YM3110D Overheating - Time for new radiator?

[drunderw]

Good evening everyone,

I've had an issue with my YM3110D overheating the past few times I've used it to cut the fields. I'm running through stuff less than a foot high running at 2000 RPMs and after about 20-30min I start hitting up near 215 on my temperature gauge. For my gauge I replaced the stock one with an actual gauge from Hoye. I've flushed the radiator (at time time very brown) and am running 50/50 mix and the front of the radiator is clean as I've pulled the screen and made sure it's clean each time. If I shut off the PTO and let it sit at 2000 RPM the temp will come down to 190 but I can get to working again and after about 10 minutes I'm back at 215. It really makes getting work done hard having to stop. Sometimes I can go longer but I'm having to constantly watch the gauge and stop and let it cool down so I don't go too hot. Is it time to buy a new radiator? If so I'm planning to order and install the new one this weekend. The ragweed around here will start blooming soon and I've got a bunch of the field uncut because I can't get into it without the tractor overheating. We've got some pretty nasty allergies so I'm wanting to knock that out.

Thanks for the thoughts!

David

 

[repete]

Have you tried spraying water through the radiator core in the opposite direction as the air is pulled through the radiator. Remove the screen and take a spray nozzle and flush from the non screen side. It is sometimes surprising how much stuff comes out.

 

[careyo63]

Watch your overflow bottle and see how hot it's showing. If it's not changing you may have a gauge problem still? Doubtful but check the sensor is clean. Also you can rent or borrow a pressure tester from most any big chain auto parts store. Then you pretty much rule out the head gasket pressuring up the Sys.. My guess is the Radiator still needs a good flushing. May be worth taking the Radiator to a shop and have them go through it.

 

[drunderw]

Thanks. I replaced the head gasket April 2017 due to a faulty temp warning light and it running hot and blowing coolant out of the bottle and steaming. That may have damaged the radiator when it did that, but I never knew how often it ran hot before that since I'd only had it a couple months prior. I haven't run water through in the opposite direction through the fins so I need to try that. The new radiator is like $300 so unless someone working on it would be cheap I'd probably just get a new one - I have no idea how much that would cost - I may call some local shops to see.

 

[rScotty]

Have you tried spraying water through the radiator core in the opposite direction as the air is pulled through the radiator. Remove the screen and take a spray nozzle and flush from the non screen side. It is sometimes surprising how much stuff comes out.

Everytime I do that I'm amazed at how much dirt comes out the front of the radiator. Don't use a power washer, just a garden hose and use a real soft brush to get some dish soap into the fin area. It always makes me feel real good when I clean the radiator that way....don't know if I've ever seen a difference in temperature though...
rScotty

 

[careyo63]

Worst case check Charlotte area. There be someone who will do it. Depending how bad it is will reflect the price. As you described I don't think it's that bad. Clemsonfor a member on here is in Greenwood been to the my house before. Great guy! He'll most likely know someone local to you. If he don't I'll ask some relatives in Mooresville. Big in racing there know.

 

[clemsonfor]

i was going to say a radiator shop. They will be less than $100 they do what you call rodding it out. They will make it like a new one. But usually when this is effective the radiator is so crudded up you can see it by just looking inside the tanks and see the crud. It works. I don't personally know one in the charlotte area, but there usually in the downtowns in the automotive districts and the older suburb areas. In that area there will be plenty with the motor sports in that area. The dirt track guys will know who to use. Look up in the yellow pages or google. These places are a dying breed usually and don't have fancy websites usually so when google does not turn up anything don't worry to much. You can go to your good local parts place...not really advance or auto zone (you never know who your talking to at those places), but like a Napa or CARQUEST and find the older guy who knows all the places around you and ask where the radiator shop is.

Did you pressure test the head? Are you sure its sealed up tight? I'm not saying you cant blow out a radiator with a bad head, i have never seen it, but i also am no expert. But the radiator cap only allows pressurization within safe limits of the system/radiator, anythi9ng beyond the caps limits just blows out into the overflow bottle and if that fills up just blows onto the ground.

 

[clemsonfor]

oh your not in charlotte, it says Greenville area. My Late father in law use to have a shop there. I personally have carried a few radiators to be fixed and picked up a few in the Greenville area. There was a shop in what they call the Berea area. It was right next to the ...oh heck whats that greasy dinner we use to eat lunch at? I will have to look it up, not sure if it even was open anymore. His shop price i think was like $60 or 75 to "rodd" one out. If your not from around here or don't know what there saying it sometimes sounds like the say "rotting one out". haha

 

[treedawg]

My YM2000 overheated when I ran it hard until I pulled the radiator and had it flushed at a local radiator shop.

