my hydraulic reservoir during my test. It the oil was hot and I had an AC condenser coil in front of the radiator, the temperature could easily be 10 degrees higher. I think Jeremy should not only replace the thermostat, but also take time to get a water hose and nozzle to backwash the radiator all the way out to the edges. I routinely use a nozzle from the fan side on my radiator to keep it clean. It's amazing how much dirt comes out of it around the edges. When you consider how small our radiators really are compared to some auto or pickup radiators, it's surprising they work as well as they do. With an HST cooler and an AC condenser coil, it's even more amazing. All my comments are based on what Jeremy said his tractor did when he first got it. I do not think 205 to 215 degrees is going to hurt anything on his tractor. I am just concerned about the change. It would not be a big concern with me, just something to keep my eye on.

EDIT: I went back and reread this whole thread. Lone Cowboy's comments are as valid as anything I have said. He said his cabbed TC45 routinely runs on the hot side. That's probably a far better comparison than my tractor without AC and a cab. Unfortunately, LC didn't take any exact readings or have exact temperatures. That makes it hard to determine because our temperature gages have too much variation to have a lot of confidence in.