Do I dare run it

My AC 7000 is getting antifreeze in the oil past the o-rings on the bottom of the sleeve - do I dare drain it out of the oil and run 15 mi down the road to my father in laws heated shop to overhaul - seems to only seep when shut down - or will I throw a rod or worse. Would like to get done B4 spring and a heated shop is so nice!

Is towing an option?

If it were mine...in your situation. I would drop the oil. Leave the plug out for an hour and see how much antifreeze drips out in that time to get a good feel how fast it is leaking. If you are looking at a cup or so over an hour, fill the oil, run the radiator cap loose and drive it over there and have at it.

When the coolant gets high enough in the pan so that the oil pump can pick it up you know it- the mix turns into a snotty gray mess the likes of which I haven't seen elsewhere. I overhauled one engine years ago that got that bad (AC200) and if I remember right the crank was OK.
Assuming your oil is still black, and you can drain a little green off the bottom, I would think you would be OK. But I also think that once you get a mixture all bets are off.

For a 15 minute run I would play it safe and tow it. If you need power for turning or brakes at least you are running at idle.

15 minutes or 15 miles? If it's leaking already, it's not going to get better. I'd drain the oil and coolant and tow it. If it's 15 miles would take around an hour to drive it at a fast rpm. Lots could get damaged in an hour. Dave

If the temp is warm enough there during the day drain the AF and put in straight water to minimize the possible damage.

Nother option would be to drain the antifreeze and put oil in the cooling system.

Know a guy who runs a DT466 navistar this way.

I would drain the crankcase, put in the correct amount of fresh oil, and drive it over there. You've probably had more contamination in there in the form of water from condensation than a little bit of anti-freeze that might not even be "seeping" ? when it's running. Is it "seeping", "dripping", or "leaking"? Three quite different definitions. If it is indeed only a seep, there's nothing to worry about.

I am interested in learning how you determined that the o-rings are what is letting coolant get into the pan.there are three packing rings in each cylinder and would seem to me it would be strange for all three to start leaking.I have had 2 jd engines where there was a pin hole in the sleeve and an ih where the oil cooler leaked

Leave the radiator cap off so the system doesn't pressurize. Then drive it to the shop

Happens all the time. We heae st the school district have several old DT360 & DT466 engines awaiting overhaull due to water in the oil. Everytime so far on the previous ones, the head gasket is not blown & the head checks out fine at the machine shop. However, the o-rings at the bottom are always rock hard and cracked. Partly our fault due to improper DCA levels in the coolant. But we also noticed in the past few overhaul kits (OEM) that the o-rings are now black instead of the original orange (silicone based) o-rings. International would not give us a straight answer on that.

Trailering is cheaper than a crank & cam.
A crankcase flush and coolant system flush. Then filling the coolant system with demin water and the crankcase with fresh oil will likley do.
Any oil residue in a cooling system cut's cooling efficiency. A had the numbers around here but can't find them. Something like 3% oil increaes the fire deck temps 70F.

If it's just seeping a bit then I'd probably just run it given it's got clean oil. If not it's probably cheaper to just get a recovery deck to move it for you.

Rod

If you want to tow it's OK but the steering is hydrostatic so very very sluggish I have done it a couple times so the tow guy is more important than the towee the brakes still work but very grabee and don't release fast so you will get a lot of loose tow belt or chain followed by a rubber band effect. Good luck with 15 miles you'll be ready for a stiff drink even if you don't drink. :-> At 15 miles you're looking at 5 hours on flat ground. Good Luck!

I put quite a few hours on a JD backhoe that was getting antifreeze in the oil. Have good oil in it and drain off the bottom of the oil pan. and drain the antifreeze and put water in it and also leave the cap loose. Water won't leak thru places antifreeze will.

I just OHed my 7000 for the exact same reason. However, my oil was coming from one of the copper injector sleeves in the cylinder head. Got it replaced and overhauled the rest of the engine and head and it runs great. Get the head pressure checked, as those copper sleeves could be giving you a problem. Some people say replace them all while you have it apart, but I just did the one that was leaking. They are around 70 a piece for the sleeve from AGCO, but I think Hy-Cap sells them for quite a bit less.

