New Holland L555 deluxe overheating (kubota diesel)

[ironandsteel]

I could use some advice. My trusty old New Holland L555 deluze skid steer with a Kubota Diesel engine, has started to lose cooling efficiency. After running for about 15 minutes and picking up a round bale, the temperature light comes on (I wish it had a gauge).

Plenty of coolant in the radiator. It has about 3900 hours on it.

What are likely causes? All I can think of are a bad water pump, bad thermostat, or a clog in the radiator or elsewhere in the cooling system.

What would be the most likely thing on an old Kubota diesel like this?

 

[Andy Martin]

1 Loose fan belt
2 Clogged radiator (have you cleaned it?)
3 Bad water pump
4 Cracked head

At over 2,500 hrs lots of the Kubota heads crack. It partly depends on how it was run, does it always warm up good before being shut off?

My Bobcat with Kubota busted the head, new aftermarket heads are available.

 

[rustred]

it is actually getting hot??? or is just the light coming on?

 

[ironandsteel]

(quoted from post at 19:13:09 03/03/19) it is actually getting hot??? or is just the light coming on?

Good question- that was an idea I had. It actually is getting hot. After bringing a bale to its destination, I opened the radiator cap and it boiled over a bit. So- definitely getting hot.
No sign of oil in the coolant.

Now- there is a hydraulic radiator next to the coolant radiator- and it got a fair amount of mud caked on it the other day. I'll try cleaning that mud away and see if it helps.

The fan belt looks to be the right tension. No obvious water pump noise.

 

[Bruce(OR)]

Running an engine a few minutes will pressurize a cooling system. If I was you, go the Stant Thermostat on line catalog and look up your stat
number. Find that stat at rockauto with the parts number search. Kubota had a $32 price on my stat. I got it from Rockauto for about $5 with
shipping.
The gasket probably will need to come from Kubota. if the stat does not have a piddle vlve in the face of it, drill a small 1/16hole in it to
release any trapped air behind it upon installation. That hole also allows slight heat transfer and the stat will operate more evenly.
Everything else you are aware of.

 

[caterpillar guy]

Wet sleeves do you ever check the SCA level in your antifreeze. If not maybe cavitation to a sleeve causing the rad to lose coolant getting hot. I know he said it was full. Might not be all the time though.

 

[RogerinIowa]

Any air flow thru the radiator and oil
cooler? My JD uses a pusher fan and no air
flow out back of machine. Radiator full of
oil/dirt from small oil leak.

 

[jm.]

No sleeve in that KUBOTA engine.