Forum › Forums › Tractor Modifications › Cold Weather Warm Up
- This topic has 4 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 11 years, 11 months ago by Bob Rooks.
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December 16, 2012 at 12:45 pm #30697
Hi Guys,
Do any of you block the radiator shut or anything to warm up your engines more quickly and thoroughly before you pour the coals to it? I plug it in for an hour, then fire it up, engage pto, idle idle idle, then put in low and creeper low reverse and let it idle itself back out of shop while I go do something else for a few minutes and the oil filter is still not TOO HOT to grab (described in Engine Knocking Forum) and gauge says a little above 50. After moving or blowing snow it pops up tho. New thermostat did nothing. Or am I overANALizing again? Just that those crank bearing photos scared the hell out of me with so low of hours on it and a local snow guy burned up his skidder engine pistons cuz his staff wouldn't “waste time” by letting it warm up.
Thanks, Fido
Code 347 CLDTI
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December 16, 2012 at 1:19 pm #35430
Just one man's opinion; replacing the thermostant would do nothing to help warm-up unless the original was somehow defective. The hour plug in time helps starting but won't do a lot more to warm the engine. Partially or wholly blocking the radiator will speed the warm-up for sure, but don't be the guy who overheated his engine because he didn't pay close attention to what the engine temp was doing. A diesel engine doesn't generate much heat until and unless it is working. My guess is, a much longer plug-in time (say, 6 hours) would do more, but again, that's no guarantee.
As an aside, I doubt lack of proper warm-up was the cause of the spun rod bearing in my engine. The other bearings all looked okay other than evidence of bearing particles flowing thru the lube system and damaging them. But I'm no expert, and as I said, just one man's opinion.
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December 17, 2012 at 11:25 am #35432
are you using 15/40 engine oil vs a straight weight oil .15/40 will give you faster lubrication at colder temps.Where I used to work the fleet was powered with propane and they circulated warm water thru the regulator to keep the propane from icing up.,in the winter we blocked off part of the radiator to make the heaters work,but these trucks were old with I think 160 f thermostats.but you still had to keep a good eye on the temp gauge as it warmed up thru the day.
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December 18, 2012 at 9:14 pm #35438
I partially block off the radiator with a piece of carboard with a saucer sized hole in the middle. I also have a real mechanical temperature gage and from what I remember, a 160F or 180F thermostat. I've got the gage rotated so that the needle is straight up at the thermostat opening temp.
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December 19, 2012 at 12:22 pm #35440
Smalljobs wrote:
“I've got the gage rotated so that the needle is straight up at the thermostat opening temp.”
That's the old race car trick – having all the needles pointing straight up under operating conditions. That way you don't actually have to read the gauges to know what you have
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