Ford 3600 losing antifreeze/water

beck55

Member
Hey fellas, I"ve got a problem with my 3600 gasser. I"m losing water somewhere in the system and I can"t figure out where. When I run the engine under a moderate load for an hour or so the temp gauge reaches red. The radiator overflow hose spits out steam/water. After it cools down I check the water level and it is always down about a gallon. The water pump is circulating, the thermostat has been checked, no water in the oil, and no visible leaks. Before each use I top off the radiator and every time I end up losing about a gallon.I don"t know if all the water loss is from the overflow tube or if I"m losing it somewhere else which would cause overheating and the radiator tube is just blowing off steam. Is it possible the head gasket is blown on the exhaust side? It runs fine. Thanks for any help or suggestions!
 
Beck55,
Welcome to the best site on the whole internet to get information on that tractor.
In addition to checking for a steam cleaned spark plug - means bad head gasket, check for coolant leaking from the back of the head/top of the tranny and also look for coolant leaking from under the transmission.
There are 3 frost plugs on the back of the engine.
One in the head, one just below the head and one behind the flywheel.
They do rust out and leak sometimes.
Also, you shouldn't fill the radiator to the very top. Only fill it about 1" above the fins. A radiator will find it's own happy level and puke out any coolant above that.
Lastly, never assume. Verify.
You might have a faulty temp gauge OR temp sender AND you are overfilling the rad.
I would work it till the gauge gets close to the red and then open the rad cap (being careful not to let it blow all over you) and check the coolant temp with a meat thermometer.
Post back with your findings.
 

It sounds to me like it is not cooling so that after awhile it simply boils over and pushes it out. How did you verify circulation? Is the radiator really cooling? is the radiator clean inside and out?
 
If you're consistently filling it to the cap and it's consistently losing a full gallon... I would say you have a problem. A gallon is too much expansion on a 3 cylinder. Mabey half a gal at most...
Does the coolant look dirty/frothy/black? Do you see significant streams of bubbles in the coolant? I don't mean the odd circulation bubble in clean coolant.... but large jets of black gasey crap? If you do... then I'd say that you have a head gasket issue. If not... it is perhaps possible that it is plainly just over heating and puking some coolant out... If that's the case I'd start with a bottle of cooling system flush from the parts store. Use as directed on the particular product label... and rinse the stuff out thoroughly afterwards. That will take a LOT of crap out of the block and rad and may help expose whatever problem you have.

Also be aware that a water pump can and will leak without a lot of visible mess. Often when they start to go on those engines they will leak slowly enough that the coolant will evaporate on the engine's front cover. If you shine a light in from the right side and look at the pump and front cover you may see a trail of green dust on the front cover coming from the pump. Usually they don't lose a gallon per hour like that tho...
Anyhow, that's some starting points for you. More than likely one of them will work out for you.

Rod
 
Thanks for the advice Rod. I do not see the black/bubbly water issue that you mentioned. Hopefully it's just a leak. I'll flush out the system and try to track it down.
 
My only indication of circulation was watching the movement of water across the top of the radiator after the thermostat opened. I just assumed that meant the water pump was working it thru the engine. Not sure about how clean the radiator is inside. I'm going to flush out the system. Thanks!
 
I'll check out these areas of possible leakage tomorrow. I've given the thing a overall check for leaks but didn't really know where to look, except for the obvious hoses and radiator. And hopefully my plug isn't steam cleaned.....Thanks for the help.
 

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