Antifreeze is vanishing someplace

Philco

Member
My '52 8N tractor was losing antifreeze by overheating, so I replaced the water pump thinking it was faulty. It continued to overheat. I checked the radiator fins to make sure they were clean. This spring I put in another gallon of 50/50 antifreeze. I used the tractor to mow the lawn for 3 hours and the radiator is empty all over again, can't see any fluid line there. The radiator cap has milky substance underneath, like ice cream. Do I have a cracked block where water is getting into the block and mixing with oil? I never abuse my tractor, and use it only for mowing and only three times to plow snow this past winter. Where is the water going? I can't see any leaks from the radiator at all. Thanks for answering this post.
 
Hows the oil look? IF its as milky as your radiator you have a problem. If it isnt, you STILL have a problem! Yes, you are getting oil into your radiator via a
leak- most likely a leaking head gasket, or possibly a cracked block. You see the results of this in that chocolate malt-like sludge in your radiator, the
byproduct of oil mixing in water/antifreeze. You have the same thing going on in the crankcase, but if you run the engine long enough and hot enough, a slow leak
of coolant into the hot oil in the sump will boil off the coolant. Any water or antifreeze in the oil will separate and migrate to the bottom of the oil pan, so
let it sit a few days then SLOWLY loosen the oil drain plug ever so slightly and see what comes out as the contents of the oil pan just starts to drip out .
 
How is the level of oil on the dip stick look? If you are pumping coolant into the crankcase it will look overfilled. It could be going out the exhaust pipe as vapor. Are you seeing any white vapor out of the exhaust?
Anyway it looks like you will need to pull the head and have a look at the gasket and have the head checked to see if it warped when it overheated. Did you ever test or replace the thermostat? It should be inside the upper radiator hose.
By the way, just below this forum is one just for the N series tractors. Lots of knowledgeable folks hang out there.
 

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