Rather than give it to you second hand, Here's a copy and paste of it:
Hi all,
I'm having an unfortunate issue with my HD4 again and I'm afraid I've really done something terrible to the old girl. I hope I'm wrong.
I'm up in Canada and we had a good extended cold snap back in Nov/Dec where the temps were down to -25 C (around -13 F) for extended periods. I used my machine for some digging work along a creek since the banks were nice and frozen, and I figured a machine like this could handle working in that kind of cold as long as I let her warm up long enough before getting to it.
Well, I used her a few times in these temps for some HARD work, and things were fine... I probably did about 3 sessions with no apparent problems or issues with the machine. On the last time I used it for that though, I did notice some coolant drips along the trail after I drove it back up and parked it. I just figured it was a bit of overflow though since I had been working her hard. I should note here that unfortunately my water/coolant temperature gauge is non-functional... I have a new one one the way!
Cut to a few days later, it was still bitterly cold and we had some snow, and I needed to clear some of it and I decided to use the machine to pile it up into a big pile. I managed to get her started and allowed her to idle/warm up a few minutes like usual, and then got to moving snow.
Now I figure the snow moving isn't nearly as hard on the machine as the digging work I was doing, and yet I wasn't half way done the job when all of a sudden a bunch of foam started coming out the radiator cap and was spraying everywhere due to dripping down and getting blown hard by the fan. I quickly took a look and it was just pouring out the overflow tube and foaming out the cap.
Needless to say I moved as quickly as I could to park the machine under cover in the shed and shut her down.
I've been working on her ever since trying to diagnose the problem and what I can do about it. Of course my immediate fear was a cracked block due to the cold (maybe I hadn't let her warm up enough?) or a blown head gasket.
Here's all the things I've done/checked so far.
I've checked the oilpan and there's no sign of any water/coolant in the oil... whew!
I've also taken apart the thermostat and checked to ensure it's still working as intended, and it's fine. There was a lot of rust in the thermostat and pipes though, so I completely drained and flushed the system and ran Prestone cooling system flush/cleaner TWICE, and gave the system a good flush with water multiple times and in between cleaner flushes, and refilled with fresh coolant (this is all happening after the cold snap now by the way, temps are above freezing by a few degrees).
After doing all that I started her up again to see if she'd still foam out the radiator cap and it looks like she is unfortunately... but not right away. It takes like 10-15 minutes of warm-up/medium idle until the foaming starts to show up. But I also know now that the system isn't overheating because I have an IR thermometer and the block is getting nowhere even close to overheated (less than 200 F).
So now I'm left wondering if I have a blown head gasket. But it's weird to me because I would think if that was the case bubbles/foam would appear pretty much immediately upon start up, no? But what I find is that the foaming doesn't happen until after a significant amount of warm-up/idling (10-15 minutes as mentioned above).
I've taken a video of the symptoms and I'm hoping to get some insight. I'm no mechanic so I'm not sure if what I'm seeing is "obvious" indication of a blown head gasket (or something else). It's also weird to me how it appears to expand and flow out the overflow, and then it'll really bubble and the level will drop, but then it'll rise up again and flow out the overflow steady, until another bubble and level drop. If it was a blown head gasket, wouldn't the bubbling be constant instead of sporadic like this?
As always help is much appreciated!
YouTube video here:
https://youtu.be/KCKUQTiXYqo
And here's what happens upon shut-down:
I recommended a exhaust gas in coolant test kit, results neg. Foaming problem still there, any suggestions/comments?
Hi all,
I'm having an unfortunate issue with my HD4 again and I'm afraid I've really done something terrible to the old girl. I hope I'm wrong.
I'm up in Canada and we had a good extended cold snap back in Nov/Dec where the temps were down to -25 C (around -13 F) for extended periods. I used my machine for some digging work along a creek since the banks were nice and frozen, and I figured a machine like this could handle working in that kind of cold as long as I let her warm up long enough before getting to it.
Well, I used her a few times in these temps for some HARD work, and things were fine... I probably did about 3 sessions with no apparent problems or issues with the machine. On the last time I used it for that though, I did notice some coolant drips along the trail after I drove it back up and parked it. I just figured it was a bit of overflow though since I had been working her hard. I should note here that unfortunately my water/coolant temperature gauge is non-functional... I have a new one one the way!
Cut to a few days later, it was still bitterly cold and we had some snow, and I needed to clear some of it and I decided to use the machine to pile it up into a big pile. I managed to get her started and allowed her to idle/warm up a few minutes like usual, and then got to moving snow.
Now I figure the snow moving isn't nearly as hard on the machine as the digging work I was doing, and yet I wasn't half way done the job when all of a sudden a bunch of foam started coming out the radiator cap and was spraying everywhere due to dripping down and getting blown hard by the fan. I quickly took a look and it was just pouring out the overflow tube and foaming out the cap.
Needless to say I moved as quickly as I could to park the machine under cover in the shed and shut her down.
I've been working on her ever since trying to diagnose the problem and what I can do about it. Of course my immediate fear was a cracked block due to the cold (maybe I hadn't let her warm up enough?) or a blown head gasket.
Here's all the things I've done/checked so far.
I've checked the oilpan and there's no sign of any water/coolant in the oil... whew!
I've also taken apart the thermostat and checked to ensure it's still working as intended, and it's fine. There was a lot of rust in the thermostat and pipes though, so I completely drained and flushed the system and ran Prestone cooling system flush/cleaner TWICE, and gave the system a good flush with water multiple times and in between cleaner flushes, and refilled with fresh coolant (this is all happening after the cold snap now by the way, temps are above freezing by a few degrees).
After doing all that I started her up again to see if she'd still foam out the radiator cap and it looks like she is unfortunately... but not right away. It takes like 10-15 minutes of warm-up/medium idle until the foaming starts to show up. But I also know now that the system isn't overheating because I have an IR thermometer and the block is getting nowhere even close to overheated (less than 200 F).
So now I'm left wondering if I have a blown head gasket. But it's weird to me because I would think if that was the case bubbles/foam would appear pretty much immediately upon start up, no? But what I find is that the foaming doesn't happen until after a significant amount of warm-up/idling (10-15 minutes as mentioned above).
I've taken a video of the symptoms and I'm hoping to get some insight. I'm no mechanic so I'm not sure if what I'm seeing is "obvious" indication of a blown head gasket (or something else). It's also weird to me how it appears to expand and flow out the overflow, and then it'll really bubble and the level will drop, but then it'll rise up again and flow out the overflow steady, until another bubble and level drop. If it was a blown head gasket, wouldn't the bubbling be constant instead of sporadic like this?
As always help is much appreciated!
YouTube video here:
https://youtu.be/KCKUQTiXYqo
And here's what happens upon shut-down:
I recommended a exhaust gas in coolant test kit, results neg. Foaming problem still there, any suggestions/comments?