Hydraulic radiator swap

[Richard]

I recently had a post about my hydraulic cooler leaking. Seems it's been out 2 times to be fixed and the LAST time out, the dude at the radiator shop told me it was WAY underengineered for it's application.

This was my second hint of the issue again, the first hint was the small puddle under engine.

 

[Richard]

When I took the front grill off, this is what I found. Seems the fluid dripped into the fins, soaking them... then allowing dirt/grass/other to stick and muck up a totally useless piece of radiator.

What you are doing, is looking in the front of the engine compartnemt, the cross bar member does ??? (no clue), and the hydraulic pump is seen under the cross member.

 

[Richard]

at this point, I'd already taken out the hydraulic radiator and are now looking at the transmission cooler.

Seems the fan (on far side) sucks the air & oil thorough all the radiators allowing ALL of them to get mucked up.

Yes, I looked very mucy like "Buckwheat" when I was doing this proceedure. I washed my hands up to take the pics.

 

[Richard]

This is the cooler after I removed it and for some silly reason, cleaned it up a bit.

 

[Richard]

When the replacement cooler arrived, I was not expecting what I saw. I called the dealer back and said they MUST have sent me the wrong thing. It looked nothing like what I pulled out and must have been built for a tank.

(DO recall the radiator shop guy telling me the radiator was way underengineered)

This thing was massive and HEAVY. Must have (without measuring) 2 inch upper & lower tubes with 1 inch tubes going verticle.

Oh, and did I say HEAVY?

 

[Richard]

The two of them side by side. NOW I udnerstand why the shop guy said the first one was under engineered.

I surmise SOMEONE had taken some old radiator & cobbed this thing together & welded the "ears" onto the side of it so that they would connect to the anchors. The new one has slots built in on the outer edges.

Oh...and did I mention it was heavy? Rather than being soldered aluminum, it's some kind of welded steel.

 

[Richard]

This was after a lot of scraping of gunk and probably a gallon of "the purple stuff" that is an AMAZING grease/oil cleaner.

Got everything back all nice & tidy. No more drips.

Life is better

/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Junkman]

If I were in your predicament, I would invest in a pressure washer...... just this one time used would be enough to justify the cost!!!!!! ...... well almost...... LOL...... /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

 

[Richard]

have one & used it. It is because I used it LAST time I did this just a couple months ago, I was able to get it so relatively clean in there. Since I did not take out the other radiators (water/trans fluid) I didn't want that pressure in there and I just used the hose.

I was rather liberal with that purple stuff though.

 

[JerryG]

<font color="blue"> I surmise SOMEONE had taken some old radiator & cobbed this thing together & welded the "ears" onto the side of it so that they would connect to the anchors. </font>
I think that you are right. I have never seen a water type unit used for oil cooling. Or I should say one that was that light duty.