Oil water mix in radiator JCB 185 Robot skid steer

[Bill1985]

hey guys, any help would be appreciated. Picked up a jcb 185 robot skid steer. Runs great, but when I looked at radiator there is oil mixed with the water in there.
I emptied the radiator and flushed it and after a few minutes it’s mixed again. Any idea how it’s getting in there and how to fix it?
Thanks

 

[DIYDAVE]

Could be several sources, head gasket, oil cooler, hyd oil cooler. I would start with a compression check, then move on to coolers, which dipstick gets lowest firstest?

 

[kshansen]

Could be several sources, head gasket, oil cooler, hyd oil cooler. I would start with a compression check, then move on to coolers, which dipstick gets lowest firstest?

Yes first thing I would want to try to determine is where the oil is coming from.

Been a few years since I touched the 185 they had at the quarry so I don't recall if there were any coolers where the fluids could mix. If the oil looked real dark I would suspect it is engine oil.

Tried doing some looking online but not too much info seen there. However it looks like the "High-flow" models do have a coolant cooled hydraulic filter. The one poor drawing I saw looked like this cooler was connected to the engine by heater hoses so it might be possible to easily remove it without major work. But first you need to try to figure out what oil you are getting into the coolant.

 

[Bill1985]

Hey guys thanks for the info. Compression test good so I’m thinking head gasket is good. Engine oil levels are good, and doesn’t seem to have any water in it. But the hydraulic oil is what is getting low and there is water in the hydraulic oil. So I’m thinking I should be looking at transmission oil cooler, is it possible the hydraulic filter coolant system is to blame?

 

[DIYDAVE]

You could try the dealer approach, which is generally to replace the most expensive part, first. I's prolly take the hyd oil cooler off, and carefully observe, try to devise a test, like drawing a vacuum on the cooler coolant lines, or try same, on the hyd lines, to that cooler...

 

[kshansen]

Hey guys thanks for the info. Compression test good so I’m thinking head gasket is good. Engine oil levels are good, and doesn’t seem to have any water in it. But the hydraulic oil is what is getting low and there is water in the hydraulic oil. So I’m thinking I should be looking at transmission oil cooler, is it possible the hydraulic filter coolant system is to blame?

Well if there is water in the hydraulic system and the hydraulic oil is going down sounds pretty obvious from what you are telling us the problem is in the hydraulic oil cooler assuming the cooler is a water to oil type.

Once the cooler is off it should not be hard to rig up some way to put air pressure on the oil side of the cooler and watch for it to come out the water side. If it is a slow leak may need to submerge cooler in a tub of water to see the bubbles. Would need some pictures of the cooler to advise on how to hook it up but should be simple.

Some coolers can be repaired best bet would be to take to a radiator shop for their opinion.

 

[DIYDAVE]

Thats why I suggest vacuum test, its a lot easier to find a small leak, with vacuum, than with compressed air, assuming you can get the connections tight enough, where you draw the vacuum...