LS XR4150H Hydraulic Cooler

[TexasRust]

Anyone out there had trouble with the hydraulic fluid coolers leaking? In the first three years of owning this tractor I went through 5 of them. On the last one LS was changing part numbers and couldn't tell me when they'd have a replacement for me, so I built-up my own from coolers I got from Summit. LS had been replacing the coolers under warranty, I'd have to bring the tractor in each time and it added up to several month of time when each warranty visit was totaled. I was getting less than 50 hours between leaks.
I kept asking LS corp what the temperatures and pressures were suppose to be, but got nothing from them. I looked at the new MTs at the dealer and the cooler is the same size and shape as the original one I had in my XR4150H, so I guess they went to a different manufacturer but the form is the same. On my new set-up, I added inlet and outlet blocks with temperature probes and pressure gauges. Now I know the temperatures and pressures, but best of all, no more leaks.

 

[Harry in Ky]

Are you keeping those temperatures and pressures secret?

 

[TexasRust]

The lower the ambient temperature, the higher the initial pressure and pressure drop, but even at ~40F, the initial pressure at 1500RM is never above 150 PSI and the pressure drop across the coolers is never above 25 PSI.

Texas summer with ambient around 105F I've never seen the input temperature greater than 200F and I typically get a temperature drop of between 70-80F when running about 2600RPM with the bush hog or stump grinding. The input temperature to the coolers and the temperature in the sump are always pretty close. The pressure is then about 90 PSI with less than a 10 PSI drop across the coolers.

I typically unload the engine if I reach 200F and it takes maybe 15 minutes to drop below 180F. Some posts have indicated that 180F is the recommended max. My dealer says keep below 225F. Some old time equipment guys swear they've seen in excess of 300F without issues. Cooler is better, so I'm at or below 180F most of the time. I have to be pushing pretty hard to hit 200F.

I wish I had numbers from their original cooler, but it was leaking so bad when I pulled it, I did try to get temperature and pressure data from it.

I'll verify these number again this summer. I've been running this set-up for three year and I don't track as closely now as I did that first summer.