That was much cheaper than a new radiator.

I also replaced all the old hoses while they were easy to access with the radiator removed.

 

[kenmac]

not many (if any) radiator shops left around me. only does large trucks, or heavy equipment.
With all these new radiators now being made with mostly plastic and aluminum for vehicles, most radiator shops have gone out of business

 

[normde2001]

Before you buy a new radiator try a correct back-flush. Disconnect the upper hose at the radiator, remove the rad cap, stuff a garden hose into the upper hose and seal with rags, cover electricals with plastic, turn on water, gradually increasing pressure. Run full pressure until water runs clear out radiator top. I have a 4' hose extension I use on my nozzle for this. Again, be absolutely sure fins are clear. Shine a light through the radiator. You should run about 160* max

 

[coosa]

I have posted here before about my 2210d that runs hotter than I think it should when running a bush hog. It sounds like you could benefit from rodding out your radiator, but I don't think it would help me. Mine is a Fredrick's tractor and the radiator is nearly new. They replaced the radiator, water pump, and thermostat when they redid the tractor.

The temp gauge will stay on the center mark for the first hour or so of work, but then it gradually moves towards the 3/4 mark if I keep working. I've used a laser thermometer to check the temp at the top of the radiator where the coolant enters, and the center mark is 160 degrees, while the 3/4 mark is 190. I think that is hotter than it should run; is it?

My neighbor suggested I mount a fan to blow on the radiator and cool it down, so I found an 8" fan made for that purpose and tried it. It didn't help a bit. I think the radiator is just not big enough for the tractor. Good luck with yours.

 

[winston1]

I agree with coosa and believe some of the old YM models had just enough cooling and nothing extra. Too many times I have read of head gasket problems and I venture to say most were caused by overheating. No doubt poorly maintained cooling systems were a part of the problem. However, I have owned several different tractors in my lifetime and none had cooling problems other than the 2002D Yanmar. Just an opinion so go ahead a attack.

 

[rScotty]

I agree with coosa and believe some of the old YM models had just enough cooling and nothing extra. Too many times I have read of head gasket problems and I venture to say most were caused by overheating. No doubt poorly maintained cooling systems were a part of the problem. However, I have owned several different tractors in my lifetime and none had cooling problems other than the 2002D Yanmar. Just an opinion so go ahead a attack.

Yes, cooling was a problem with several old YM models. It was barely adequate in spite of the pretty good hi-copper brass that they used to make the radiator Yanmar published several technical bulletins on this. There were two fixes:

One problem was that on some models the shroud around the fan was not air-tight enough against the radiator to prevent flow from coming into the fan from the gap between the fan shroud and the radiator. So check that. If yours has a gap there, then the fix is to loosen the shroud and put some sticky backed weatherstripping foam tape into the gap all the way around and retighten the shroudso that it compresses the foam. Now the fan has to pull all of its air through the radiator.

That worked, but wasn't perfect. The next thing Yanmar suggested was not very intuitive, but it turned out to also help fix the problem. It turns out that the screen on the front of the radiator was putting enough resistance to the air flow that even when the screen was completely clean the air was being pulled from the edge gap between the screen and the radiator. When that happened, instead of an air flow straight through the radiator, most of the air was turning and going past only the outer cooling tubes of the radiator. Those were doing their job, but the rest of the radiator tubes weren't getting much air flow. There again the fix was sticky-backed foam tape. This time the foam tape is placed to seal the edge gap between the chaff screen and the radiator. Same principle.
Here's a tech bulletin that will give the general idea:
rScotty

 

[clemsonfor]

not many (if any) radiator shops left around me. only does large trucks, or heavy equipment.
With all these new radiators now being made with mostly plastic and aluminum for vehicles, most radiator shops have gone out of business

that's why i say there a dyeing breed and if any are left. And yes most of them do equipment now a days where the radiators are hundreds of dollars and easily thousands when you get into big stuff.

