Cat 314d engine temperature too high

[D3DaveC]

My 314d is running too hot according to the Gage. It's showing a little over half but when I turn on the air conditioning it doesn't take long to go to one bar from red. Pulled out the thermostat. Says 160 farenheit. Works in a pot of hot water. What is the recommended thermostat? Looks like it was taken apart by the previous owner when he installed a new water pump. Maybe he put it in the wrong way? Which is the right way? Brass button up or down? Radiator looks clean. Anything else I can check why it's running hot? 8500 hours on it. Thanks

 

[lantraxco]

Copper capsule always goes down, toward the block.

Your problem may be in the air conditioning since the engine seems to be cooling fine under normal work load?

Are you missing any material around the radiator that would allow air to recirculate, is the fan shroud intact, are the belts tight, is the fan possibly installed backwards? Fans will still move air in the right direction if installed backwards, they're just inefficient as a wood watch.

 

[D3DaveC]

I took off the cover beside the battery compartment and took the screen off what looks like an oil cooler rad and it is quite dirty. How do I properly clean the engine radiator with that oil cooler in front. Does it unbolt and hinge some place to get at the engine radiator?

 

[Nige]

As the best of manuals always say - "Some diasassembly required". And in this case the more disassembly you do the more you're likely to find that's plugging up the air flow through the radiator. For thorough cleaning purposes generally it's best to remove the radiator/cooler as a unit then split it once it's on the ground.

 

[John C.]

Never had to remove the radiator and coolers unless they were leaking fluid. The key is to not use any water.

I made an air lance with about a three foot piece of 1/2" pipe, some fittings and a butterfly valve. Put a pipe sleeve on one end. Take a pipe plug and drill a hole through the center. Mine just happened to be the diameter that Cummins used for checking crankcase pressure on an 855 engine, so I have two uses for the drilled plug. Screw it into the pipe sleeve. Install the butterfly valve on the other end and hook up a male air chuck valve. My old compressor would put out 17 CFM at 70PSI with about an 1/8" hole in the pipe plug. More CFMs would be better.

Work over the radiator and coolers with the engine shut down blowing toward the engine. I would then do what I could blowing back from the engine side. Once I got all I could that way I would start the engine and watch the blast of dust, then leave it running and work over the coolers again from the outside going toward the engine.

Some machines put a plate under the house that you can remove which will let the debris fall out from between the radiator and coolers as you blow them out. Many don't have this and you might have to take a shop vac and pull out as much debris as possible as you clean. I never will understand how an engineer can be so blind to an obvious maintenance problem that they keep doing the same stupid design over and over again for years on end. Make it easy to clean these things and you will have the better mouse trap.

 

[D3DaveC]

I took apart what I could and made a 45 for the end of the pressure washer wand. With very hot water I cleaned the radiators until the dirty water turned clean. Today will be horribly hot so a good day to try it. I like the blast of air technique too.

 

[Nige]

I like the blast of air technique too.

Be aware that the air blast technique will only be 100% successful if there is asbolutely no trace whatsoever of oil or grease anywhere on the unit.