For those with machines like mine on primitive trails....bring along coolant.....
It started out great with 6 marten and not done checking half the trail and then the perfect hidden stick punched right through the plastic body just above the armoured bottom and beside the rad access panel. Broke a rad mount and punctured halfway through the rad...I was going dead slow in about 3 feet of fresh snow....I shoved a half chewed fruit nut bar into the hole and turned around...I could make 50-100 yards before the heat alarm sounded....so I shut her down and wait a few minutes for her to cool...got 5 miles to an old line cabin and overnighted then home the next day 100 yards at a time....

Pulled the rad stripped the two damaged rows cleaned it well and jb welded the heck out of it.....today I will rob a couple quads for coolant and change the oil....0w40 rotella....

My concern and question from those more knowledgeable is what damage I could inflicted on my poor 600 ace engine....I considered topping with water but she would have froze in -30 and cracked the works.....

Had this machine 4 years and this is my 1st coolant issue.....sock fuel filters have been my biggest issue......

Looking for comments

Praying with fingers crossed this works out.....some kind of rad guard will be in the works now...

I’ve been running the tundras with 600 ace. Have roughly 20k miles on 3 of them. Only coolant issue I’ve had so far was a leaky radiator and that was on a machine with about 7000 miles. It was a slow leak and noticed the pink drips in the snow. Was able to make it home no problem. A friend with a 900 expedition did the same as you and he got his sled out and home the same way. 100 yards at a time. Luckily he was only a few miles out at the time. He carry’s and I know another guy who does to a short chunk of hose with clamps so he can jumper around the radiator.

Thanks....sounds like I good idea

I bought a project Tundra with the 600 ACE that was in pieces. Story was the engine blew. Once I went through everything it was clear it had been badly overheated. Found the thermostat was stuck closed, one piston was scored badly, the head surface was warped and the valves were not sealing. This sled was being run by a teenager on a trapline, so I assume it overheated and he just kept going till it finally stopped. So thats worse case scenario for you. All in all it was a fairly easy rebuild.

ive lost coolant before. I now carry, extra coolant a funnel some hose to reach the fill cap, a couple of hose clamps and a some hose barb fittings. i dont recall which one it is but you can take one of the hoses off below to swap one of the main ones out. i had to do that in a pinch. My bro was with my at the time hes the main mechanic.

In a pinch you can use kerosene or Jet-A or HF1 as a coolant. That's all the "oldtimers" used for coolant in heavy equipment around here during the winter

Awesome to know thanks

Well she is back together and seems to hold pressure...oil was some black so changed that.....new rad on order and extra antifreeze on the shopping list.....
Thanks fellas....

I thought I remember awhile back someone did something similar and used coffee from their thermos to fill the radiator and made it home.

Yeah, except they had to stop the leak first, I think they managed to take one of the hoses off and route around the radiator, or maybe it wasn't the radiator that was leaking. I don't remember who it was, but I remember them asking on here about any potential problems from using coffee... Because while I've never did so in an ACE motor, I've did so twice in ATV's with no ill effects. Only problem I could see with it is if you shut it off and let it cool down enough to freeze, as long as you didn't shut it off long enough for it to freeze until you got home or to your vehicle where you were going to trailer it, and dumped your coffee/coolant you would be fine. If you were spending the night on the line and the weather was particularly cold you might have to figure something out.

This happened to me, I bypassed the radiator, as my machine still had a heat exchanger, put black coffee in it, came 40 miles home, flushed the coffee out, replaced the radiator, machine is still going strong years later. It was called Waltzing Maltilda, changed it's name to Percolating Matilda.

Don't put coffee with sugar and cream in there!!! Remember, black coffee.

That may be the only thing that Starbucks is good for