Too hot?

[auraaura]

I have a YM3000. My idiot lights worked intermittently, so have installed gauges. Yesterday it was 90+ degrees, was bushhogging very deep grass, temp got up to 230 degrees. What is too hot? Can't seem to find much about this in the shop manual.

 

[HoyeTractor]

That is too hot. 150-180 is typically the normal operating range. Have you blown out your radiator fins recently? It might also be worth while running some radiator flush through it.

 

[auraaura]

Fins are clean. Radiator probably needs cleaning out. Will try do it yourself flushing, if that doesn't work......? Take it off and take it to radiator shop for cleaning? Any other suggestions?

 

[clemsonfor]

new radiator. But they will run hot if you have a lot of seeds and stuff built up infront of them, but I doubt this is your problem, at this point you would of seen it.

 

[square1]

fan belt properly tensioned? Not slipping?

 

[buickanddeere]

230 is on the high end of normal operating temps. 15psi 50/50 glycol has a higher boiling temp.

 

[California]

I don't think these older (70's) Japanese tractors were intended to run as hot as a modern diesel where clean exhaust is a concern.

User manuals in English for the US versions seem to consider some owners will drain the radiator when the tractor won't be used for a while, then fill up with rice paddy water + water pump/antirust additive when planting season returns next year. The manuals also discuss running without a battery. Apparently the design anticipates that some owners will jump the tractor every morning to get it started in the few days a year that a rice paddy tractor is needed.

This is simple bulletproof technology - a diesel water buffalo, to exaggerate a little. And that light use/simple design is how importing 40 year old used tractors makes sense. Not worn out, and simple to maintain. (YM3000 = YM2000/YM240 with one more cylinder and a heavier chassis).

The fishing boat versions of these same engines - 2Q, 3Q etc, run full power for hours/days without problems. That's much harder use than the intermittent loads on a farm tractor, and reliability is more critical considering changeable weather on the open ocean. Those are considered unbreakable.

I think this YM3000 cooling system needs to be brought back to spec by rodding or replacing the radiator. Then it should be good for a few more decades.

 

[auraaura]

Fins were partially clogged up with plant chaff and dust. I could have sworn I just blew them out last summer, maybe not. Was 97 degrees today and coolant temp never went over 180. I feel like Scooter on Slingblade when Carl Ray told him "it ain't got no gas". Duhhh

 

[chriswheeler]

I put a gage set on my YM3000 as well. Here in Nevada, brush hogging on a warm summers day, mine would never run over 190 degrees with a 5 foot brush hog under a medium load. What's normal ?? unknown. But you could see the temp go up when you got junk in the radiator, easy way to tell it was time to blow the junk out. JD makes a screen for a 950 that fits in front of the radiator that fit my YM3000 perfectly, made the clean out easy catching most of the junk.

 

[normde2001]

Anything approaching the 1/2 mark on the gauge is too hot. A whisk broom was the first tool to go in my toolbox. Your radiator should have a wire screen. If not I would get one.