It depends where he's losing the antifreeze from. If he's losing it that fast, go at it in this order.
With the tractor having sat idle for a while (a couple of days is really good), open the upper petcock on the side of the oil pan. If you get a steady run of oil from there instead of a drip, it means the crankcase is too full. Close the petcock. Wipe off all around the drain plug and, with a container under it to catch what comes out just loosen the drain plug and see what comes out. If it's antifreeze at first, then there is a problem in the motor, which could be a) one or more o-rings around the sleeves, b) a bad head gasket, or c) a crack in the block or head. If all you get is oil from the drain, the motor is good.
That leaves the radiator and hoses and the castings for the inlet and outlet and their gaskets. All relatively minor. And you shouldn't be fooled by there being antifreeze around the outside of the oil drain plug. The fans on these little tractors kick up quite a breeze and will pull the antifreeze from a small leak right off the radiator and plaster it to the front of the motor where it will then run down, over the lip of the pan and drip from the lowest point (the drain plug). Also, when it's all done overflowing, the coolant level in the radiator will be lower than you might imagine. It's hard to describe, I don't have a measurement, but you can discern the tops of the tubes. If the crankcase was free of antifreeze, I'd give it one more run, with a tall kitchen trash bag over the grille to make sure it heats up well, and see if the level drops any further. If not, then that may just be his level.
If it drops lower or is, in your judgment low enough that the thermosiphon just will not flow, then it's time to look for leaks. Any obviously damaged areas are suspect. The seams between the core and the upper and lower tanks, the inlet and outlet necks are common spots. Look the hoses over carefully, especially around the clamps, as well as both in and out castings and the gaskets where they mate up to the motor.
One way to go at it is to have everything wiped down well. It might seem a little extreme, but you can take the fan and grille off before running it. A leak should become apparent before the motor overheats enough to boil over and do any harm.
That failing, take the radiator off and get it to a shop that can pressure test and repair it. The last time I took one in, it was $35 to find and fix the leak and resolder the overflow drain tube. Removing grilles, fans and radiators is part of the fun. I don't know that I'd pay anyone to let me do it, but I don't get into too many projects where I figure the cost of my time in.
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Today's Featured Article - Identifying Tractor Noises - by Curtis Von Fange. Listening To Your Tractor : Part 3 - In this series we are continuing to learn the fine art of listening to our tractor in hopes of keeping it running longer. One particularly important facet is to hear and identify the particular noises that our
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