Radiator Water leak in 5740C

[Unclebuck257]

Today is Saturday, December 27th. Yesterday afternoon, I went out to the barn to use my 5740C to go bring down a round bale for the cows and immediately noticed something was different. The entire underneath of the tractor was wet, from the front of the engine to one side of the rear tires. I checked and thankfully it wasn't hydraulic fluid. It was just water, but then I started to check for bad hoses, bad hose connections etc and I couldn't find any. I checked the radiator and it was a little low, so I filled it up, put the cap back on and went to get that round bale down for the cows. I kept a close eye on the heat guage at the same time too. The heat guage didn't rise much, but a tiny bit higher than usual. By the time I got back from getting the round bale down etc., and got back to the barn area, everything underneath had dried, except for right under the very bottom of the radiator itself. It looked to be dripping onto the frame from that area, lightly. Anybody have a history with their Montana and this kind of water leak? Also, I'd rather not have to pull out the radiator and I wanted to try some kind of radiator stop leak product first. Any suggestions on a brand to use? Any suggestions would be appreciated and no, that drip leak from the bottom of the radiator doesn't look big enough to spray water all under the bottom of the tractor, but that's the only leak I've found, so for now I've got to work with what I can see.

 

[shakin]

no leaks here but i would discourage stop leak products they sometime plug up holes that you want open and cut down on you're cooling effiency.

 

[blueriver]

I don't like the stop leak idea ... I would get it fixed the right way. No leaks here on my Montana ... YET!!

BTW the temp went from 25 degrees to 70 degrees and expecting 30 tonight ... the Montana in the barn was completly wet, cab was fogged in as well. May not be a leak ...

 

[George2615]

If its a small leak I've had success using a tablespoon of black pepper in the radiator to stop the leak temporarily till I had the chance to get it repaired. Then you'll have to take it out and get it to a raditor shop who can repair it.

 

[JIGBUILDER]

(snip)
Any suggestions would be appreciated and no, that drip leak from the bottom of the radiator doesn't look big enough to spray water all under the bottom of the tractor, but that's the only leak I've found, so for now I've got to work with what I can see.

heat soak. When a engine is shut down a certain amount of engine heat soak can raise the engine internal and water temps a bit which adds more radiator pressure. I had a leak like that on a old radiator hose on the Cummins and the only time it leaked was just after shutdown. I would fix the leak the right way as it can get bigger with time.

Jim

 

[Unclebuck257]

OK, y'all have convinced me NOT to use any kind of stop leak product, or the like, on this radiator. Honestly, I had the same concerns and that's why I asked. I REALLY appreciate the input!! Any outside/off the tractor repairs to the radiator that may be needed will have to wait though since I use it several times a week to bring round bales down to our cattle and can' be without it right now. I'll keep a close eye on the situation in the interim. Temps are supposed to be warmer so that should help me.

blueriver,

I find it interesting that you found almost the same thing on your Montana in the barn too. I wasn't able to see any spraying type leak, even after it was run for a while, that would have gotten the entire underneath of the tractor, so maybe it was a condensation type thing. Nothing, and I mean nothing, like that had ever occured before with any tractor I've had and kept in my barn in the last ten years. The inside of my cab wasn't fogged up at all either. Time will tell I guess.

 

[Unclebuck257]

I used the tractor yesterday to move some round bales and also bring one down to our cows. I watched very closely for any water leaks from anywhere and wasn't able to find even one leak. I let the tractor idle and crawled under it, but still found no leaks. Brought the tractor back to the barn, shut it off and looked again for any leaks and didn't find any then either. Right now I'm just going to watch it closely everytime I use it because there's nothing else I can do.

Maybe blueriver was right and it was possibly a bad case of condensation over the entire underneath of the tractor.

 

[gemini5362]

I am at work so I cannot go look at my 4940c but I am wondering if there is an overflow bottle on the tractor for the radiator. If the radiator just has a hose that lets overflow drain then maybe you have a bad cap that when the pressure gets to a certain point it allows water to go out the overflow ?

 

[Unclebuck257]

gemini,

The 5740C has an overflow bottle, and the cap on mine is hard as heck to get off. I checked and on the day I found all that water underneath, etc.,the overflow bottle was empty. I put some antifreeze and water in it and the bottle level hadn't changed from then until yesterday...about half full.

 

[gemini5362]

You said it was half full. Did you fill it up when you added the water/antifreeze mix or did you just put some in it and now it has more water than you put in it. If you filled it up and it is now half full it is doing what it is supposed to do and adding water to your radiator as it loses it. This would mean that you have a leak somewhere.

If you have more water in it than you put in there it again is doing its job and catching water as the pressure gets too high in the radiator and pushes water out past the setting on the cap.