Dellroy Duke
Member
John Deere 450D LC excavator overheating. Looking for a reason. Working on excavator for a friend after he has spent thousands on dealer mechanics. Scenario is, engine began overheating 3 months ago, dealer tech came out to yard, checked it over with heat gun and said sensor was reading wrong. My friend replaced sensor and added mechanical gauge still over heating. A different dealer mechanic came out and determined engine needed new thermostats. He R&R thermostats, still overheats. Another mechanic determined hydraulic fan clutch operating in reverse ( blowing out from engine compartment). Rebuilt fan clutch and control valve. My friend degreased and pressure washed radiator ( numerous times) until clean and light can be seen through. Ran machine and still overheating but not as quickly. After about 20 mins. of loading busted up concrete into crusher it over heats. I worked on it a few days ago and found exhaust “spark arrester” about half plugged on outlet. Opened up exhaust and ran. Will run all day at full rpm without overheating now but after about 40 mins. of operating hydraulics, engine gets to redline. Stop using the hydraulics and it cools down in about 2 mins. Again, no heavy digging, just loading busted up concrete into hopper. Radiator and hydraulic cooler are not stacked, they are side by side. 180 degree thermostats were installed but if you watch temp gauge while running you can see the temp. fluctuating. Tops out at about 220 and then drops to about 170 and starts the process all over. Good flow in radiator after thermostats open, looking through cap. Almost acts as if thermostats ( one or both ) are not opening until temp reaches 220 but they are new and doesn’t explain why only overheating while hydraulics in use. Any help would be appreciated. Read all the threads I could but nothing for this scenario that I found. Sorry so long winded and thanks in advance for any help.