Done in by a bug??

Hartlyboy

Member
I have a sweet little JD 450C, 1975 vintage , that I use around the farm, primarily in the woods pushing aside downfall on the trails and such. Gets maybe 50 hours a year use and never anything very tough.

All that stopped the other day when I noticed the radiator had a leak in it. I can see the coolant coming out and I had lost about half of it so I shut it down not to overheat it. I think what happened was a mud dauber had plugged the overflow pipe at the top of the radiator and the pressure rose above the 7 lbs and split a tube in a brittle 50 year old rad!

Now the problem is to get to that thing and remove it to either recore it or replace it [new ones are 1500-2000, apparently].

Is there any stop leak that would work as a temporary fix and is compatible with the diesel coolant mix? I'd like to be able to use it until fall when I'm going to put it in a shop for some other replacement parts and can have them pull that heavy front cowl to reach the radiator.

Incidentally, I got some good advice somewhere on this thread about radiator caps for these units. Beware the auto store replacements. They aren't "tall" enough to seal properly in the necks of these JD radiators. The one on mine was a auto store replacement that wasn't sealing properly for the past 5-6 years. Probably helped keep the radiator from cracking because it wouldn't build pressure but it wouldn't help prevent cavitation , unfortunately.
 
If the tube that is split is accessible drain the coolant, open the split and dry it, get a tube of instant gasket and using the nozzle fill in the split with it, put the goo in so it will go in the tube top and bottom, leave it for a couple of hours and then gently close the split, that is a tip from my stock car racing days, that should get you through to the time you can remove the rad and take it to the rad shop and have it repaired, no need to go to the dealer.
AJ
 
Radiator on my 450B started leaking a
little about 15-20 years ago. Our local
radiator shop has a policy of recoring
rather then repair understandably so they
can guarantee their work. Someone
recommended another shop about an hour
away that might repair it. I took it to
them they fixed it but told me NO
guarantee. You guessed, hasn't leaked
since.
 
I ended up using a product called K Seal which stopped the leak and hasn't shown any other problems.

I also replaced the radiator cap with a 7psi John Deere part [AT 165587] that fits down in the deeper neck of these radiators and gives the proper pressure. Auto store caps do not generally fit right and don't provide the slight back pressure needed to reduce boiling and cavitation.
 
(quoted from post at 07:03:52 05/24/21) I ended up using a product called K Seal which stopped the leak and hasn't shown any other problems.

I also replaced the radiator cap with a 7psi John Deere part [AT 165587] that fits down in the deeper neck of these radiators and gives the proper pressure. Auto store caps do not generally fit right and don't provide the slight back pressure needed to reduce boiling and cavitation.

I just bought some K-Seal to try and save a block in my Caterpillar D6B. It has a small internal leak from freezing. It seeped a little inside and outside. I repaired the outside with JB Weld. Hope the K-Seal will take care of the inside. Glad to hear you had good luck with it.
 

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