oil cooler question

[Anonymous Poster]

I have a PT418 without an oil cooler. I think the machine is about four years old and built before this feature.

I recently bought the posthole digger (12 in.) and would like to install an oil cooler. I can put togeather my own oil cooler and fan with no problem at all, but I need to know where in the hydraulic circuit to install it.

I assume that it is in the return line so the pressure will be minimal. But exactly where? In the return line to the tank? or in the return line to the low pressure side of the pump?

I looked on the mossroad website looking for clues. There is a good photo there of the oil cooler. It ;looks like its made of plastic. Is it plastic? I would like to know.

Any advice you can give would be appriciated. One other thing, does Power Trac know about the mossroad website? If not they should. Very Helpful!

tomt

 

[MossRoad]

The hydraulic oil cooler is all metal. The fan that sits on top of it and draws air up through it is plastic. It moves a lot of air. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif I don't know off hand where the cooler is in the circuit. It has to be cleaned out every 8 hours, sooner if dirty conditions exist. I use a soft brush and compressed air so that I don't damage the fins.

 

[davesisk]

On my older 1418, the oil cooler is mounted on top the front engine shroud near the drive pump (rather than in the hood). If I'm not mistaken (and I might be), the cooler is connected between the pump and the tank in such a way that oil being returned to the tank from the hydrostatic pump passes through the oil cooler first. (I'm sure this is a low-pressure line.)

Of course, my oil cooler isn't working, so that's item #6 on the list of things to troubleshoot...<g>.

If you've noticed, my machine has lots of issues, but that's only because it's old and apparently wasn't maintained nearly as well as it should have been. From other folks here, I gather that's certainly not the norm. I'm catching up on the maintenance at this point, and I'm hoping it won't be much longer until I've got all it's issues patched up.

 

[pajoube]

Dave, glad it is starting to come together for you. After reading so many posts from you trying to get that 1418 in shape I was wondering how you maintained so much patience.
PJ

 

[davesisk]

Patience is luckily one of my few virtues...<g>

I got it for such a good price, it seems worth putting the work into it. Of course, it was probably such a "good" price because it needed so much work...<g>