IH 412 & IH E200 overheating issues

Greetings all,

I've got two IH scrapers giving me overheating trouble. The 412 needed a new water pump when I got it—the seals had failed and it was leaking everywhere. I replaced it, but now it overheats under load. I'm seeing the same problem with the E200. Both machines are filled with a 50/50 coolant mix, neither one leaks or loses coolant until temperatures spike high enough to blow it out the cap. I removed the thermostat from the E200 thinking it might be stuck, but that hasn't helped either machine—the scraper still overheats when working hard. Both cool down quickly when just idling though. The temperature gauges on both units weren't working when I bought them, so I replaced the gauges and sending units on each one. That at least let me see the overheating happening instead of just watching steam shoot out the cap. I don't think the water pumps are the issue since one's been replaced and the other shows no signs of failure, visually or by sound.

Are there any known problems with either of these machines that could cause this? One's got the DT361 engine and the other has the DT466. Any information would be helpful.

Are your radiators clean on both the inside and outside? Also, check whether the fluid is bubbling in the radiator.

Sorry, I just saw this today. The weather's been rough so we haven't had much chance to actually run the scrapers, which is frustrating. The clay's too saturated to get any traction anyway. We looked for bubbles in the system and didn't find any. We also flushed out the whole cooling system but nothing came up. I did replace the water pump on the 412 because it was leaking at the seal. The E200 supposedly had a new pump put in, but I'm not so sure about that claim. The pump looks original to the machine—paint, wear, everything matches the age. It's not leaking though, and if the impeller shaft were bad I'd expect to see coolant everywhere, which isn't happening. It's been -7 this morning and doesn't look like it's getting above 0, so I don't think I'll be firing either one up today anyway, even if the conditions allowed it.

Update....

So here's the situation with both machines now. The 412 has been doing pretty well. I've figured out that we weren't operating these kinds of machines correctly, and once we adjusted how we were using them, things improved quite a bit.

With the E200, we removed the radiator and sent it to a shop. They found it was 30% plugged up at the bottom, cleaned it out, and discovered a leak that they repaired while they had it apart. After we put it back in, we went from overheating as soon as we put it under load to being able to do about 6 or 7 passes before the temps climb.

I've realized that these single-engine pull scrapers are designed to be pushed while they're cutting. That's what we've been doing now, pushing them with the HD16, and it's made a huge difference in keeping the overheating down and lets us load the bowl more evenly.

So my question is: am I on the right track here, or should these machines be able to work without being pushed? We're dealing with vegetated topsoil on top and clay underneath.

I wouldn't expect them to overheat unless they're running at full load for a long time or it's really hot out.

Elevator scrapers were built to work on their own unless you needed extra traction. Have you looked at the transmission oil cooler and checked its temperature? It might be blocked, and hot air coming from it could be pushing your engine temps up.

I'd check if your fan belts are slipping and make sure the fan shroud is properly in place. I've spent a lot of time with E200s and 412s over the years and never ran into overheating problems with them, even when they were being worked hard. We used to load them up pretty heavy with TD15Cs, put them in neutral and run full throttle to the elevator while the dozer operator watched the speed and backed off if it started to stall. They were solid little scrapers back in the day.

Use a heat gun to figure out where the cooling isn't working right.