As the weather has been heating up here in TN. I'm having some trouble with my 320 excavator heating up also. It has the Mitsubishi engine in it. What is the best way to clean out the radiator air flow. From what I found this is a typical problem on these machines and was told i would have to take the radiator and have a shop get them to up grade it to a bigger core. Any thoughts on this would help Thank you
is it overheating or just running hotter than normal? the first things I would do is 1. make sure coolant is full. 2. use compressed air to blow out fins in radiator.
If this is one of the models that has the hydraulic oil cooler piggybacked on to the radiator the only way is to remove the whole assembly, split the cooler from the radiator, and then clean the both of them externally.
As you said it is a typical problem on these machines. I had a 320c ser. Fba×××× mitsu engine. Did everything but the problem was there. At last the CAT here advised me to install some high ambient cooling parts which will increase the rotation of the fan. Did it, the parts cost me 2000 USD and worked 3 years after that. The temp did not cross 7 points and the temp reaches to 50c here.
Rockfall do you remember what all the kit consisted of. And did you have to change the water pump or was it just a new set of pulleys? Also was it a tough repair or did it go on easy?
It was just a new set of two pulleys with a bigger spacer and a new fan belt. Didnt have to change the water pump. Well it took around 4 hours for me to install it and i am not a good mechanic. Im trying to upload the part numbers here from a image file but cant. Tell me if u need them
Before throwing any parts at it I would be pulling the cooling package, splitting the radiator from the cooler and thoroughly cleaning them both. Until you've done one you won't believe just how much c**p can come out of something that appears, on the face of it anyway, to be "clean". Once that's done and back in the machine, a replacement thermostat, new fan belt, a flush of the cooling system and some decent Extended Life Heavy Duty Coolant ought to get you cooking with gas.
My 95 330L, has the oil cooler and the radiator sandwiched like that. There is however enough room to get a 1/4 inch tube between the two. I bought a 5ft piece of brake line, cut off and crimped one end and cut a couple of slots in the side near the crimped end. The other end I plumbed so I can screw it into an air gun. My machine has a suck fan so I just slip it between the two and blow the dirt and dry grasses and cottonwood snow back out the way it came in. I also slip it through the guard in front of the radiator and blow it out as well, works like a champ!
Blew out the radiator yesterday evening. Machine definitely running a bit cooler today but the temp wasn't as hot today as it has been so the real test will be when it gets back up in the 90's. Tried to get the part numbers from CAT today on the over-sized pulleys but they didn't know anything about them. So yes, rockfall, please give me the part numbers just in case I need them. Thank you all for the help.
Drawn a blank under the machine Serial Number, need the engine S/N. There are a lot of variations of 320 and what fitted Rockfall's machine may not be suitable for yours. I still think that despite having blown out the radiator you would be amazed if you pulled it out and took the cooler off it to see just how much contamination is still wedged in between the two.
Nige, While we are talking cooling system cleaning, I was wondering what your preferred flushing product might be? I ran some Zerex flush through our 988G today and not 100% sure it did any thing. Last year we had an oil cooler failure and we flushed it three times with Spic-n-Span powder to get the oil out and when I pulled the thermostats this after noon at least one of them still had an dark oily film on it!
My preferred cleaning product for oil contaminated cooling systems is Cascade dishwasher detergent, and don't skimp on it either. It has to go into the rad by the shovelful. It may take a few flushes with clean water to get the remnants out afterwards but your cooling sytem will be spic'n'span once you've done. The fact you still have a trace of oil leads me to believe you weren't sufficiently heavy-handed with the detergent in the first place.
Nige my machine is made like digger said his was between the two radiators. there is a piece of foam on the top between the two I took it out and looked down in between them when i was blowing them out looks clean. I was also able to use a special blow gun I had picked up at a local tractor dealer made for blowing out radiators slimmer to what digger had made. worked pretty good I was able to blow out each one individually. Ran good today but it only got to about 89 today they are calling for mid 90s next week. I hope that did the trick. Again thank all of you for your help.
Am having the same issue when i start work contiuously for more than 6 hours. I changed the oil and cabinet but it remains same. Then i purchased a cover from a vendor for a heat sink it helps me to reduce the heat for 50%. Hope it helps. For queries contact deepam earth movers
Nige, here's a photo to prove your point about separating the oil cooler from the radiator. (not a 320 but same difference) This is a Cat 311 I worked on that was overheating, the guy said he'd already tried cleaning the radiator with the oil cooler installed and to be fair the oil cooler looked spotless! so I took it out to find this.... Needless to say it ran cool as a cucumber after a good clean.
What a belter of a photo...!! And there rests the case for the prosecution ........................ it might look clean from the outside . You might have spent hours blowing it out but I can pretty well guarantee that if you pull it and split the two coolers it won't be clean . And remember boys and girls the air from the fan has to flow through that cooler before it can get to the radiator.
We have a 320BL that waw overheating too. We are fairly religous about blowing out the coolers but with that oil cooler so close the radaitor was never really cleaned well. Fianlly split them and took the radiator to a shop to have it checked and it was bad/unrepairable. New radiator and the thing runs nice and cool now.
Sorry for the late reply. Temp hit 93 today after blowing it out the other day it did run cooler. Still a bit warmer than I like so I will split them first chance I get and give it a good cleaning. Nige do you have to drain the hyd tank to remove cooler. Or will I just loose whats in the cooler and lines.