 

[denchen]

This might sound crazy but......you could try adding a stronger portion of antifreeze to the radiator solution. It is a fact that glycol, used in the make up of some antifreeze, attracts heat much more than just water, but at the same time it gets rid of the heat much faster. If you look at the old spitfires and hurricanes that flew in the last world war, they were run on nearly pure `glycol` because they only had room for small radiators, and they had big engines. There is a down side. If you have a weak wall in the cooling system, the glycol will find it. And if you get shot at, there is a bigger risk of it catching fire. Also beware, if there is a fire, the flame will be almost invisible.

 

[clemsonfor]

Yes, cooling was a problem with several old YM models. It was barely adequate in spite of the pretty good hi-copper brass that they used to make the radiator Yanmar published several technical bulletins on this. There were two fixes:

One problem was that on some models the shroud around the fan was not air-tight enough against the radiator to prevent flow from coming into the fan from the gap between the fan shroud and the radiator. So check that. If yours has a gap there, then the fix is to loosen the shroud and put some sticky backed weatherstripping foam tape into the gap all the way around and retighten the shroudso that it compresses the foam. Now the fan has to pull all of its air through the radiator.

That worked, but wasn't perfect. The next thing Yanmar suggested was not very intuitive, but it turned out to also help fix the problem. It turns out that the screen on the front of the radiator was putting enough resistance to the air flow that even when the screen was completely clean the air was being pulled from the edge gap between the screen and the radiator. When that happened, instead of an air flow straight through the radiator, most of the air was turning and going past only the outer cooling tubes of the radiator. Those were doing their job, but the rest of the radiator tubes weren't getting much air flow. There again the fix was sticky-backed foam tape. This time the foam tape is placed to seal the edge gap between the chaff screen and the radiator. Same principle.
Here's a tech bulletin that will give the general idea:
rScotty

i wonder if this was more model or engine specific? There are so many of us. I live in SC and routinely will bush hog on very hot summer days, easily 95F+ for hours and , knock on wood, have never had a problem other than when i first got my tractor and did not clean the fluff, seeds and grass and such from the screen often enough.

 

[kenmac]

There are several products on the market that aids in cooling. You might want to try one of these products.
I use to use water wetter in my race car. Now days,I'm sure there are others on the market.

My yanmar only runs hot when the radiator grass seed build up..

My kubota also gets hot when grass seeds get in the radiator.
I have to stop several times and wash out the radiator on the kubota

 

[rScotty]

i wonder if this was more model or engine specific? There are so many of us. I live in SC and routinely will bush hog on very hot summer days, easily 95F+ for hours and , knock on wood, have never had a problem other than when i first got my tractor and did not clean the fluff, seeds and grass and such from the screen often enough.

Going back through the Yanmar tech bulletins, it's easy to see that the overheating problem was specific to several models made by Yanmar during that era. No doubt it is going to depend a lot on the particular tractor & how it is used & all the rest of the radiator cooling system.

For instance on thermosiphon cooling systems (no water pump) used in early Yanmars, the amount of ethylene glycol that is to be mixed with water is limited ot 40 or 50%. That's because glycol has a lower heat transfer coefficient than water. So even though glycol has a higher heat capacity it still doesn't work for cooling as well as water because of the transfer coefficient. Once all the arm waving and calculations are done, the result is that a higher percentage of water makes for cooler running. However... the difference in cooling that you lose with 50% glycol instead of pure water is only about 5%. For a tractor working hard, that comes out to about 10 degrees F.

I'm an old-fashioned guy, and I'd have to say that anyone who designs a working diesel engine with a cooling system that works so poorly that a 5% difference in cooling makes a difference....well, that person needs to go back to engineering school and re-take the required course in thermodynamics.
There are plenty of thermosiphon cooling systems that work just fine. Including some other brands of tractors. None that I know of are as finicky as Yanmar's system.
I like Yanmars, but that doesn't stop me from seeing their flaws.

Hey! Is anyone else here old enough to remember when it was common practice to put specially cut pieces of cardboard in front of the radiator of both cars and tractors in order to get them to run at proper heat in the winter?
rScotty

 

[CalG]

If I may inquire.

What is the "correct" engine coolant temperature, and how has that been determined? From My understanding, Engines work best at "higher" temperatures, and pressurized radiator caps and high boiling point coolant mixes were developed to meet this requirement.

The "green bar" on the temperature gauge is a farce unless calibrated against a known good reference, such as boiling pure water. or according to the coolant, anti freeze mix guidelines.

Feeling good about coolant temperatures below the boiling point of pure water is foolish. Cooler is NOT better.
Find out the facts! Report back.

Blown head gaskets are an entirely different issue!