Ferguson ted20 overheating

12 bore

Member
So dad rings me in a flap earlier as his fergie ted20 has overheated after topping one of his small Paddocks behind the house. Basically he is saying he had just finished when it shut itself down then steam was coming out from near exhaust on right hand side. I'm pretty sure he must mean from the expansion pipe on side of radiator. No water in oil not sure about other way round as it had spat majority of it out so was refilled with fresh, no white exhaust smoke, Now my question is he wants me to order head gasket as he assumes it's this. I'm not so sure as he also informed me he put radiator sealant in as it was leaking. I have never used the stuff but would this have gummed up thermostat and waterways? I'm going to head over and clean radiator out and have a good look one night this week but just interested to hear thoughts on this radiator sealant and if it has been known to cause issues.
 

tomlad

Member
Location
nr. preston
We used to all ways run them with a card infront of rad to try maintain temp , but tbf we'd be pottering , not working hard .
Its a trial error to determin size of card , cut bits off .
Ive many times over heated and got away with it , obviously not a good plan .
Id agree with ur logic of sealant blocking something, inspect stat first .
Lots of passenges in those cast heads. Long tube to pull out too.
 

12 bore

Member
We used to all ways run them with a card infront of rad to try maintain temp , but tbf we'd be pottering , not working hard .
Its a trial error to determin size of card , cut bits off .
Ive many times over heated and got away with it , obviously not a good plan .
Id agree with ur logic of sealant blocking something, inspect stat first .
Lots of passenges in those cast heads. Long tube to pull out too.
It was a hot day as well to be fair and I'm not sure how long since the rad was cleaned out. I think I will get thermostat out first and give it a good flush out before I start stripping it down.
 

MrNoo

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Cirencester
Has it had a replacement stat?? Noticed on my TEF ploughing tractor that the rad was barely getting warm, whipped out the stat and put in a pan of boiling water, it barely opened, so cut the centre out of it. But if you had steam out the overflow pipe then I assume that this is not the problem.
 

milkloss

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
East Sussex
Twice I’ve put stats in hot water and they’ve appeared to open on the dot when compared to a milk thermometer. Both were stuffed and didn’t work when in work so now I just replace at first sign of heat trouble and no other obvious issue.
 

MrNoo

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Cirencester
They just dont seem reliable, my tractor did a whole ploughing season with a stat that opened at best 1/16", didnt seem to do it any harm though. I just take the centers out from now on.
 

milkloss

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
East Sussex
They just dont seem reliable, my tractor did a whole ploughing season with a stat that opened at best 1/16", didnt seem to do it any harm though. I just take the centers out from now on.

Have a 956 at the minute that is overheating because the stat won’t open. Got a new stat and still no go. Drilled a hole in the stat and was better but obviously still not opening fully. Rad now is weeping a little when running without a stat so can it overpressure the rad at all? Has a good rad cap though so shouldn’t be.
 

MrNoo

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Cirencester
No, shouldnt cause it to overpressure the rad, the pressure would stay the same regardless of hole size, it would even out eventually, suspect maybe gasket or just a leaky rad??
 

milkloss

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
East Sussex
No, shouldnt cause it to overpressure the rad, the pressure would stay the same regardless of hole size, it would even out eventually, suspect maybe gasket or just a leaky rad??

Just a leaky rad I guess, got some k seal on its way. The stat issue is a strange one and she’ll have to haul silage trailers without (y)
 
Amazing that no one has mentioned the blazingly obvious first question.
Is the fan belt in good condition (not bottoming in the pulleys) and the right tension?
The second question is is the rad cap in good condition and the right one.
Until those questions are answered everything else is conjecture surely?
 

12 bore

Member
Just got over here today to have a look rad cap dosent look right but when you turn engine over water pours out of radiator overflow pipe. No water in oil but I'm guessing with this symptoms head gasket gone
 

12 bore

Member
So on further investigation, radiator rather full of dust and debry have cleared out. Water pretty grotty and gunky when I drained it and have flushed out. When I took thermostat housing off there was an awful lot of crud all around and over it so have taken this off and flushed out waterways and changed thermostat. Belts all tight and ok radiator cap a bit dodgy so will need changing. Put all back together, symptoms persist as I thought they would. When you turn engine over water pours out of overflow pipe and if rad cap off it literally pulses out goes everywhere so I'm guessing must be head gasket ?
 

12 bore

Member
Or rads totally blocked , so pumped water has to go somewhere ??

Admittedly cold water should be using the by pass hose ...
I did wonder about that as it seemed to fill up fairly quick after I drained it. There was what I can only describe as a lot of gritty sediment in the pipes and on thermostat itself.
 
When you say turn over at what speed are you talking about cranking or running?' if it's cranking could be HG but if running it could be, as said, a blockage. I have had the bottom hose collapse internally before and block the flow.
Funny if the HG was that bad I would expect a missing cylinder.
 

12 bore

Member
When you say turn over at what speed are you talking about cranking or running?' if it's cranking could be HG but if running it could be, as said, a blockage. I have had the bottom hose collapse internally before and block the flow.
Funny if the HG was that bad I would expect a missing cylinder.
Its when it is just cranking over that the water pours out. After a few seconds of the engine turning over it just shoots water out the overflow on the radiator and if radiator cap off it will bubble over the top like a fountain
 

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