I have a Dresser TDH8 LGP that I buried in the swamp on Saturday while it was -4 degrees doing a tag alder shear. The good......... I was able to get it out before it froze in for the winter The bad...........I took in about 10 gallons of water into the transmission system. I have changed the oil out of the rear reservoir twice and changed the filter but that is only about two thirds of the system oil each time. I'm at a point I don't think I will damage anything but the milky oil is going to drive me crazy. I have ran the dozer about 10 hours trying to work the water out if everything any tricks to flushing the system?
The simplest way I've found to dry oil is to bubble dry filtered air through the oil while it is hot. If you're working with this, then you could rig it up and I bet it would be dry in ten hours as long as the housing is also warm enough to keep from condensing back inside the compartment. If the oil won't reach 150 or higher, cover part of the cooler.
Probably not the preferred way, but I swamped an 1150E about 30 years ago. We drained it, filled 7 gallons in a 14 gallon system, ran it, drained it, did that 4 times. Then, put 10 gallons in, ran it around with the radiator covered up tight until had it almost to the red, let it sit for about a half hour. Drained that, let it sit overnight. After that, it didn't look too bad, so we ran it about a week, then changed it again and it was good. Short of a kidney-loop with water absorbing filters, not sure what else you can do to clean it up.
Water didn't find its way into any other compartments? I wonder if there's a way to heat the oil to 180 deg's. or so before you put it in the trans.? Thinking it might draw the water out so more of it drains. If you got most of the water out then a filter cart/ kidney loop could be a good idea to get the last remnants out. I don't think the filters will take a lot of water out at a time and they're a little pricey but would be good for the final flush. Parking on an angle or jacking the dozer so oil runs to the drain may help.
Are the finals separate.
Thanks for all the feedback. Yes, the finals are separate. I check them and the oil looked fine. The trans system was the only thing that took on water. I had it stood straight up with the back of the dozer in the water to get out of the hole and it must have came in the vent. Still can't believe I made it out by chaining to a tree and using the blade hydraulics to pull myself out.
Can you not allow the dozer to set level in a warm spot allowing the water to separate to be drained away via the drain plug(s)? Then run the unit for a while and do the same again? I've done this a couple of times on units dragged out of ponds and such that were submerged to the ROPS roof. For the most part, most of the original oils went back into the tractors. Don't do this if the oils have been floated out of the sumps as oil floats and easily replaced by water. Check levels before starting which would fall under the category of "Common Sense" to me. Lot of "Doom & Gloom" on the internet but when reality sets in there are a lot of things able to be done at very little expense, (negating your time). Water and oil will separate but takes a while and warmer makes it go faster.
Like 1693TA said, if you have a warm shop to get the machine inside just let it sit and keep draining the water after a time and run the machine (blocked up if possible) and rinse and repeat, waiting for the water to settle each time, when the drain cleans up ,change filters and you should be able to cook off any residual moisture working the machine.
I don't have the option of a heated shop at my hunting property. I flushed it 5 times with a partial fill and changed the filter and it cleared up nicely. It wasn't cheap, but i didn't have many other options. Thanks for all the feedback.
With that many times you should be good, after running the machine for some time the remainder should cook off, from my experience here in the north east condensation will always have a small amount of moisture collecting in the drive train of machinery that sits through our wide range of temp swings, I usually don't get too excited unless it persists after running the machines for some time while up to operating temps. Oh, and congratulations on getting that thing out of the swamp....there had to be some serious suction sunk in that bad.
I didn't see this offered but what about cooking (boiling) the water out of the drained oil in a large pot and reusing it just to get out all the water out. Last oil change would be new oil. Would save a lot of oil purchasing and disposing if you could boil out the water. May be too late here but it might be an option for next guy searching the forum.
That would probably get rid of the water but the OP's dozer looks like the water put a lot of garbage (dirt) in his transmission.
To try to boil the water out of water-contaminated oil is a wasted exercise, because the additives in the oil have reacted to the presence of the water and formed new compounds to try and deal with the water contamination. So the additives are effectively destroyed, and if you do manage to boil all the water out, what is left is additive-deprived oil contaminated with bulk undesirable new chemical compounds, formed by the reaction between the additives and the water. The oil at that stage is only good to be recycled, and nothing beats new oil for component and surface protection.
I agree that I would not use boiled oil as the final oil and I even said to use fresh oil as the final fill. I'm only offering to use the boiled oil as a way to flush the system and be able to remove water. I would not run the boiled oil very long in the tranny, only long enough for it to completely mix with the trapped oil and then do another dump. No idea if there are temp bypasses in his tranny oil system but only a min of two of run time (maybe even at idle???) should do the trick to mix all the oil. Let's say for instance his transmission holds 7 gallons (a quick search on the interwebs says 28 quarts) and he can drain 5 gallons out every time (more less the two thirds the OP mentions). That means that every time he does a flush, he's only removing 5/7ths of the water and leaving 2/7ths (or about 28%) left. On the second flush, he's removing 5/7ths of the water again from the remaining 2/7ths of water which still leaves about 8% of the original water. Third oil flush gets you down to just over 2% which doesn't sound bad. The problem is I bet he has a lot of water trapped in low spots which will keep making his oil milky for a while. The other trick which I don't necessarily recommend is to add pure methanol or another hygroscopic volatile to the oil (maybe even a diesel fuel additive) while he does the quick flushing. Those additives should pull out a lot more water and keep it suspension for the flush and should be boiled off in the process. But again, I don't like this approach for obvious reasons of potentially damaging clutch components, seals, etc. unless there is a dire need to ensure all water is pulled out.
What works well and I have done in the past is find a used fish, or reptile glass aquarium about 50 gallons or so and fill it with the water fouled oil. Allow to set a day or two then stick a siphon tube into the oil just above the visible water line and remove the oil into a drum. This will leave the water in the bottom. Rid the water and then do it again. Water will begin to readily separate from petroleum almost immediately and faster if the mixture is warm. Run the recovered oil back through the machine, (in this instance) and do it again. You'll get enough water out of it the oil will still be serviceable to act as a "purge, or flush" but should be renewed as OZ mentioned.