Began to change the water pump, take off the pump on august 2017, then made it sandblasted, then a new primer and paint. Finally the pump was back on the crawler late september. Fill up the engine with new coolant, test all the stuff , no leaks
.Everything was fine until I had the idea to check my coolant heater to make sure everything was ok for the winter. plug the cord, coolant began to heat and then 5 minutes later I heard some sparking noise coming from the heater then some smoke
The heater was the one that Deere sold for the 350 and 450. It was red with 2 connections on the side. I installed it in 2005. Try to have a replacement unit from Deere....No more available
Went on the internet to find a sub.....Finally made my choice for the TEMRO 3308003 unit, 1500 watts output. F..k yeah ! That I told to myself, it will make the engine glow on the cold winter night.....I had all wrong
On the Deere unit I had installed in 2005, I didn't like the way it was supposed to be installed on the side of the engine because the engine on a 350 is smaller than on a 450 so less space. I finally installed it on the front of the radiator with 5/8 heater hose to make the connection between the engine and heater. Put some hydraulic hose protector on the heater hose to prevent hose wearing cause it was running between frame and radiator.
When I received the Temro unit it was a little bit bigger and BIG problem, the top connection was not on the side but upway so I needed to had an extra elbow wich was going to high compare to the connection level on the engine.
Made all the connections, fill up with coolant, again !!! But the cord on it, started to heat, I could hear the boiling sound in the heater.....Then I heard a small "click" sound coming from the heater...It was the thermostat of the heater that went open to protect the unit. Big heat was felt on the elbow of the engine but not enough long to heat all the engine. Wait for some time then another "click" and the boiling sound again....Then another "click" with no boiling sound.....Gosh!!!
After several weekends working on it with several miss and try, I finally change the tank heater (same model) for a 750 watts and I rearanged the routing of the hydraulic lines from the pump to be able to put the heater lower compare to the engine.
Works well now. I'll try to put some pics...
