Eng. operating temp. DGH

[Carl Besola]

Hello folks, Carl B. from da U.P. here, I have a question for those of you who are knowledgeable about Cletracs. My DGH runs very well, has good pushing power, etc. But after about 20 mins. of working, the temp. starts to come up to around 200-220 deg. The coolant appears to be circulating well, and the inside of the radiator appears to be clean, the radiator doesn't seem to have anything from the engine in it, i.e, oil, crankcase gas etc. There does seem to be a small amount of moisture in the crank case breather cap, but this might be normal for an old machine as there does not seem to be any water in the eng. oil. Also if I idle her down for a couple of minutes she'll cool back down to 190 or so. Sounds like a dirty radiator I know, but she sure does circulate the coolant! The book I have doesn't show a thermostat of any kind, so I wonder what the operating temp. should be. If anyone can help with this problem I'd appreciate it, Thanks, Carl B.

[Blake Malkamaki]

Carl, are the fins intimately connected to the tubes in the radiator? Sometimes the old radiators start coming apart and you can scrape the fins out with your fingernails.

Not sure of the temperature - however, if the water does not boil away and is circulating, you should be ok.

Blake

[G Huffman]

Some engines overheat when the thermostat is removed.  The water goes through the radiator so fast that it does not have time to cool much.  I have seen this hapen on some International Harvester diesels.  I plan to run some cooling system cleaner in my AG6 before I drain it and put some antifreeze in it.

[cletracboy]

Are you checking the temperature with the guage or with a seperate thermometer? could it be the guage if its the former, does it sit on zero when cold before use.  If its the same as a BD which it may not be, the thermostat is on the top hose between the rad and the water manifold.  Also worth checking the fan belt is good and tight.  Other things would be to check the air filters are not blocked.

[walter hudson]

i had the same problem with my bgsh,is the exterior of the core clean,i spent hours with an air blow gun cleaning mine, that cured mine, is there any compression leaking into the cooling system { bubbles in the tank of the rad. when hot and running}? also like most tractor manuals say you could be ok mechanically but the crawler is being overloaded and causing overheating,with a older machine ,with some wear this is more likely to happen.
                                               good luck walter

[Crawler Boy]

Have you tied to clean the waterjackets in the engine block. I have had some older Tractors and they had a lot of rust inte waterjackets because
they did not use any antifeeze so the coolant dont circulate good ,but its difficult to flush it out without having the cyl head off. but you can tried flush throug the hoses.

[CletracFan]

I had the same issue with my DGH this summer.    I removed the cover above the water pump and found lots of rust and sediment.   After cleaning the cooling jacket I also removed the heads and found rust flakes stuck in the small cooling holes in the head gaskets.   After cleaning and filling with fresh coolant,  I have not had any more cooling trouble.   Before disassemby I used a non contact thermometer with the lazer dot and noted the temps on the heads and exhaust manifold to  help narrow in on the hot spots.     Hope this helps.   Tim