IH560 hydraulic oil path and icing fix idea

Some may recall I have an IH560 with the famous moisture in the hydraulic oil problem. Simple enough to fix, if it's bad I'll boil the water out of the oil otherwise I just change the filter and away I go. Three full oil changes so far, it's getting better. Just a little aggravating.

With the oil topped off, removing the filter cover only lets out maybe a half-gallon of oil. That seems strange. If it's gravity-fed it should empty the sump. Is it suction-fed? If it's suction-fed, that would explain a filter full of ice (which floats in the sump). So the pickup tube should be near the top of the transmission case, and oil flow is suction on that tube, through the filter, through the feed tube to the pump, then pressure through the rest of the system and finally returned to the sump?

I had an idea to block that pickup tube, then bore and thread a hole into the transmission case from inside the filter housing. That would allow oil in from towards the bottom of the sump, which should remain nearly ice-free in the winter.

Wouldn't be the first time I've had a silly idea while fixing a tractor. Am I at least correct on the oil flow path?

A couple of misconceptions.

First off, ice does not float on oil. Water settles to the bottom and stays there even after it freezes.

Second, the oil pickup tube inlet is located near the bottom of the rear frame between the bull gears. The tube is routed so that it goes above the oil level before the outlet appears in the filter cavity.

A couple things;

See the attached picture; that is the inside of a T340 that had some "watery oil" as well. Previous owner would "let the water settle, and then run it till the filter clogged", I will boil the oil out someday, he said.

Many hydraulic oils are hygroscopic, meaning they will absorb and hold moisture. I am unsure if HY-TRAN is or not.

Point is, all that sludge that you see hanging in there has to come out. It is all holding moisture, and it will never, ever flush out by itself. In that picture, that crud was hanging there in a heated shop for 4 days - no change. It will float around in your new oil, and clog your $26 filter repeatedly. In your case, pulling the IPTO out of the rear, or the PTO delete cover if your machine does not have a PTO, and swamping/flushing all that crud out of there. Same with the gear area - take a look in there and get it clean as you can. There is the main plug below the bull gears in the rear end, a plug under the T/A, a plug under the IPTO gear by the flywheel - all need to come out.

I myself use a non-chlorinated brake cleaner that I buy in bulk. I am sure some others have suggestions. I flush/ spray it all around, and then I let it dry for a few days before I fill things back up. I have yet to have a seal fail on me, doing thus.

Best of luck with your project; I hope it turn out well.

I would agree with others clean it up, if you don't like Blake cleaner most any solvent will work , you don't won't to damage hydraulic pump or have bearing failures due to water.

Ice does float, even in Hy-Tran. I've seen it. When I drain oil I use 5 gallon clear carboys to store it as they're free for me and easy to seal. (I also never mistake them for buckets of new oil.) The ice chunks that drain do indeed float. As described last year, heating that oil to about 240 degrees lets the moisture boil off and I can pour that hot oil back in to further flush out water from the case in the winter.

I've heard of IH 560's that had large chunks of ice in the transmission case that prevented them from going into gear. Looking at the gears from the top inspection cover there is ice on the them. I suspect the ice sticks to the metal and that is why we see ice on the gears and chunks in the sump rather than floating ice cubes like in the carboys. This also makes it very difficult to get all the moisture out of that case.

Hy-Tran is hydroscopic, as are most hydraulic oils. Emulsifiers in the oil are supposed to make the water mix in, so you get a milky look to the oil rather than have the water and oil separated. Good idea, just doesn't work below freezing as water and oil don't really mix and emulsifiers don't change the chemical properties of water. It still boils at 212 degrees and freezes at 32, the oil doesn't.

Regarding the picture, mine was in that condition when I bought it and I've been sort of struggling with it since. The hydraulics simply never heat the oil up enough to boil off the water. I've thought of taking a filter cover, boring a couple of holes and wrapping copper tubing through it and around the filter and tying those into the engine coolant. Sort of an inter-heater rather than an inter-cooler, use hot antifreeze in copper to heat the hydraulic oil. I've also thought of an electric heater like a water heating element to pre-heat the oil, bore a hole and thread it into the bottom of the sump.

In practical terms these ideas all had the same flaw, the tractor holds 15 gallons of oil and to get that above 212 degrees to boil off is going to take more heat than what the engine coolant or some hot water heater element is going to provide.

Look at a Ford 8N or Ferguson TE-20 sometime, the pump is in the bottom of the case, draws oil from the bottom, and is piston-type rather than gear-type. There are Ferguson's at the South Pole still running from when nnalert went there in 1958, and we can be pretty sure they've never boiled water out of their hydraulic oil due to summer conditions.

There has to be a way to make a hydraulic system that can handle moisture in the cold. Ford and Ferguson did it, it ought to be possible to make the 560 do it. I suspect many a 560 owner had this exact same thought in his shed each January.

Hy-Tran has a specific gravity of 0.89 (http://www.viscosityoil.com/pdf/P13_24.PDF), so lighter than water. Solid ice is 0.92, hence it would sink. Crushed ice is 0.59, which would float. I'm guessing then that what I see going into the filter is ice from the transmission gears or what was emulsified and later froze. Which is good, it means I'm down to the last few bits.

The best way to get the water out may actually be in cold weather. So long as it's turned to ice, it can be strained. Boiling it out of the fluid should only be necessary when the water is emulsified or still liquid.