New to me occurance.

Inno

Well-known Member
I was plowing some snow yesterday (finally got some) with my TO35 gas and something happened that's never happened to me before. As I backed up I saw a large puddle of coolant on the ground. Thinking about the aftermarket rad I put in this spring I thought maybe something let loose in it as it's not nearly as sturdy as the original one was. So I stopped the tractor and went to have a look and both the upper and lower rad hoses where sucked almost flat. My only conclusion was that the rad cap did not open up to let air in when it should have. So I very carefully loosened it off and had to pry up a bit on it to get it to come off because I was fighting the vacuum in the cooling system. Once I did so, the hoses became round again and everything seemed to operate normally. Aside from replacing the rad cap, is there anything else I should be concerned about engine wise?
 
Did the engine overheat? If not you should be ok.
I had this happen to me on an old IH truck did not overheat was fine afterwards. How ever I did replace the rad hoses with ones that had wire reinforcing and a new cap.
Ypop
 
If you can't find rad hoses with a spring, buy
another hose with the same size spring in it. Remove
spring from second hose and install it in yours.
 
(quoted from post at 13:43:29 01/04/15) I was plowing some snow yesterday (finally got some) with my TO35 gas and something happened that's never happened to me before. As I backed up I saw a large puddle of coolant on the ground. Thinking about the aftermarket rad I put in this spring I thought maybe something let loose in it as it's not nearly as sturdy as the original one was. So I stopped the tractor and went to have a look and both the upper and lower rad hoses where sucked almost flat. My only conclusion was that the rad cap did not open up to let air in when it should have. So I very carefully loosened it off and had to pry up a bit on it to get it to come off because I was fighting the vacuum in the cooling system. Once I did so, the hoses became round again and everything seemed to operate normally. Aside from replacing the rad cap, is there anything else I should be concerned about engine wise?

Napa and O'Reillys both sell the springs to go inside your hose to keep them from collapsing. Of course old weak hoses that need replacing are more prone to collapsing.
 
The radiator on my old 1957 to35 had a leak,
I was going to replace it, but the local radiator
repairman said my radiator was twice the quality of
what he could sell me new.

He repaired the leak and said to just leave the cap
loose, the system will cool fine and I would not put
stress on the cooling system components.

I have kept the cap loose and for years now it has
worked fine.
 
Strange, did you find out where the coolant came from? Possibly it was too full and the coolant simply expanded and had to have somewhere to go, so it went out the overflow.

Thinking you're on the right track, the cap didn't let the air back in as it cooled. Be sure the overflow tube is clear, not clogged with paint, solder or bug nests. When replacing the cap, take it with you to match it up. I put an aftermarket rad on my TO35, the cap is like nothing I've ever seen before. If it outlasts the radiator, I doubt I'll ever find one!

The hoses were probably collapsed because of the vacuum. I've seen hoses collapse when running, but only when the engine was revved to high RPM, something your tractor is incapable of doing.
 
Well it didn't overheat, I think that was physically impossible with the outside temp. yesterday. I believe the coolant came out of the overflow. The rad cap was new when I put the new rad on. The hoses were also new around a year and a half to two years ago. I have another cap to put on, if it happens again I will do that and look for hoses with spring inside. Pretty sure it wasn't over filled. Thinking about that though, I had better check the level before taking it out again as it looks like I lost quite a bit. Just thought there might be something else I was missing as in a major engine failure pending.
 
If I lived where you live... I could see myself sucking myself inside myself to get away from the cold... so I can relate to the poor tractor...
Yeah, I guess the coil springs inside a radiator hose are there for a reason, this is the reason. I suppose a 'radial' or hoses made tougher for extreme use might be worth the extra money. keep warm up there!!!
 

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