Amber EM light question.

[JMitchell]

Aloha All,

I recently came back after eight months from a 100 acre parcel I am caring for. The owner has a MX5400 with a 72" land pride flail. I found the tractor in WA and had it shipped to the Big Island of Hawaii. 2019 with just over 300 hours. I used the tractor clearing very tall invasive grass for approximately 50 hours and had no overheating issues providing the front cooling pack was kept clean. For the 50 hours mentioned I kept good care of the machine specially greasing the flail and keeping the radiator screen clean due to the dry grass.

During my time away the owners had another couple of guys using the tractor.

I came back in July and took over. The tractor 68 additional hours and had not been cared for correctly. The expansion tank was empty and the radiator required 1/2 gallon of coolant. The cooling pack was covered in debris. I changed the oil and filter along with a fuel filter and air filter clean. used an electric blower and water to clean the cooling pack. Also greased all fittings.

I ran the tractor a few days ago and within 20 minutes the EM light came on sensing an overheat condition and as the temp climbed I turned the PTO off and idled the tractor until the temp came down. I changed to low on the HST and raised the flail a bit. From my previous use the tractor would have normally ran at about half on the temp gauge.

This scenario repeated itself three times.

During this time frame I noticed the flail was vibrating more than normal and I did notice one of the bolts missing from the inspection lid. I removed the metal driveshaft cover on the flail and opened the side door. Ran the flail and noticed the drive shaft wobbling more that what I expect would be normal. I will attach a short video. I spoke with land pride and they recommended tightening the belt.

I wrote to the guys that operated the tractor and they said they did get a piece of 4x8 thick gauge wire caught in the flail. I asked them about not cleaning the cooling pack and the expansion tank. He said they added water to the expansion tank and not the radiator. Which to me was a big mistake.

He did say the EM light would come on and he would lose coolant. Then he would fill the expansion tank.

I did check the oil to see if it was mixed with coolant. And at this point it is not. Next time out next week I will check the coolant to see of oil is present. I have not used the tractor long enough to see if the coolant level is going down if it is going into one of the cylinders. I have not noticed a reduction in power or a different engine sound at PTO speed. or noticed white exhaust from burning coolant.

The reason I bring up the flail if they did damage the flail with the wire and it is causing more drag on the PTO would this possibly caused the engine to work hard enough to raise the temp. I don't rally notice this with the throttle position and PTO speed. How would I tell if the flail is causing more drag than usual?

Next time out at the farm I plan to check the fan belt and give a deeper clean on the radiator from the inside on the fan side.

If in face they really overheated the engine how would this cause the engine to run hotter if the coolant level is normal. Other than a leak down test what else in the field could be done to see if the engine is compromised?

20260812_143250.mp4

drive.google.com

Thank you for your thoughts.

John

 

[PoTreeBoy]

Hopefully, they didn't add just water, especially tap water. One easy test is to fill the engine and radiator fully, leave the radiator cap off and run the engine until it reaches operating temperature. Look in the fill opening for bubbles, which would indicate leaking combustion gas into the cooling system.

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

CHeck the bearings on the tensioners.
If they damaged any of the roller bearings that will cause extra HP usage.

 

[JMitchell]

Will check both items above and report back.

 

[Jim L.]

Agree about checking first two items.

However, it sounds like the cooling air is not moving enough through the heat exchanger. If you cannot get to see between the fins where the air moves through, and see that the fins are shiny clean, you should remove the heat exchanger for cleaning out of the machine.

I think that the reason cooling water needed to be added was that the machine was overheating and would blow coolant out of the radiator and expansion tank. It could be from too high of ground speed. Was the grass in head, that is, had it gone into seed production, which would clog the fins. Were the fins ever cleaned, or on a regular basis driven by the amount of grass debris? Was a pressure washer used which would bend the fins?

Meantime, the temperature gauge needs to be watched like a pilot in a cockpit.

 

[JMitchell]

Agree about checking first two items.

However, it sounds like the cooling air is not moving enough through the heat exchanger. If you cannot get to see between the fins where the air moves through, and see that the fins are shiny clean, you should remove the heat exchanger for cleaning out of the machine.

I think that the reason cooling water needed to be added was that the machine was overheating and would blow coolant out of the radiator and expansion tank. It could be from too high of ground speed. Was the grass in head, that is, had it gone into seed production, which would clog the fins. Were the fins ever cleaned, or on a regular basis driven by the amount of grass debris? Was a pressure washer used which would bend the fins?

Meantime, the temperature gauge needs to be watched like a pilot in a cockpit.

Yes I agree the issue arose due to the cooling pack was not cleaned correctly and in a timely manner.
When I did the service after taking over the tractor from the previous user I used air from an electric garden blower and a garden hose with a typical hand trigger nozzle. Water pressure came from a catchment tank at about 25 psi. This next week I will inspect the cooling fins more closely and report back. If some of the fins are bent can they just be bent back to shape?

I just read another article and it mentioned the transmission system causing an overheat condition. Not suer of the correlation. The MX5400 uses a HST and the hyd fluid has about 150 hours on it.

 

[Jim L.]

Yes, fins can be bent back. The tool is called a fin comb or radiator comb. But a flat tool can be used with patience and a gentle, steady hand.