1986 Case 580 running hot

[Nick Tonelli]

I picked this Case 580 super E with the 4-390 non turbo Cummins - it's been a great machine and with the help of this forum I've been able to repack almost all the cylinders as they've been slowly leaking.

My water temp gauge had never worked since I bought it last fall. While repacking the boom cyl I ordered a new gauge and installed it, after installing the temp rose steadily into the red where it remained. I shut machine down made sure I cleaned any junk from radiator with a nice deep cleaning and flushed all the fluid from the system which looked good. I started it up and it steadily climbed to the red again. Thinking it might have been a bad cheapo sensor from amazon I bought a more expensive replacement sensor from mybrokentractor and reinstalled.

The water temp gauge stays in the red level (pictured) but then settles down just over the green/red after operating for a whole. I ran it for about 45 mins doing some work and it barely fluctuated from there. After running it I checked the upper hose which was hot, the lower hose was barely warm and opening up the radiator cap (slowly...) with a digital temperature gauge found the coolant to be at 153 degrees

Do I have just another crappy sensor? It runs great but if I'm causing any harm to it I'd rather track it down, however I don't want to throw parts at it if everything is operating fine

 

[Coy Lancaster]

Check your connection at the back of the IC. And check and test the sensor.

 

[alrman]

Has the thermostat been looked at or replaced?

 

[edgephoto]

What you describe with the upper hose being hot and the lower being barely warm you do not have flow through your radiator. In a properly working system you would only see a few degree difference between those hoses. They would both feel hot.

Most likely cause
1. Thermostat not opening
2. Radiator is restricted internally
3. Water pump impeller

 

[Nick Tonelli]

Thank you for info -- I tested the thermostat in a pot of boiling water seems to open fine, I flushed radiator with hose and it was pretty clean fluid no rust/contaminants. I'll throw a new water pump at it and check the connections for the sensor

 

[HarleyHappy]

Doesn’t sound like it’s actually running hot.
I have the same machine and it never gets hot.
If it got into the red you should literally be able to smell the heat off the engine. How is your belt?
I should order a new tensioner.

 

[Nick Tonelli]

Doesn’t sound like it’s actually running hot.
I have the same machine and it never gets hot.
If it got into the red you should literally be able to smell the heat off the engine. How is your belt?
I should order a new tensioner.

That's kind of my hang up - i'm not sure what temp it's actually operating at. I figured the top of the radiator would be hottest (if everything flowing correctly) but at 153 its still a ways off from opening the tstat.

I could zip everything back together and check the temp at the sensor after running it for a bit but I think that will give me nearly the same temp as the top of the radiator

 

[Nick Tonelli]

New tstat and new water pump same reading on the temp gauge - both the tstat and pump I replaced looked perfectly fine. No corrosion in tstat housing and it passed the boiling water test. Water pump freely spun and also had no corrosion build up on it.

When I replaced water pump, nice fresh new coolant poured out which reaffirms my thinking that the radiator is not clogged.

Fired it up and once again it slowly climbed into red where it sat while doing some light work with backhoe. Watched it for a few minutes it stayed right in the lower red area then I shut it down and checked temp at top of radiator. Water temp was only 160 degrees and top hose was barely warm.

Not sure what to try next aside from maybe another water temp sensor?

 

[HarleyHappy]

Might have to try another sensor because it is NOT running hot.
The pump was not needed but good to get it out of the way.
Have you checked the temp on the exhaust manifold for the cylinders as they warm up?
Where is the knob for the heater? In or out?

 

[Delmer]

Check the temperature of the block or head, away from the exhaust manifold. if you've had two bad sensors, you could check the resistance value at different temps as that's how they operate, or just figure the gauge is wrong and live with it.

 

[Nick Tonelli]

Might have to try another sensor because it is NOT running hot.
The pump was not needed but good to get it out of the way.
Have you checked the temp on the exhaust manifold for the cylinders as they warm up?
Where is the knob for the heater? In or out?

Checked the temp at manifold at 2200rpm with a water gauge temp that is reading just in the red:

cyl 1 - 320
cyl 2 - 350
cyl 3 - 370
cyl 4 - 360

The temp fluctuates quite a bit depending on if machine was just idling (temps in like lower - mid 200's) or right after working it hard where cyl 3 and 4 were both over 400 degrees

Heater knob is stuck in the out (on) position. I can turn the blower mower on full blast and it provides good heat but does not affect water temp gauge at all

Check the temperature of the block or head, away from the exhaust manifold. if you've had two bad sensors, you could check the resistance value at different temps as that's how they operate, or just figure the gauge is wrong and live with it.

Block/head temp on opposite side of manifold was 170 shortly after shutting down. I'll check the resistance next... kind of ran out of time. Funny you mention just living with it I bought the machine about a year ago and the gauge never worked, put a few hundred hours on it no problem. It wasn't until I decided to fix a few annoyances like a dead water temp gauge that I noticed there could be a problem haha

I did use it for about 45 minutes digging out a large granite boulder and then pushing it about 50 yards. Boulder was big enough that the bucket wouldnt even think of lifting it so was a good workout for machine. Temp stayed constant just into the red

 

[Delmer]

170 is normal. Check it again whenever it shows overheating, if you don't get any hotter there's no problem except the gauge/sender.

 

[HarleyHappy]

If you worked it like that and it was running hot, you would have smelled it.

 

[Coy Lancaster]

Install manual temp gauge and see what readings you get.

 

[Nick Tonelli]

Install manual temp gauge and see what readings you get.

Great idea.. just picked one up offAmazon

 

[franklin2]

Another classic example spending a bunch of time and money on what a dumb gauge says. Like was mentioned, there should be other signs if it was really overheating.

I like gauges with numbers on them. My pet peeve are Ford truck dash guages that read "normal" in the middle and a L and H on either side.