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where could my coolant be going???

A

Anonymous-0

Well-known Member
Hey folks,
German made farmall 3cyl diesel (D-111) motor. Loosing coolant somewhere. No water in oil and no oil in water. Runs fine with no unusual smoke. Always has a little black film in coolant (like soot) but no foam. No visible leaks but cooland disappears somewherecouple of qts a month with daily or almost daily use of an hour or less. Getting ready to run a dishwasher tab thru the system to clean everything and put in fresh mix for the winter and keep some mix to add but would like to find/fix the problem if possible.

Any ideas?

Thanks, Dave
 
Farmalls don't like a full radiator tank.

You're not overfiliing that thing are ya? They'll just dump out the overflow if ya do. Every time.

Allan
 
(quoted from post at 13:02:54 10/24/10) how old are your hoses, one could have a pinhole allowing steam to escape under preasure without leaving a sign of a leak. same could be happening with your radiator.
Click to expand...

Not very old but I very seldom run it long enough to get warm enough to steam. Don't have a thermostat in it at the moment either :roll:

Dave
 
(quoted from post at 13:07:53 10/24/10) Farmalls don't like a full radiator tank.

You're not overfiliing that thing are ya? They'll just dump out the overflow if ya do. Every time.

Allan
Click to expand...

Could that be???? I always fill it to the bottom of neck and add when I see the tops of the tubes. When it's off there is no coolant in the tank, but when it runs there is about a quarter inch or so flowing in the tank.

Dave
 
These old cooling systems don"t have external bottles to take up the overflow for the expansion that occurs when when the coolant is warmed up. You should only fill the radiator to about 1/4" above the core. The rest of the space is for expansion.
 
(quoted from post at 13:50:23 10/24/10) These old cooling systems don"t have external bottles to take up the overflow for the expansion that occurs when when the coolant is warmed up. You should only fill the radiator to about 1/4" above the core. The rest of the space is for expansion.
Click to expand...

I'll try that.

Dave
 
I had a dodge van do the same thing to me. Couldn't find the leak. About 2 years later the pulley spun off the water pump. Pump locked up. A small amount of coolant was leaking out the pump seal and the heat from the engine caused it to dry. There were no visiable signs of a leak up to the point where the pump locked up.
 
Could be burning it, too, if it's just a little. (head gasket, or cyl crack, or head crack). There is a test that you can do for that, involves putting a rubber stopper in the radiator neck, with a special glass vial in the stopper, the vial has a sintered bronze plug in it, that holds in a blue liquid, that changes color, if you are getting exhaust gasses into the radiator. I wouldn't do this test, unless I was having problems with the cap continually blowing, or constantly seeing little bubbles, or foam in the top of the tank. My tractors are always blowing fluid out the overflow, on hot days, the one that leaks worst, gets all the used antifreeze, from all the other tractors, that way I never have to throw any away, and as I fix some up, the ole dog gets fed, too.
 
Dave stop drinking that stuff it will kill you LOL bet you have a head gasket problem and it is slow enough that it is boiling as the engine fires so you do not see or smell it
 
If you can put a pressure tester on it, that will tell you if you have a leak and whether or not it's a head gasket. If the pressure takes off as soon as you start the engine, you have a blown head gasket.
 
Okay, paid about $8000 cash for a bsd 4 cyl diesel, used it in Ford 5000, around 100, 200 hours max. Recxent summer day, ran it, parked, checked oil like always, clouded, as was radiator. Changed head gasket, same problem. Now what?
Can't find much about problem bsd's but one guy claims clyinders fail, get pitted and hole follows, then water. Anyone heard that?
 
(quoted from post at 22:49:00 11/01/10) Okay, paid about $8000 cash for a bsd 4 cyl diesel, used it in Ford 5000, around 100, 200 hours max. Recxent summer day, ran it, parked, checked oil like always, clouded, as was radiator. Changed head gasket, same problem. Now what?
Can't find much about problem bsd's but one guy claims clyinders fail, get pitted and hole follows, then water. Anyone heard that?
Click to expand...

I can't answer your question, but you may want to start your own thread. This one is a few days down the list and some of these folks (especially the ones that usually have all the answers) are too hard headed to use modern view where things are always brought up top when there is activity.

Good Luck.

Dave
 

Dave, I have a Case/IH 385 with the German 3cyl diesel (D-155), and the water stays close to the top. So it sounds to me that you're losing coolant somewhere.

I would do as Mark suggested and use a pressure tester on it.
Hopefully it's something minor.
 
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