Super C stalled with pictures

My Super C stalled on me today. I recently installed a new water
pump, thermostat, and new 7lb radiator cap. Operated for a
little while on straight water to check for leaks and let it sit for a
week. Checked every thing, it looked good, so I drained the
water and refilled with a 50/50 antifreeze mix.

I hooked up the C251 planter and road hogged about 2 miles
down to my buddies place to put in the sweet corn patch. About
half way there running WOT in 4th the motor started bogging
down and then stopped dead. Seized up. I couldn't crank it with
the starter or the hand crank. I get off and have antifreeze
running down the right side of the block from the head gasket.
This is not good. So I put out the SOS to my buddy to come get
me and bring a tow strap.

In the mean time I rechecked all my fluid levels all good. I pulled
the oil plug and drained off about a pint of oil. No water or
antifreeze. By the time help arrived I tried to start it again and
it fired right up like nothing had happened. No smoke no odd
noises running perfect.

I made the decision to get to my buddies place with the radiator
cap off. It ran fine so we went ahead and put the corn in. I got it
back home and drained the oil completely. Looked good right
volume not too much or too little. Double checked the antifreeze
level and it's fine also.

I'm thinking that the new radiator cap put the system up to 7 lbs
pressure and forced antifreeze into the cylinders causing it to
seize. The old cap had no gasket.
At the very least I think I need to replace the head gasket. Now
I'm wondering if I did any damage beyond that?

What do you all think?

Picture is of my buddy Max. I won't plant his corn so I can give him a hard time about his crooked rows

Pull the spark plugs. use the old cap and make a pressure adapter to put 7psi in the system (or a pressure tester) then wait for about an hour, keeping the pressure up if it leaks off. Then crank it over watching to see if water is getting into the cylinders, and which one. If none, Run it with the new cap and see if it still does it. It could have had the thermostat sticking. Jim

I'm baffled as I was watching the gauges before and after the incident. It didn't get hot.

Oil pressure was/is 45PSI at WOT and drops to about 35 at idle. Water temp never got over about 160 degrees. What little I have worked it so far the new gauge seems to cycle up to about 160 and then will drop back to 150 and slowly back up to 160. I guess that's the thermostat opening and closing. Previously it had no thermostat and wouldn't get much over 100 degrees no matter how hard I worked it.
I haven't done a compression test lately but the one I did when I got it showed 130-140 psi on all cylinders.

It doesn't smoke or use any oil and will lose traction before stalling dragging a 2/14" C20 plow. It has great power.

No engine noise before or since. It didn't have any white smoke coming out before is seized so I guess it couldn't have gotten much water in the cylinder.

Still baffled.

just curious about the rear fenders, they look different then Iv seen on Cs before.

They are off of a IH Farmall 240 row crop.

If coolant had gotten into the cylinders, you would have seen some WHITE smoke before it quit, and again after it restarted.

I'm sure you overheated. The engine coolant temperature gauge on the Super C is not going to tell you the temperature of the coolant inside the engine.

The only thing that could have caused that is if the new
thermostat stuck closed. It didn't feel or smell hot. I did pull
about a pint of oil on the side of the road, checking for
antifreeze, I had gloves on but did manage to splash some,it
was hot but didn't burn me. I did touch the side I of the block.
Again warm but not any hotter than normal. Radiator didn't
overflow. Only lost a enough to wet the block from the head
gasket.

I ran fine for about the 45 minutes it took to plant and then
made the 2 mile trip home in 4th wide open throttle.

The only difference was the radiator cap was loose after the
incident.

did something else ,other than the engine, heat up and seize, a bearing somewhere else or a brake?

Could you have had two problems? Temporary fuel starvation that killed the engine, then the starter gear jammed in the ring gear when you tried to re-start? Happens (rarely) on my SA and likely to others with similar engines. An attempt to start, especially with a weak/low battery, sometimes locks up the engine until the starter bolts are loosened or something else jars it loose, such as putting it in gear to keep it from rolling.
Carry a wrench that fits the starter mounting bolts.

