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Using Oil in radiator

T

tree masher

New User
This message is a reply to an archived post by Gene Bender on July 09, 2008 at 01:43:37.
The original subject was "Re: Oil in radiator".

I'm looking for info on using oil for coolant for short term use. I have an older backhoe I only use occasionally for minor jobs that has a cylinder sleeve o-ring leaking coolant into the crankcase oil as soon as I shut it off. As long as it is running it doesn't leak but turn it off, wait 5 minutes and there is antifreeze in the oil. It is a pain to drain both the oil and the coolant to use it for 10 minutes and it isn't worth the expense of a full rebuild.
 
Oil doesn't transfer heat as well as water. Likely the engine will overheat, but the oil won't boil, it may char though.

Gerald J.
 
Oil has a lower specific heat than water. I won't say that it won't work, but that's the reason we use water as a coolant.

I have not tried it myself, but I know folks who swear by K&W Block Sealer. It's worth a shot; I can't say how it could hurt at this point.
 
Rumley Oil Pull tractors with big square radiators used oil in the cooling system. The "Oil Pull" in the name meant the machine was guaranteed to produce rated power using distillate fuel (oil).

.......S66
 
There are heat tranfer oils made, we used to run hot oil heaters with that oil at temps of 350F, to heat thermoset plastic molds. But, I agree, the heat tranfer rate is going to be much less than with water as a coolant..
 
I work in an OSB mill and we use hot oil to heat the press. We run 410F. on the press and use pumps to bring the oil from the heat source to the press and back to the source. The original oil was called thermal oil and because of cost we now use a turbine oil for this process. At the source we heat the oil to 525F. It is dangerous if any of the system springs a leak. If a pump seal leaks we'll have a fire if there's anything near it that will burn. The smoke from hot oil is harsh on the lungs as well. If you try oil be very careful.
 
My dad said in extremely cold weather in the old days, they would use kerosene in the Model T to keep the radiator from freezing going down the road.
I can"t recommend this as I have not and will not try it in my 17 Model T.
I believe I would try a very good sealant first.
Richard
 
a friend has a gehl(i believe)skid steer that uses 30 weight engine oil as coolant.it runs at 190 degrees.I think it would work ok,but your still going to have to drain oil from the crankcase
 
You say "As long as it is running it doesn't leak but turn it off, wait 5 minutes and there is antifreeze in the oil." This may be because while running the oil is pressurized higher than the coolant. But when you shut it off, the oil pressure is gone, and the coolant temp rises a bit and is held until cool. Next time, when you shut the engine off, open the radiator cap and leave it off. See if it leaks. Tom
 
Put a little pepper in the radiator,stopped a leak in my FMD once.I think I used too much because it boiled, removed the cap, a great whooosh, gauge went down and never leaked again..lucky me.
 
Thanks, good idea, but I thought the same and tried it. It didn"t work. I think the reason it didn"t work is because the thermal expansion of the hot engine takes up the gap around a dead o-ring at the bottom of a cylinder sleeve. Then when the iron cools it allows the water around the cylinder sleeve to leak into the crankcase past the hard o-ring.
 
I tried a little different take on this idea. I drained the radiator and the block while the engine was running ( as soon as water quit coming out of the block I shut the engine off so it didn't overheat). No water in the oil this AM. This could be tricky but I think it boils the water out of the leaking sleeve so there isn't water left in there to leak into the crankcase.
 
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