L1500dt overheated, looking for advice

xmikew

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Equipment
L1500DT
Apr 15, 2017
226
1
16
Charleston
Have not run her in a few months. Went to go do a minor task. Checked oil and gas and after glowing she fired up just fine.

Did about 10 minutes of work. Came back to switch implements and when I went to shutdown to take off mower, I pressed the throttle all the way in and nothing happened! I pulled the kill switch and she shut down.

Jumped off tractor and went to go investigate throttle linkage thinking the spring broke and noticed some wispy smoke from under the hood.

Lifted it up and saw some very faint white smoke coming from where upper radiator hose attaches to engine.

Went inside and got my thermometer, measured 205 at upper and 70 at lower. It’s 60 degrees today.

The throttle linkage still feels sticky. I can’t be sure but I’m sure I reduced throttle at some point during my small stint of work.

Engine sounded fine although had my ear plugs in. Checked radiator and 4 cups brought it back where I could see it. I had 50/50 mix in it.

I do see a tiny antifreeze leak (see pictures). Only see it when running.

My plan is to change oil and look for metal. Clean radiator with some soap and water. Start her up and check temps are normal. Any other advice? Is the throttle being sticky an indicator of something serious or just needs some lubricant and working it?

Thanks for any advice. Hope she’s not toast :(





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Dunbar

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While waiting for the experts I would say you have 2 different problems and your engine is going to be fine. Small coolant leak. Throttle problem.

Fix the coolant leak, either hose, connection or radiator. Figure out what is binding with the throttle which is probably why you did not go when mashing on the foot feed.

205 F is not in the danger zone. I don't know what temp the thermostat's open but in my Powerstroke it's 190 F. Looks like your radiator is cooling like it should and your engine was seeing cooler fluid returning to it.
 

xmikew

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Equipment
L1500DT
Apr 15, 2017
226
1
16
Charleston
Thanks. It’s thermosiphon. No pump or thermostat. Not sure if the the 4 cups short was enough to have the water below the upper radiator hose inlet. I can’t find in the manual what the engine temp should be. Will do some searching on the forums.
 

Russell King

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You should be okay but see if you’re getting bubbles into the radiator. Search for better information but I think you start engine cold, have radiator cap off before starting and just look into the radiator as the engine warms up to temperature. If there is a cracked head or blown head gasket you will see the pressure in the cylinder blowing into the radiator.

If there is a problem on the oil side you will see radiator fluid in the oil and probably an increase in oil level


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North Idaho Wolfman

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Fill the radiator to the top, run it and look for bubbles, and or white smoke out of exhaust if neither is present, you should be fine, pull the radiator and get the tank repaired.

If either bubbles or white smoke, you have either cracked the head or blown the head gasket.
 

xmikew

Member

Equipment
L1500DT
Apr 15, 2017
226
1
16
Charleston
Thanks y’all. Bubble thing makes sense. I did check the oil after and it looked good. Didn’t notice white smoke. The stack is right I front of my face so assuming I would see it. Maybe not though. Will do the bubble test after cleaning rad and see if I see bubbles and can pinpoint the leak in the rad.

Thanks again!


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SidecarFlip

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From the looks of that radiator, I'd say a boil out and resolder is in order, IOW, it looks crappy.
 

shootem604

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Does that tractor have the steam whistle warning too? If you overheated, it should have been whistling
 

xmikew

Member

Equipment
L1500DT
Apr 15, 2017
226
1
16
Charleston
So good news. Started and ran for about 5 minutes. No bubbles in radiator and no white smoke. Thinking just need to give rad a good cleaning. Oiled the throttle mechanism and it’s working again for now. The spring that returns the throttle seems a little weak after 40 some odd years. Also the very slow leak there at at the top of the radiator I’ll need to fix.

Thanks for the suggestion on checking for bubbles! Gives me a little piece of mind.

- Mike


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Last edited:

xmikew

Member

Equipment
L1500DT
Apr 15, 2017
226
1
16
Charleston
So it didn’t overheat. It’s a coolant leak and the fan blows it all around but when you stop the tractor the coolant stays put and the heat from the motor starts vaporizing it. Hard to say where it is coming from since it gets blown everywhere. Might be coming from the top hose or maybr from the front cover or valve cover? Never been in the engine so not sure.

Bad tractor day. Also diff lock seems to stick and I think my fwd isn’t working anymore. Being out in the rain probably doesn’t help. I’ll have a leanto for her in a month.





- Mike
 

North Idaho Wolfman

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So it didn’t overheat. It’s a coolant leak and the fan blows it all around but when you stop the tractor the coolant stays put and the heat from the motor starts vaporizing it. Hard to say where it is coming from since it gets blown everywhere. Might be coming from the top hose or maybe from the front cover or valve cover?
It most likely the housing or the hose connection, if it's the valve cover, you have serious issues, as there is only supposed to be oil under there! ;)
 

xmikew

Member

Equipment
L1500DT
Apr 15, 2017
226
1
16
Charleston
It most likely the housing or the hose connection, if it's the valve cover, you have serious issues, as there is only supposed to be oil under there! ;)
Thanks NIW, yea sometimes i do not think about what i write, gets me in trouble sometimes!

If anyone is keeping track, it takes me a long time to get anything done. I've been keeping the tractor filled with coolant and i've only run it about 10 minutes total for a few times. Anyway, I think the coolant leak is coming from what kubota calls "water flange" and guessing what NIW calls "housing" It's what the upper radiator hose goes into on the engine side. The leak does not appear to be coming from the upper rad hose

It seems like i probably just need to get:

https://www.messicks.com/part/15296-72920/gasket-water-fl,

Take off upper rad hose. Unbolt housing, put new gasket in place. Re put things back. It doesn't seem like I'd need to put any permatex on the bolts or anything? Seems like the gasket would take care of all that.

Seems like a 30 minute job. So in reality for me, i'm looking at 4 hours! :)

Thanks for any pointers,

- Mike
 

North Idaho Wolfman

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Thanks NIW, yea sometimes i do not think about what i write, gets me in trouble sometimes!

If anyone is keeping track, it takes me a long time to get anything done. I've been keeping the tractor filled with coolant and i've only run it about 10 minutes total for a few times. Anyway, I think the coolant leak is coming from what kubota calls "water flange" and guessing what NIW calls "housing" It's what the upper radiator hose goes into on the engine side. The leak does not appear to be coming from the upper rad hose

It seems like i probably just need to get:

https://www.messicks.com/part/15296-72920/gasket-water-fl,

Take off upper rad hose. Unbolt housing, put new gasket in place. Re put things back. It doesn't seem like I'd need to put any permatex on the bolts or anything? Seems like the gasket would take care of all that.

Seems like a 30 minute job. So in reality for me, i'm looking at 4 hours! :)

Thanks for any pointers,

- Mike
Oh that water housing or flange can be a real bear on some engines, it's the bottom middle nut that's the killer. :(
 

D2Cat

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Here's a wrench I made for that awkward bolt on an L2050. Took an old screwdriver and a socket, welded them as shown and then ground down the OD of the socket to get more operating room. Be sure to use a 12 pt socket. Weld the socket at the tip of the screwdriver at 90 deg.
 

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xmikew

Member

Equipment
L1500DT
Apr 15, 2017
226
1
16
Charleston
got a little time to work on this today. Pb blastered the bolts on the housing. Looks like I can reach all the bolts with a 13mm deep socket and the one in the middle would be a open end 13mm.

Put 13mm on the first bolt, applied some pressure with my small rachet, and pop, off came the head of the first bolt 10 minutes into the repair.

Took off the radiator hose anyway and noticed the inlet on the housing was not in good shape. My guess is the lip got compromised, coolant sat between the hose and outside of the inlet, and then over time corroded the inlet. It's very pitted and also either 1) the metal started turning into something else, like calcified, or 2) water sat in there and calcified. The result is I could chisel little pieces of white stuff away to try to make the inlet smoother with just a flathead very easily. The rad hose was clamped as far down on the inlet as possible by PO. After smoothing the inlet with my flathead and some wet/dry sandpaper, attempted to clamp high up near the flare to see if I can prevent coolant from getting around the inlet and degrading it further. We'll see.

My guess is to get the housing off now, I'll need to remove the radiator and all the stuff forward of the housing and then drill the bolt out? Not sure on best process for that, Hoping someone had some experience with this. going to try to run her anyway and see how bad it leaks. I probably didn't even need to try to take that bolt off since it probably is leaking around the inlet. grr

Thanks!

\- Mike
 

North Idaho Wolfman

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Get the housing off, then the broken stud will be exposed, you can put a slightly larger nut over the stud and weld the stud to the nut, the heat on the stud will be a good thing as it will help break it free from the head.
 

xmikew

Member

Equipment
L1500DT
Apr 15, 2017
226
1
16
Charleston
Get the housing off, then the broken stud will be exposed, you can put a slightly larger nut over the stud and weld the stud to the nut, the heat on the stud will be a good thing as it will help break it free from the head.


Right! Good idea. Not sure why I was thinking the stud was “in” the housing. Thanks!


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