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jd 310c oil in the coolant

steve phillips ยท 2018-04-11 18:35

howdy all i just bought a 1986 jd 310c backhoe , i have found oil in the coolant and when i dropped the oil out of the pan i filled just about a full 5 gallon bucket with oil and mistry fluid. the motor holds 9 qt of oil. i drove the backhoe home it was about 5 miles away motor didnt smoke and didnt run hot . i found this problem by checking the machine over. this is what i have done so far the oil smelled a little like fuel ,i pulled the lift pump ( transfer pump) off with the lines hooded up and pumped it and fuel did come out from the cam rod of the pump. i replaced it i also removed the motor oil cooler located under the oil filter and applied pressure ( 100 pounds ) didnt really see any bubbles in the soapy water. my question is could have the head gasket at one time started leaking and they didnt flush the system out. i need opions here lol would you run the tractor and keep check every couple hours to see if oil level or coolant color changes or go right into the head gasket replacement . motor runs great ,easy starting cold, no smoke of any color machine has 8000 hours on it all opions are welcome thanks

Replies15
  1. #156wrench2018-04-12 11:44

    in my opinion, if the head gasket has never been changed, it is overdue with that many hours and years on it. deere had a lot of problems with head gaskets in those years. the dealer told me the problems started when they took the asbestos out of the gasket material. it happened with the green and also the yellow engines. deere had tech bulletins, revised torque specs, and some engines got upgraded head bolts. none of that seemed to cure them all, so the result was to use sealer around the water passages and pushrod cavity areas. i did lots of them and some lasted, and some would fail again after about 4000 hrs. we had problems with ag tractors, wheel loaders, graders, excavators, etc- pretty much anything with a deere engine. the sealer i used was permatex high-tack (spray or brush-on) other kinds may work as well or better. this was with the oem deere gaskets. i don't remember using aftermarket gaskets-maybe they were better but i would still use sealer if i was doing it

  2. #2ETER2018-04-12 15:54

    Had the same issues with a "G" series month or two ago (lots of water in the base)... pulled the pan down, filled cooling system, then pressurized to about 10 pounds and found #3 liner cavitated along the o-ring point. Good luck! Regards Bob Edit, before pulling down the pan, ran engine to op temp then labored...cooling system pressure never got above 5 psi

  3. #3Delmer2018-04-12 17:22

    With what you know, I'd run it and see what happens to the oil and coolant. Oil in the antifreeze isn't that uncommon, lots of ways for it to get there. The fuel in the oil is too bad, but if the oil level doesn't rise with use (check it frequently obviously) then there's nothing to worry about unless you want to put new bearings in it? If there was antifreeze in the oil, it would have made a soupy chocolatey mess, and ruined the bearings. You can use distilled water with automatic dishwasher detergent to flush the oil out of the cooling system, but it doesn't hurt much at this point. I'd run the old antifreeze with some new additive of your choice (half gal of ELC, SCA, DCA) until you know you're not tearing it apart. THEN flush it.

  4. #4steve phillips2018-04-12 18:31

    thanks for the reply

  5. #5steve phillips2018-04-12 18:35

    ty for you reply i just dont want a bad motor i am going to try running it for a few hours with flushed system to see if i get any oil , i am thinking this may have been something that happened before me and they replaced the head gasket but didnt flush the system out. i tested the oil cooler and didnt see any bubbled in the water with 100 pounds of pressure. once again ty

  6. #6steve phillips2018-04-12 18:36

    i am going to try this may been a problem they had fixed and didnt flush out the system , i fixed the fuel problem and checked the bucket of old oil and it was fuel not water ty for your reply

  7. #7steve phillips2018-04-12 18:38

    i checked the bucket of old oil today and its fuel no water so thats a good thing lol

  8. #8ETER2018-04-13 09:52

    If you're only making oil (heavy fuel dilution) then it sounds like your umbrella seals in the inj. pump are shot...pretty cheap fix! Regards Bob

  9. #9steve phillips2018-04-14 08:06

    ty ty for the info ,i hope i have it solved with the transfer pump leaking

  10. #10ETER2018-04-14 17:55

    I guess that I didn't catch that you found the transfer pump defective. Regards Bob

  11. #11steve phillips2018-04-19 19:08

    yes the fuel transfer pump was leaking

  12. #12steve phillips2018-04-19 19:11

    hey all thanks for all the comments and help .you guys are great turned out it does have a blown head gasket. i put the raditor back and ran it for 20 mins with some coolant flush and have water in the oil pan.the truth have revealed itself lol

  13. #13Delmer2018-04-19 23:02

    You want to drop the oil pan to figure out if the coolant is leaking from the liners before you replace the head gasket.

  14. #1456wrench2018-04-20 14:15

    i agree. you don't want to waste a new head gasket etc. if its actually the liners leaking

  15. #15steve phillips2018-04-20 20:47

    hey all got an up date on my problem i dropped the oil pan liners look good glad i listen to yall had a chance to clean the oil pump screen. the problem was the head gasket it was blowed on the front cylinder . cleaning the block and head tomorrow checking it all over do a valve job and get it back together next week would like to thank everyone with your opinions and advice great group of folks here. i had already picked out a in frame rebuild kit in case i needed it ,just didnt order it lol now is the time if i was going to do it though but down time is beginning to hurt me. once again thanks everyone have a blessed nite and weekend