Is this anything to be worried about?

[gunner76]

Finished mowing today and popped the hood to blow everything off and noticed the cap for the overflow tank was off. Do you guys think I need to be worried about debris getting into the tank, the mower had been running for an hour and I don't know when it came off. The coolant in the tank did look clean.

 

[kthompson]

Totally off or just not fully in place? You do not find any sign of debris in the tank? If I did not and found no sign in the radiator would probably rinse the tank and top off the radiator. Good chance any debris would be floating in the radiator so you may do well to over fill the radiator slowly letting it float out the radiator.
Then there is the thought of being safe as possible and flush the cooling system.

 

[gunner76]

Totally off or just not fully in place? You do not find any sign of debris in the tank? If I did not and found no sign in the radiator would probably rinse the tank and top off the radiator. Good chance any debris would be floating in the radiator so you may do well to over fill the radiator slowly letting it float out the radiator.
Then there is the thought of being safe as possible and flush the cooling system.

It was totally lifted off the bottle. I looked in the tank and I did not see any debris floating around. It wasn't very dusty/dirty where I was mowing if that helps. Maybe it is a good time to flush the cooling system out and switch over to an ELC.

 

[LD1]

Most any type of debris that would get in there would float.

As the cooling system goes through it's pressure cycles, it would draw off the bottom as needed. So it's unlikely anything went through the system. I would not be concerned

 

[gunner76]

Most any type of debris that would get in there would float.

As the cooling system goes through it's pressure cycles, it would draw off the bottom as needed. So it's unlikely anything went through the system. I would not be concerned

you're probably right, you know how it is when you get a new piece of equipment and worry about everything.

 

[Thomas]

As already said about floating debris,if concern remove lower tank hose drain coolant replace w/new coolant.

 

[AxleHub]

Gunner, you don't indicate the type of tractor you have. Let's say it is a gc1700 series. If that is the case you have forward cooling of the engine compartment. As a result the GC draws in far less of the dirty air from the front of the tractor. And because of that you have very little dirt in the engine compartment that could even get inside the tank . . . Far less than standard front entry units.

 

[gunner76]

Gunner, you don't indicate the type of tractor you have. Let's say it is a gc1700 series. If that is the case you have forward cooling of the engine compartment. As a result the GC draws in far less of the dirty air from the front of the tractor. And because of that you have very little dirt in the engine compartment that could even get inside the tank . . . Far less than standard front entry units.

It's the GC1715. I went ahead and drained the overflow tank and refilled it just to give me piece of mind.

 

[gunner76]

I think I found out what happened. I noticed yesterday when opening the hood that if you pull the hood to the right a little bit while opening it one of the braces inside the hood will catch the cap on the overflow tank. That's probably why my cap was off when I opened the hood the other day.

I do have another question though. Before finding this out I refilled the overflow tank with fresh green coolant(50/50 mix)but I noticed the green coolant I used is a lighter shade of green compared to the coolant that was in cooling system. What's in the radiator(and what was in the overflow tank)is a really dark emerald green and the stuff I bought is more of a mountain dew color.

Is the stuff that's in there from the factory a different type of green? The stuff I got is formulated for both gas and diesel engines, it did say to put in SCAs if used in a heavy duty diesel engine but the manual ssys nothing about adding SCAs and I dont' consider this a HD engine.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I wouldn't worry about it. One time I left the fuel cap off my mower and mowed for a couple hours in very dusty conditions. When I discovered the cap off, I was concerned that my fuel tank was full of grass. I siphoned out all the gas, looking inside the tank and found nothing. I poured the siphoned gas into a clear tank so I could see if any thing was in it. No trash was in the gas either, so I put it back in the tank. It has been 2 years and 150 hours of run time and still nothing in the clear fuel filter. I just don't think stuff will settle very easily into a closed on one end container when it is moving.