Air Cooled Diesel Engine

[oneparsec]

What are the pros and cons of air cooled diesel engine?

 

[Egon]

It may be harder to heat the cab but then you don't have to worry about sterile ground.

 

[RPW]

From what I've seen on the Internet the HP is on the low side (most likely a heat related issue) but for special purpose constant power i.e. an irrigation pump would probably be ok. For a variable demand (tractor) may not be the best choice.

 

[DmansPadge]

I think the biggest pro would be not having a cooling system to fail/maintain. And the con being shorter engine life.

 

[radman1]

I had an air cooled deutz (sp?) engine in by prior bobcat skid steer. Oil changes required a good amount of oil and a fair amount of old oil was left in the oil cooler with each change.

 

[woodlandfarms]

The Power-Trac series (larger) are powered by a Deutz Oil Cooled (Air Cooled) engine. I do not know of any diesel engine that is purely air cooled (like a motorcycle engine) but that for sure does not mean it does not exist.

Like any engine, it is how your support it as much as the engine itself. The Deutz engine used by PT is rock solid. Pretty darn bullet proof. But, PT uses the stock oil cooler, one for an engine that is stationary, like a water pump. So it quickly clogs with dust and debris. as the engine blows unfiltered air through it.

Any tractor will have this issue, and keeping whatever radiator you have clean is essential for proper maintenance. PT just chose to not improve or review the design, so it is a bone of contention with owners with a machine that is VERY versatile.

With oil Cooled essentially it is only one system to maintain, and less moving parts to fail. It does not suffer from freezing or rusting out, and would not have the additional weight and space if that might be a factor.

I see no cons per se. No more than any other engine.

 

[Redneck in training]

Air-cooled engines beat liquid cooled in hot climate. If the air temperature goes up the temperature of the air-cooled engine also increases little bit and since it dissipates more heat its temperature stabilizes at higher level. If liquid engine gets overloaded it starts boiling and its temperature runs up until destruction.
Isn't it true that most diesels (and many gas engines) have at least the pistons oil cooled?

 

[Redneck in training]

It may be harder to heat the cab but then you don't have to worry about sterile ground.

The trucks made by Tatra Czech republic has separate diesel fuel heater (furnace) for the cabin. It could also heat the engine without running it. Especially usefull in Siberia. The trucks for Siberia also had double glass windows and thermally isulated cabin. In addition to it they had heated dumper bed by the exhaust gases.

http://www.tatra.cz/en/down/profil_EN.pdf

 

[lawn_king]

Air cooled diesels are very loud!

 

[DGS]

My neighbour has a Belarus 250 that has an air cooled engine and he likes it
It doesn't seem any louder than my Kubota when running but I like a diesel sound anyway as I have worked around them for more than 45 yrs.
He likes the idea of no coolant to worry about but the fan is run by a belt that is bit knarly to replace
Other than that there seems to be no difference in operating,PTO,driving etc.
Regards and Happy Thanksgiving to my American friends
DGS

 

[WilliamBos]

Air cooled diesels are no more, due to emissions regs.

Deutz seem to have mastered them.

Did Kubota build them too??

 

[kenstrac]

I had a 120HP SAME Drago and a 60 HP SAME Solar The Drago was open station and the Solar had a cab The heat in the cab was electric,and had its own alternator.
The tractor ran on the cool side,running it hard I shot it with my infrared thermometer and the max temp on the engine on a 98deg day was 140 in the winter if I ran it with the vent closed I would have to push it hard to not make it smoke.
The tractors were not noisy as someone said in the previous post.
Fuel economy on both was excellent for those size tractors,The only negative was if you did not use the tractors all the time you have to check the air path and jugs for mice nest,I was made aware of this when I bought the first SAME if you don't you can over heat the jugs.I bought them both used and beat the snot out of them,No repairs were done on either just oil and filters.

 

[Hoosier Hay Man]

Nice pictures!

I seen a picture of a Same tagged as an Oliver once. I know they built some retagged AGCO tractors as of late. I didn't relize they had built an air cooled though? I remeber seeing a few Deutz air cooled around in the seventies and early eighties. I never heard anything bad about them. They were easy on the fuel which was a plus then, as inflation was a serious problem then.

 

[WilliamBos]

Nice pictures!

I seen a picture of a Same tagged as an Oliver once. I know they built some retagged AGCO tractors as of late. I didn't relize they had built an air cooled though? I remeber seeing a few Deutz air cooled around in the seventies and early eighties. I never heard anything bad about them. They were easy on the fuel which was a plus then, as inflation was a serious problem then.

They were built into the early 2000's, Deutz Agrolux were air cooled. Also some Fendts (Europe) had Air cooled Deutz in them.

 

[kenstrac]

I never heard of Oliver using SAME, I know they used UTB that was a Romanian tractor sold as a 1250 Oliver 5040 Allis and 445 Long.
Some of the AGCO were SAME I don't remember the numbers that they were rebadged to.

 

[Cami]

Mouse nests were mentioned, but chaff or extreme dust can be a problem too. If you clog up part of a radiator then you reduce the system's cooling capacity overall, but if you get crud under the shroud and it covers part of the engine fins then you get a hot spot.

This issue cooked a Wisconsin engine (not diesel, but air cooled!) that belonged to my father in law, but I've run Deutz and Wisconsin engines in stationary applications without any problems.

@Redneck in training: The heated bed like in the Tatra trucks are done over here too. A friend worked in a mine in Alberta many years ago with a fleet of Euclid trucks that ran their exhaust through channels in the box; I doubt his workplace was the only one to do it. I think he called them smoke tubes.

 

[RickB]

Nice pictures!

I seen a picture of a Same tagged as an Oliver once. I know they built some retagged AGCO tractors as of late. I didn't relize they had built an air cooled though? I remeber seeing a few Deutz air cooled around in the seventies and early eighties. I never heard anything bad about them. They were easy on the fuel which was a plus then, as inflation was a serious problem then.

There were a lot of Same's around here back in the day. I don't recall any being water cooled. From the Minitaurus 60 to the 160, all I recall were air cooled.

 

[psj12]

M60 tanks were air cooled V-12s and for the large size of their engines they only made 750 Hp. They also had short engine lives. M88 recovery vehicles still use a slightly more powerful version of the same engine. Very noisy.

 

[allenr]

Two of my three air-cooled tractors

Fendt 203P, 3 cyl Deutz of a little over 3 litres, 57 eng hp.

Deutz DX 3.70, 4 cyl Deutz of a little under 4L, 70 eng hp.

Both simple, reliable tractors - no cooling problems.

 

[Cami]

@ Psj12: Your mention of the M60 reminded me of Jay Leno's "Tank Car": Jay Leno's Garage: Now That's A Hot Rod - Popular Mechanics

I forgot to put in another thought about air cooled engines: They really need a cool-down period before shutting them off. It's a good idea with any engine that's running at peak output, but with air/oil cooled motors, it's more important.