Kubota 3910 ran out of water and will not run

[tacticalturnip]

The water pump had the leak, not the radiator. So tractor kept overheating. I also think dad (98 yo last year) was putting straight water in the radiator. By the time I found out and checked it out, head was cracked.

Straight water, in Maryland? Oh no!

 

[JWR]

Off on this side thing about buckeye farmer's Dad's tractor: This makes no sense. A leaking water pump does not cause overheating per se. Maybe the water pump was not pumping? Stop-a-leak does not cause overheating either. Putting straight water not mixed with antifreeze does not cause leaks nor overheating either one. Some places in MD got into hard freezes last winter but some did not. Besides that, freezing is very unlikely to crack the head and more likely to crack the block if it did anything. Very likely it was the overheating that cracked the head . How many rabbits are we chasing here anyway, and why ?

 

[workinonit]

I don't think he's saying any of that caused the damage but that the stop leak didn't stop the water pump from leaking and because of that it ran out of water and caused the damage....I think. I just think the straight water thing is because many people didn't live in the south 50 years ago and think you can't use straight water in a cooling system.

 

[5030]

In reality water with no AF added is a better conductor of heat.

 

[etpm]

The water pump had the leak, not the radiator. So tractor kept overheating. I also think dad (98 yo last year) was putting straight water in the radiator. By the time I found out and checked it out, head was cracked.

Oh, I get it. The tractor kept running out of water. Thanks for the clarification. I once had an overheating problem from a leaking water pump. It happened in the winter which turned out to be lucky for me. The heater in my van quit working but the temp. gauge showed normal operating temp. So I pulled over and waited for the engine to cool some so I could check things out. Sure enough there was no coolant visible in the radiator when I removed the cap. Lotsa steam though. I then waited about 30 minutes more to make sure the engine was plenty cool and stopped at the first gas station I saw. I put in a lot of water. Upon starting the engine I saw water coming out of the little hole in the water pump housing which I think is there to show that the seal has failed. Luckily I was close enough to home that I was able to drive there. If it had been warmer weather I wouldn't have known about the low coolant. I lucked out that the heater didn't work because there was no liquid flowing through the heater core.
Eric

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Off on this side thing about buckeye farmer's Dad's tractor: This makes no sense. A leaking water pump does not cause overheating per se. Maybe the water pump was not pumping? ?

Can’t pump what ain’t there.

But I told the tell to give the OP an idea of the repair cost.

 

[AnotherBueller]

... and I believe the 'Amazon' leak down / compression tester has the correct adapter. The adapters fit just about everything including my MF 2660, my BX2200, my kids BX, etc. No reason in the world to believe it lacks an adapter to fit the L3901 radiator.

A leak down tester tests the compression between two adjoining cylinders. Not for cooling system leaks.

 

[Rockbadchild]

well it won’t be op’s neighbour priority but he will certainly need a water pump, she certainly toast.

 

[JWR]

A leak down tester tests the compression between two adjoining cylinders. Not for cooling system leaks.

I'm not sure what you are saying. On the contrary from what you seem to say, the standard ordinary cooling system pressure test kit pressurizes the radiator and thus the entire cooling system using a hand pump. The gauge that comes with it shows you the internal pressure as you pump it up and then later as you monitor the pressure over time. It is the easiest and quickest way to see if there are leaks in the cooling system. In potential blown head gasket cases (or heaven forbid worse things like a cracked head or block) if the pressure is coming down rather than steady you know you have a cooling system leak. That tells you to go find where the leak is -- be it a blown head gasket or worse. None of this is "testing compression" exactly but if the reason you lost compression in one or more cylinders is a blown head gasket or cracked head or block this is part of tracking that down.

 

[JWR]

well it won’t be op’s neighbour priority but he will certainly need a water pump, she certainly toast.

I have not seen anything in this thread to suggest the OP's neighbor has a bad water pump. Someone else told a side story about his aging father's tractor with a dripping water pump. I think you have that and the OP situation confused.