Block Heater

Roscoe294 · Dec 30, 2017

Hello,

I'd like to find a block heater for my Yanmar motor. Motor currently sits in a JD 7775 skid steer. Motor was made for JD by Yanmar and came out of a JD turf mower.

The tag on top of the motor reads "4tn82-rje" and I'm not sure what I need or where the block heater would thread into the motor.

I'd like to stay away from the lower radiator hose circulator type.

Any help is appreciated

Thanks

winston1 · Dec 31, 2017

Engine Block Heater with cord fits Yanmar 4TN82E & 4TNE98 (4 cyl.) | eBay

rScotty · Dec 31, 2017

winston1 said:
Engine Block Heater with cord fits Yanmar 4TN82E & 4TNE98 (4 cyl.) | eBay

That picture looks just like the ones I've used on Yanmars before. Roscoe, if you look at the side of the motor block one of the "freeze plugs" should be on a raised boss and be plugged by a threaded plug with a hex key hole to turn it. That one unscrews - sometimes with great difficulty - and is replaced by the block heater. Be careful; if the block threads get messed up it can be a problem.

Better keep the threaded plug. Like many Japanese manufacturers, Yanmar tends to use British Standard Pipe threads for for anything threading into their cast iron blocks instead of the more familiar North American NPT thread used in US manufacturing. Unfortunately, the NPT thread will work just well enough to ruin the threads in the block, but still leak. That goes for the oil and temp senders too.

There's another solution as well. Your engine is a standard 220 series 4 cylinder Yanmar used by lots of JD equipment in the roughly 30 to 90 hp range. In fact, it's used by high end equipment all over the world. If it were mine, I'd probably just head down to the JD dealer and be sure of getting the right thing. Fifty bucks is a typical price.
rScotty

oosik · Dec 31, 2017

Man - rScotty is right on point. I'd take Scotty's suggestion and buy what you need from a JD dealer. I've had ONE block heater and it leaked - UGGGG.

Strange - I much prefer lower heater hose circulating heaters and have consistently had good luck with them. To each his own..........

4570Man · Dec 31, 2017

It seems like a lower heater hose heater would waste a lot of heat out the radiator.

rScotty · Dec 31, 2017

4570Man said:
It seems like a lower heater hose heater would waste a lot of heat out the radiator.

Here's where I admit to ignorance....I don't know anything at all about those inserted hose heaters.

Is there typically room to fit hose heaters in or do you have to extend the hose somehow?
Do hose heaters have some kind of positive circulation like a propeller inside? I hear them referred to as "circulation type".
What's the pro and con of each? I'm guessing they are all in the sub-1500 watt range, but not even sure of that or by how much.
For both types of heater, doesn't the thermostat control how much heat is lost through the radiator?
rScotty

buickanddeere · Dec 31, 2017

https://phillipsandtemro.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/2017-Zerostart-Temro-Web-Catalog.pdf

oosik · Dec 31, 2017

Well - the circulating tank heaters (aka- circulating lower hose heater) work much like your percolator coffee pot. You cut the lower heater, RETURN hose, and stub in the tank heater. The total flow of heated water will ONLY get into the radiator if/when the water is warm enough to open the thermostat and allow full circulation thru the radiator. Otherwise - the tank heater perks along - pulling cold water from the radiator - heats the water and returns it to the engine block. About as hot as I've EVER seen the water get is around 150F - not hot enough to open the thermostat and let hot water flood into the radiator. The total amount of water that makes the "full loop" is controlled by the amount allowed to pass the thermostat in its closed state. Its not a whole lot but sufficient to warm an engine block to around 150F in about 3 to 5 hours

Works on the principle - hot water will rise, cold water will fall.

Doofy · Dec 31, 2017

Lower radiator hose heater works great and is easier to see if it springs a leak.

PILOON · Dec 31, 2017

Some hose heaters actually have check valves built in, once the fluid reaches temperature it expands and pushes forward the hot fluid.
Also very easy to install, cut insert and add 2 clamps. Downside is that you need to drain B4 cutting but then that also applies with block heaters as well.

AS to magnetic units, forget them. They heat the air (slightly).
Had 2 on my 20 HP 3 cyl while waiting for the proper replacement for the shorted frost plug block heater.
24 hrs later and the tractor still would not start.
I resorted to blow torch on the oil pan plus a 4000 watt construction heater.

I later learned that using a hair drier to warm the intake air was a good trick.

Scotty Dive · Dec 31, 2017

I have tried and have never had luck removing that block plug with the recessed square hole. I have tried heat and a long breaker bar without success. Worried that I would damage the block all for a lousy $50 optional part. Once you figure out your machine it's not that hard to get her started. Today I started mine at 11 degrees. This is what I do when it's very cold. Thermostat for 20 seconds. Spin the tractor over with compression release until oil light goes off. Ignition off and Then thermostat for another 20 seconds and spin the tractor with compression release to get quick revolutuons and then full compression. When it starts to kick and fire, I release the starter and use the thermostart start again for another 10 seconds or so and she is purring.

Roscoe294 · Dec 31, 2017

rScotty said:
That picture looks just like the ones I've used on Yanmars before. Roscoe, if you look at the side of the motor block one of the "freeze plugs" should be on a raised boss and be plugged by a threaded plug with a hex key hole to turn it. That one unscrews - sometimes with great difficulty - and is replaced by the block heater. Be careful; if the block threads get messed up it can be a problem.

Better keep the threaded plug. Like many Japanese manufacturers, Yanmar tends to use British Standard Pipe threads for for anything threading into their cast iron blocks instead of the more familiar North American NPT thread used in US manufacturing. Unfortunately, the NPT thread will work just well enough to ruin the threads in the block, but still leak. That goes for the oil and temp senders too.

There's another solution as well. Your engine is a standard 220 series 4 cylinder Yanmar used by lots of JD equipment in the roughly 30 to 90 hp range. In fact, it's used by high end equipment all over the world. If it were mine, I'd probably just head down to the JD dealer and be sure of getting the right thing. Fifty bucks is a typical price.
rScotty

Thanks
Makes sense

Roscoe294 · Dec 31, 2017

Scotty Dive said:
I have tried and have never had luck removing that block plug with the recessed square hole. I have tried heat and a long breaker bar without success. Worried that I would damage the block all for a lousy $50 optional part. Once you figure out your machine it's not that hard to get her started. Today I started mine at 11 degrees. This is what I do when it's very cold. Thermostat for 20 seconds. Spin the tractor over with compression release until oil light goes off. Ignition off and Then thermostat for another 20 seconds and spin the tractor with compression release to get quick revolutuons and then full compression. When it starts to kick and fire, I release the starter and use the thermostart start again for another 10 seconds or so and she is purring.

Being a I have 1995 machine, your start up procedure doesn't even come close to helping me out. Thanks anyway

goeduck · Dec 31, 2017

oosik said:
Works on the principle - hot water will rise, cold water will fall.

Yep. And that principle of heat rising will never change.

chevy791979 · Jan 18, 2018

Try AR87167. That's directly off my computer I work for a Deere construction dealer. That's the Deere part number

Ford850 · Jan 18, 2018

It sounds like the hardest part is breaking that plug free.
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/john-deere-owning-operating/327256-2520-block-heater-install.html

milligan36 · Feb 5, 2018

Most Yanmar tractors have a one and one quarter threaded hole in the block.

rScotty · Feb 5, 2018

milligan36 said:
Most Yanmar tractors have a one and one quarter threaded hole in the block.

Uh....That's only part of the story. Please be careful what you put back into the threads in the block. Here's why: Most US equipment is specified to imperial sizes, and our American made motors and block heaters use a tapered thread pipe to NPT specifications. But Yanmars don't use that same thread spec.

Yanmars use a very similar - BUT DIFFERENT - thread form that is common in oriental metric manufacture. Yanmar uses tapered pipe thread specified to BSPT standards that are almost exactly the same as our common NPT in diameter, but the two threads differ in thread shape and angle. If you try to interchange these pipe threads they will leak and that causes no end of problem. Take a look at this link:
NPT National Pipe Thread and BSPT British Standard Pipe Thread connections

Consider going to your JD dealer, explain the problem, tell him your Yanmar's engine block ID numbers, and ask for a block heater for a similar block-series Yanmar engine used in the JD compact tractors.
Thanks, rScotty