Engine not heating up?

kiphorn · Jan 21, 2005

I was out plowing snow the other day. It was about 15 degrees outside. The needle on my temperature gauge barely moved off the bottom line. It seems to me that the engine temp would still run close to normal even with the colder temps. Has anyone else experienced this or is it likely that my thermostat is stuck open?

By the way, my tractor is a TC24D

Kip

JimR · Jan 21, 2005

Your temp gauge should have moved off the lower end if you were plowing long enough for it to warm up. I had that same problem with my Cub 7275. I pulled the thermostat and did the pan test on the stove with it. It opened around 140 I think. The new one is a 180 and it works great. I used a meat thermometer to check the water temperature as it rose with the burner on high. The real fun part was finding a new thermostatt. No one had the one I needed. A quick run to the auto parts store got me one a little bit larger in diameter. I sanded down the outside lip with my air sander to fit the housing. No one said it had to say Cub on the wrapper.

thcri · Jan 21, 2005

My 29 will stay down pretty low too if I keep the rpm's down. But if I run the rpm's up to 2200 while plowing then it will go up. If your plowing it is pretty easy to get by with a low rpm thus the tractor barily works not creating any heat. If your running the rpms up and still doesn't create any heat I would be checking with my dealer.

murph

Solo · Jan 21, 2005

An easy fix for this is to take the screen off the front of the radiator and Duct tape (Reg Green would be proud) a piece of cardboard to it. There is still enough air flow around it to get air. This will get it up to operating temperature.
Solo

djradz · Jan 21, 2005

Not sure if the 24D has the same problem as the other NH CUTs, but if it does, you should search the posts from a year or two ago concering the thermostat problems caused by the little ball stuck in the mechanism and keeping the thermostat slightly open. As I recall, J Inman posted some real good pictures.

DocHeb · Jan 21, 2005

I don't know if these will apply to TC24s, but a thermostat is a thermostat, and I don't see why these "too cool" engines couldn't happen with yours rather than a Class III.

3. Low-temp running due to flow bypass at common coolant drain line.

Cold TC45D
Finally - a Cold Fix

4. Low-temp unning due to defective thermostat with "dingle-ball" that jams and keeps thermostat open.

My brand new TC35D... Nice picture of the problem. Several different methods of correction are presented in following threads.

kiphorn · Jan 21, 2005

Thanks for the great information so far. I plan on pulling the thermostat off to see if the ball is holding the thermostat open. I'll probably just remove the ball if that's the problem. But can someone explain the following?

I contacted my dealer and the service manager says the NH Bulletin on this says to rotate the ball position to the tappet-cover-side of the opening. Apparently NH thinks the flow changes enough over there to keep the ball from lodging in the thermostat 

Is this a complicated version of: rotate the thermostat 180 degrees and reinstall the bolts?

Thanks,

Kip

Solo · Jan 21, 2005

My TC18 had this problem the first winter I got it. I bought a replacement thermostat just to experiment on and I don't think it had a ball in it. I also looked at the one in the tractor it was fine. I think there just cold natured, especially when its below freezing. The part # for the thermostat is SBA145206022, 2001 TC18.
Solo

RickB · Jan 21, 2005

That is what they say. I think if you cut the darn thing off, you will never be troubled by it again. The higher flow is at the outside of the radius of the T'stat housing.

hazmat · Jan 22, 2005

An easy fix for this is to take the screen off the front of the radiator and Duct tape (Reg Green would be proud) a piece of cardboard to it. There is still enough air flow around it to get air. This will get it up to operating temperature. 

I tape my cardboard on the outside - Clampet style /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif.

The fans on these motors run all the time, so when it is real cold out, they don't want to warm up - you need to restrict the airflow.

Plowing doesn't use much horsepower compared to mowing or snow-blowing, so you aren't burning as much diesel. Try the cardboard before you mess with the t-stat.

I don't think the little boomer's had the same issues with cooling as the bigger ones (the threads linked above).

Could be worse - you could be running cold while shoveling /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

DieselMonk · Jan 23, 2005

We've got here a nice snow storm again in N.S. and the temperatures are between -15C and -11C. I am not sure what that is in F. Anyhow, I have no problems warming the tractor up. No cardboard and tape or anything. That thing just warms up even ideling (just takes a little longer). Once the engine reached her operating temp, it stays there, if I am ideling or blowing snow.

djradz · Jan 24, 2005

Kip, I don't think I'd just cut it off. I believe that has been tried before, and believe it or not, apparently there's quite a bit of flow that then get's through. What a few of us have done is plug the hole with a rivet, and then drill a very, very small hole somewhere else on the thermostat.

kiphorn · Jan 24, 2005

I used the cardboard method on Saturday when I plowed. I didn't have time to fool with the thermostat. With the cardboard covering 2/3 of the screen in front of the radiator, the temp went half way to the normal operating temperature.

Maybe this weekend I'll pull out the thermostat. I hope it warms up by then. I changed the oil on Friday night and it was mighty cold in the unheated gargage.

Thanks for all the advice.

Kip

BGL990 · Jan 24, 2005

I drive green instead of blue but I'll chime in anyway /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I've been using my tractor in fairly cold temps recently (-20ish C, -5 or -10 F) and I've had to block almost the entire radiator with cardboard to keep the engine warm. Actually I did have it 100% blocked off for a while but it did get a little too close to the top end of the temp gauge. Just cutting a little off the cardboard, so maybe a 1" strip of fin area was exposed across the top of the rad was enough to keep the temperature reasonable. I'm not surprised if you have to block the majority of the rad to keep the engine warm in cold temperatures.

djradz · Jan 24, 2005

On my old Ford 1720/NH 1720, I had to use cardboard too, but with all the thermostat problems on the larger boomers, thought you should at least look into that too. At least with the easy access to the thermostat is one of the simpler projects to undertake.

Soundguy · Jan 25, 2005

I didn't get the impression that this was a 'flow' issue.. but rather a ball placement issue.. as when the ball dangled.. if it hung down.. it could block the t-stat open. If it was on the side or bottom.. it hung down, and out of the way? right?

Soundguy

jinman · Jan 25, 2005

Here's a picture of the "issue" on my thermostat from back in 2002. The part that is turned up is normally pointing downward into the engine and surrounded with hot fluid as the thermostat heats up. When the thermostat heats up, it does not take much turbulence to get the little ball valve in the wrong position. Once it is there, the thermostat never gets hot enough to open back up and release it, so you are just stuck with having to take it out and "fix" the ball. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

Soundguy · Jan 26, 2005

Is the ball oriented at a higher point than the opening lip of the valve, when installed?

Soundguy

kiphorn · Jan 26, 2005

I spoke to the local NH dealer. He didn't think that the TC-24's had the "jiggle ball" but couldn't be sure. Told me to check the thermostat and remove the ball if it had one. After that we need to look at the sender or the gauge itself. If all goes well this weekend, I'll find out if I have a "jiggle ball" or not.

He told me that NH corporate has indicated that cutting the ball off was the reccommended method of repair and that flow through the opening was negligible. He also said that on the new thermostats that the ball was moved futher out toward the edge so that it couldn't get hung up.

Thanks again for the input.

Kip

Cool, my last post put me to silver status. Long way to go to catch up with Bird, Soundguy and Jinman.

jinman · Jan 26, 2005

( Is the ball oriented at a higher point than the opening lip of the valve, when installed?
)

Nope! That's just the way I oriented so I could take a good photo. The part you see in the photo always points down into the engine.

BTW: Have you ever seen someone put a thermostat in backwards? It's not pretty. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif I've seen it twice. Both times the engine was overheated. ...no big surprise. /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif