XT40 with a fever????

[fastcat]

I've had my case xt40 for about a year and a half now, it's got 3200 hours. I put about 500 hours on it. Anyway, ever time I dig in the dirt with it for more than an hour the high temp warning light comes on and some times the high oil temp light will follow. If I stop and wait a few minutes it goes off and your good for an other 1/2 hour.
I've cleaned the radiator and oil cooler, fan is working fine.....??? Last winter I added coolant to give it a higher freeze point, and it was fine until this summer. Think I'm going to put it back to a straight 50/50, not sure why it would get hot. Water pump? It's not leaking or making noise and thermostats are usually either good or bad. It's never actually over heated, however the light coming on has got to be fixed. The digging I was doing is in straight sand and I wasn't over working the machine. It should of handled it just fine.
Any ideas or thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

 

[willie59]

Welcome to HEF fastcat. :drinkup

I wish I could offer a solution, but I'm puzzled. You've cleaned radiator and oil cooler externally, verified fan is working fine, meaning sufficient air flow over cores, but then the high engine temp light comes on. If that's all it was I would say radiator problem. But...you stated "some times high oil temp light will follow". There's the rub, and if that is in fact the case, sounds like something is heating up the hyd oil excessively which heats up the coolant radiator as well since air flows through the oil cooler before it goes through the radiator. Just my thoughts.

 

[Lil' Puss]

I've seen that issue before on other equipment, and what had happened was the thermostat controlled bypass had failed partially open so most of the oil wasn't going through the cooler like it should have. I don't know if your machine is so equipped.

 

[fastcat]

that makes sense

I've seen that issue before on other equipment, and what had happened was the thermostat controlled bypass had failed partially open so most of the oil wasn't going through the cooler like it should have. I don't know if your machine is so equipped.

I have part book and other manuals, I will look. I'm glad I posted here, there had to be something like that causing this problem. I like this machine a lot and I don't want to damage it, and taking it to a dealer for a repair like this could be expensive. thanks

 

[mitch504]

When you say you've cleaned radiator, have you blown thru the radiator and the oil cooler in the opposite direction of airflow? And put an airgun between them to blow thru them individually?

 

[fastcat]

cleaning radiator

When you say you've cleaned radiator, have you blown thru the radiator and the oil cooler in the opposite direction of airflow? And put an airgun between them to blow thru them individually?

It's all sand and dust at our vacation property were I use it and I blew out both sides and rinsed the oil cooler and radiator with water.

I haven't found that valve it the previous post, still looking through the parts book for exploded view.

 

[fastcat]

valve

ok the case book with diagrams shows quite a few valves, however there isn't one listed as thermostat controlled by-pass. I'll flip the cab forward this weekend and see if I can find something. Maybe I'll change the thermostat while I'm at it, can hurt.

 

[Delmer]

Glycol has a higher viscosity and lower heat capacity than water, so higher concentrations will cool less efficiently, but that is a small difference compared to the overcapacity built into typical cooling systems. Couldn't hurt to run it a while, till it heats up, check the temps going into and out of the radiator-water and air, let it idle till it's normal temp, drain the antifreeze (save it), fill it with distilled or rain water, run it another couple hours like you had been, drain again and see what the water looks like. Then see what settled out of the antifreeze while it was sitting.

It's hard to be sure a radiator is clean with an oil cooler in the way, kind of like tearing up old carpet, it might look clean but it's always gross inside.

 

[Lil' Puss]

Do you have a coolant filter installed on the engine?

 

[fastcat]

No coolant filter or valve, double checked book and stopped at case dealer. They said no thermostat controlled check valve. Bought a new thermostat, going to try that and I also bought a new coolant tester. I'm going to flush the system put it back to 50/50 and clean the radiator and oil cooler with coil cleaner. I do hvac for a living and we use a copper/ aluminum cleaner on A coils that some of the guys use on their four wheelers, so I'm going to use it on the case. Hopefully I will win and be able to report back some good news. The case dealer threw out the idea of electrical problems?? He said something about a possible short circuit, seeing as it never actually over heated. He also said head gasket, but it's not a head gasket, no oil water mix, no loss of water, no foamy oil or anything like that. I'm thankful for the ideas from this web site because this little problem is like the Harley, every time it's a hundred dollars. One hydraulic oil filter and a thermostat 105.00, gotta pay to play....thanks for the ideas, I'll post after I get back.

 

[fastcat]

Starting the week a little embarrassed, however quite happy my machine is fixed. Thank you, thank you for asking me about the radiator and how I cleaned it. I got a late start changing the thermostat on Saturday, and I couldn't get the belt off, frustrated and in a hurry. I decide just to pull the radiator, well what a surprise. The middle was fine, but any where the plastic shroud covered the edges it was packed tight. I couldn't see that and when I shined a light behind it, it looked good, good only in the middle where the light shined through. Then to make matter worse, once clean, I find 30 percent of the fins where folded over/damaged. 4 hours later, two small screw drivers, one can of hvac coil cleaner and 4 cups of coffee, sunday morning it was done. Something must have got in there on the last owner, rag, cat? The outer edge fins where folded in the prefect circle a round the edge of the fan. I used it digging like I did the week before, in 92 degree heat with no problems. I would of never a thought it was that dirty and damaged. You can feel the heat threw the radiator and oil cooler 10 feet way, it's never been like that in the year I've owned it......Thanks again....fyi that coil cleaner spray helped and worked well, will use it again to keep it clean

 

[Lil' Puss]

I also did A/C & Reefer work at one time. Wouldn't be caught dead without one of these.

http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/WESTWARD-Condenser-Fin-Comb-1DXN3?Pid=search

Glad you're up and running again.

A trick that a lot of us use that have puller fans (pulls air through the heat exchanger) is to attach a furnace filter to the intake side, and either shake it out at the end of the day or change it. Works like a charm.

 

[fastcat]

Ya ya, on the way home, I ordered some extra temporary filter media. We use it to keep things clean until all finish work is done, other wise the grille's get brown and dirty looking. I'm buying that comb, for work though. The radiator in the case had a tag on the side, it said Modine. I got a laugh from that, it was a different style than the ones you can comb, more industrial. It was so bad that if that happens again I will get it re-cored. I still can believe I didn't see any of that, I'm also buying one of those flexible cameras, so hopefully next time I can see what I'm doing. Thanks Again, you have a lot of good idea's. I may need some dozer ideas in the future, my John Deere 350 has been sitting in land o lakes, WI at some property we have and I think I'm going to rebuild her.

 

[mitch504]

Glad to here you got it fixed, don't feel bad, I've had that "are you sure your radiators clean, go check between them again", discussion over and over with many people. Long as you learned something from it, you're ahead of most.