Snow John Deere X595 slowly overheats

[Bob Boudinot]

Hello!

I have a 2002 X595 (diesel) that overheats after 45 minutes of heavy use of the PTO. The problem has slowly gotten worse over the past few years. The tractor has 900 hours. In the past I would remove the hood and make it thru the project, but no longer. A new radiator is $600.00 and on backorder. Has anyone had a similar experience and successfully diagnosed the problem? Could it be the thermostat being stuck 1/2 closed?

Thanks for your advise in advance,

Bob

 

[Deere Dude]

I had that happen on my X740 and the predecessor for it, I forget the number.

I found intake fins to the radiator and the oil cooler fins before the radiator were plugged up. We would change the pre-screen but those two radiators need to be separated and cleaned out. It is a very easy process once you look closely. It probably wouldn't hurt to get some fin cleaner to spray on the fins to better flush them out.

 

[Texasmark]

First off, with the engine off (obviously) grasp the fan blade and see if you can turn it without the engine rotating. If so, get a new fan belt and tighten it to spec, run it for a couple of hours and tighten it again. If you can't find any other spec, midway between the alternator and fan pulley, a 1/4" deflection with good force from your index finger should produce adequate resistance when trying to turn the fan by hand.

Second is check the radiator by looking at it from the front. If you can't see through it clean it out. I made a device out of a copper tube and some air fittings that I can stick down between the radiator and other coolers and inject compressed air to blow out fins...works pretty good.

Third, drain your coolant (if you can't see through it) and look at the top of your fins. If you see a lot of corrosion buildup you need to flush your cooling system and then replace fluid at 50-50 for most applications.

Last you may want to check your thermostat for proper opening. A string in a pot of water on the stove should do the trick. Usually the opening temperature is stamped on the bottom of the stat's pellet. A candy thermometer placed in the soon to be boiling water should give you the opening temp. Full open should be another 10 or so degrees hotter.

 

[Bob Boudinot]

I had that happen on my X740 and the predecessor for it, I forget the number.

I found intake fins to the radiator and the oil cooler fins before the radiator were plugged up. We would change the pre-screen but those two radiators need to be separated and cleaned out. It is a very easy process once you look closely. It probably wouldn't hurt to get some fin cleaner to spray on the fins to better flush them out.

Thanks!

 

[Bob Boudinot]

Thanks!

 

[Richard]

Did you always use distilled water to fill it?

I'm always nervous that someone here will "thoughtfully" use our tap (well) water to fill something, be it auto, tractor, backhoe...

Trouble is, our well water is very high in calcium and is always needing a good clean-out from the water heater.

If distilled is in there then the quick/easy as has been said, would be to look at your fins. My father in law acquired a used International 886 (or something). Always seemed to run a bit on the warm side. While I was hosing something down, I sprayed it into the radiator. Came back & did it again, then I saw it.

(remember, the tractor was used, so we had no idea of prior usage)

The water I sprayed into the radiator ended up moistening the dried dust (dirt) that had accumulated in there, blocking it. I ended up spraying that thing for 2-3 hours and you could see little "oozes" of mud come out the backside. As the mud slowly hydrated and was pushed out, it breathed better and I never had an issue again with it running warm.

Whomever had it prior to us, must have used it in some really dusty situations and never cleaned it.

 

[Texasmark]

I got the idea for the little tube I made while over at the neighbor's farm. They have a service contract for their 2016 4052 and the JD service guy was doing the annual service. One of the things he did was to take a hootus like I described and ran it down between the cooling coils for the different functions blowing accumulated grass out.