As far as driving it, I would pull the drain plug and see how fast the coolant is seeping past the o rings. It could be coming from a hole in one of the sleeves or the head like I talked about on mine. I had a lot of cavitation on my tractor's sleeves and also in the lower bores. If it's not leaking too bad, I'd go on and put fresh oil in there and keep a close eye on the temp gauge, stop ever 15 minutes or so to loosen the drain plug and drain off any water and keep going.

When you get to overhauling the engine, you will probably find your lower block bores are pretty badly pitted. There are two ways to fix this. One way is to get a machine shop to bore the lower block bore out and then sleeve it, but this is pretty expensive and hard for most machine shops to do, as the sleeve has to be deformed to get past the upper bore, then restraightened and pressed in. The other option is the use JB weld and fill in the pits, as all you need is a good smooth surface for the o rings to sit on. Also, use vegetable oil to lubricate the o rings and bores when you put them in. The engine uses an upper silicone and a lower Buna o ring, and if you use motor oil, you can get swelling of the silicone and actually seize the motor up from the slight pressure due to the tolerances of the piston (had an old AC tech tell me about one that did this). Another important thing is the CLEAN THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS OUT OF THE BORES! I am pretty sure I spent as much time cleaning the bores with a wire brush, engine hone, emory cloth, sand paper, and about 10 cans of brake parts cleaner than I spent putting the engine back together. The sleeves should drop right in without any pressure, and you should be able to spin the sleeve just by making a fist inside of it and turning your wrist (and you should hear metal on metal contact as it spins pretty effortlessly). The reason it took so long for me to get it this way was partly due to the JB weld. You apply it to the lower bores, then you use a file to sand it down roughly, then course emory cloth, then finer emory cloth. I also found an engine hone handy, but it ruins the stones when you use it in the lower bores to smooth out the JB weld. Feel free to e-mail me if you have any questions. I still have a pretty fresh memory from this summer on the OH.

Hurst

in my opinion clean the boro good i have filled in pits with jb weld but sleeves should fit tight and i would not hone them and would not want to be able to trun then once o-ring are on them, i have also a time or two took the sleeve into a machine shop had one more groove cut in to sleeve so it sits where no pit are, the engine i did this to is still use evey day and has been for last 10 years. if you add a grove you well need to get extra o-ring for it

I would have to vote for trailering or driving over towing as the transmission/rearend likely needs hydraulic pressure for lubrication. I heard of later model tractors dragged to the dealer for an engine issue that got some very expensive driveline repair before they went home.

Bob

if you decide to drive it drain off water and leave the radiator cap loose so pressure doesnt build in the cooling system.

I would bet IT IS NOT the O-Rings but pin holes in the sleeves.

Kent

timis,
I had a customer with one 15 or better
years ago,was leaking slowly.Radiator shop
pressured the oil coller (was good) and sent
him to me . It was a perferated liner Right
in the top oring groove,and it had also eaten
the seal area in the block really bad. I
bored the lower bore in the block and made
repair bushings to replace the eroded area.
It takes some custom made tooling for the
boring bar to do it.
It seems that is a disease of the 301 engine
when they really fuel it and up the turbo as
well as intercool it. The one that was here
was a 7010 or 7020 (can't remember which),
but it was 120 hp ( turbo,intercooled and
fueled up ) called a 649I ,same parts as a
2900 but hopped up .Hole in the liner was
big enough to see light thru , but leaked
slow enough for him to drive it about 13
miles to my shop without damage.

george

HUH ? 3 miles per hour figured the most 1 hour

Trailor Trailor Trailor Trailor Trailor Trailor Trailor Trailor Trailor Trailor Trailor Trailor

You caught my mistake, I forgot to mention they should turn freely without o rings. They shouldn't budge with the o rings on and take firm pressure to get them in the bores.

Hurst

Well like I said it all depends on the person towing than the towee if it's a pretty good person doing the towing you can make good time and keep the tow strap taut. If it's down hill all the way you'll have to ride the brake or you'll be up their arse. You might do it in one hour but that might be a wild ride. That hydro steering get's real sluggish no matter how fast your going.