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.
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.