We have a New Holland FX48 self-propelled forage harvester. It started overheat so we installed a new thermostat and thermostat housing. The thermostat seemed to work for a while but now it is running hot again. Thermostat is supposed to be around 80 degrees C and its running around 110C. When I turn the blower fan on to run the air conditioner it makes the temperature gauge rise and lower as I turn it on and off. We flushed the coolant out and put new coolant in. Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated. Justin
Well I don't know this machine, what it looks like or anything about agricultural equipment but almost all cooling systems operate the same way, so I guess I'll just list the basics. I assume its a dusty environment so is the rad core clean ? Fan (don't know if its electrical, mechanical or hydraulic ) is spinning wide open when it climbs up over 100 C ? How long have you had this machine and is this a new problem ? Baffles/shrouds all in place around rad ? Nothing blocking the flow of air to the rad ? Aftermarket systems plumbed in to machine overloading cooling system ? Air locked air pockets in engine ? Do you have a temp gun to check coolant temp on top of the rad and coolant temp coming out of the rad ? Have you verified it actually is reading the correct temp ? Sorry I don't mean to ask simple questions but sometimes is easy to jump into a problem before the basics are checked and overlook a simple problem - believe me I've done it
- slipping belts - bad water pump (some cheap designs can let the impeller slip on the shaft) - bad head gasket or cracked head (often shows up as bubbles in the overflow bottle) ISZ
Check your engine air filter(s). If you've got good belts and a good water pump, that'd be the next place to look. That or there's still a slug of air in the cooling sysyem waiting to be purged.
We run a JD 6950, different operators have been our issue. one guy runs to hard and has trouble overheating, other runs a little smoother and has no trouble. If your gauge is moving anytime you turn your blower switch on/off, you might have electrical glitch. You might get a hand held temp gun and see what it says compared to your gauge.
Hey justin2 We have fx40 and having same issue as you are we overheating and guage does jump when fan kicked in.this past year we replaced thermostat and coolant and didnt make difference. I spent every 2hrs blowing rad out constantly especially when guys had oats and was ripe. Chaff blowing around would seem like some was getting pulled in...not alot(standard coffee cup size i would say was amount of chaff on bottom of rad when i would stop brush off and blow dust out. Most of rad seems clear, i can see through it except left side where hard to see but there is few spots i cant push a welding rod through so maybe 5% lets say is got dirt packed in. I didnt think it would be enough to heat it up so fast. I orderd new weather stripping but by time we got it was cold and wet and no chaff blowing around and temp outside was 5-10 c so it never overheated that one day. I am going assuming my issue has to do with the rad and dirt. My air filter new and fan belt/tensioner seem good. What did you end up finding as i see yours was few years ago?