(quoted from post at 13:03:00 04/08/11) Could you have had two problems? Temporary fuel starvation that killed the engine, then the starter gear jammed in the ring gear when you tried to re-start? Happens (rarely) on my SA and likely to others with similar engines. An attempt to start, especially with a weak/low battery, sometimes locks up the engine until the starter bolts are loosened or something else jars it loose, such as putting it in gear to keep it from rolling.
Carry a wrench that fits the starter mounting bolts.

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You can put the tractor in high gear and rock it. That will get the bendix unstuck easier than taking out the bolts.

That could have happened, but it should have turned with the hand crank even if the starter was locked up.

Could it have air locked after the drain and refill?

Dean, do you have a Farmall 240 part tractor? I see on my 240 which I just got home last weekend the dust cover on the left (clutch pedal) side of the torque is missing and I need one if you might have one for sale. A simple part but when missing a big deal. It is different then the ones on C's and SC's. Thanks for a response and my email is open, Hal.

I've been slowly reconditioning this tractor step by step. The only thing left to fix is the front trans seal is leaking. Once I get the time to tear it down and resolve this seizing issue, I'll paint.

The Hydraulic pump has been rebuilt and works perfect. Touch control screen has been cleaned and fresh hydraulic fluid added. It's full now. Could something in the touch control plug causing the pump to stall and lock up the motor?

The brakes have been reworked including milling the brake drums, new pads, springs, and balls. Also installed new seals in the bull pinion retainers. They work perfect.

Starter has been rebuilt with new clutch type bendix. I doubt this would have cause it to seize as I was running down the road when all this happened. Ring gear is in perfect shape.

Fuel tank was pressure washed and cleaned, it's spotless. Carb has been rebuilt. Fuel delivery system from tank to carb is all new and upgraded to 3/8" fuel line with a ball valve. If it was a fuel problem it wouldn't have seized the motor.

Pilot bearing in flywheel is dry, it grinds when going into gear unless I idle it way down and wait a few seconds. I'll fix that when I tear it down to replace trans seal. Trans shaft should have been spinning the same speed as the flywheel so that shouldn't have been the cause.

I'll replace the head gasket. I hope this was a one time deal. I'd hate to damage the motor over something simple.

Still baffled.

I still have the 240. I'll check to see if I have the dust cover.

...Starter has been rebuilt with new clutch type bendix. I doubt this would have cause it to seize as I was running down the road when all this happened. Ring gear is in perfect shape...

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Not so much, it didn't sieze when driving just when trying to restart according to the original post. It could just be an odd coincidence.

Thanks Dean, I'll wait till I hear from you, Hal.

Dean, I saw you notation about grinding going into gear. Try moving your shift lever all the way to the right and push forward where there isn't a gear for a few seconds - it acts like a transmission brake for some reason. I use that technique all the time and gear grinding is no more. Hope this helps, Hal.

The C123 in the SC and SA1 have the temp sensor in the UPPER outlet, should be accurate.

Dean, I know you stated your temp gauge did not show over-heated, but I think you probably did over-heat. As you were driving down the road if your hydraulics were mechanically bound, and your hydraulic pump was over-working, (without you even being aware), over-heating would have eventually occurred to the point of engine stalling. After waiting awhile and maybe after restarting and re-lifting, and maybe this time the hydraulics were not bound, the problem did not reoccur. I have had this happen a couple times with my M (in the winter time when I was paying more attention to keeping my body warm than paying attention to the strain of the engine from mechanical binding of hydraulic linkage). Just a thought.

Good looking old Super C. I had a similar issue happen to my C a year or so ago, but not quite the same. I was driving it home one day (about 8 miles) and half way through the trip I came to a 4 way stop, the engine started knocking (still had perfect oil PSI, wasn't any hotter than usual) and it died. I jumped off, checked the oil level, looked for leaks of coolant or oil, found nothing, got back on it about 5 minutes later, tried to start it, it fired right up and hasn't ever done it since. No clue what it could have been or why it did it.

Sounds like a chunk of carbon between the head & piston. When you restarted it, it came out and went out the ex.

If the hydraulics were bound that hard, the motor would have been laboring severely.