removing the engine shield covers question

[deepNdirt]

I started working on the old Roper lawn tractor I picked up last month, I've been letting it sit and soak with Penetrating oil over past weeks, I knew the starter would need to be replaced because it was froze up, I had no idea when I went to remove it that I had to remove many of the engine shield and Flywheel cover and flywheel, the starter bolts down from the top not into the side like most I have seen,...
Anyway.... after removing the shields I found some oil around the engine area and decided to go ahead and remove all the rest of the shield covers in order to clean up the oil, My question is... are these covers necessary?
Do they work to help cool the engine?

This lawn tractor is a 16 hp twin cyl, and logic seems to me more air could get to it as well as dissipate from it without these shields,
and if ever had to work the engine I could easily get to it without all these shields I do say it would look better with them But if have no purpose other than looks I can live without them being on it :thumbsup:

Plus this mower will not be used to cut our grass, in fact I'm not going to bother with install the cutting deck, I will be converting the mower into a full yard tractor with attached rotor tiller, I can more or less call it my ride on tiller well at least until I find me a 3 pnt rotor tiller for my Yanmar who knows what I might do with it after then,...

 

[SandburRanch]

Probably be OK to leave them off in Yellowknife Canada in the winter but don't even think it in GA. With them on and the engine running hold your hand below the head(s) and you'll feel a strong air flow coming down across the head and spark plug area. That air is coming between the head cooling fins and the shield. Mice nests have ruiened a lot of engines by stopping that air flow in the direction it was engineered to travel. Very necessary.

 

[deepNdirt]

Probably be OK to leave them off in Yellowknife Canada in the winter but don't even think it in GA. With them on and the engine running hold your hand below the head(s) and you'll feel a strong air flow coming down across the head and spark plug area. That air is coming between the head cooling fins and the shield. Mice nests have ruiened a lot of engines by stopping that air flow in the direction it was engineered to travel. Very necessary.

Kinda what I thought I remember years ago building a VW Baja and removing all the tin from the engine and afterwords the engine would run hot when setting running for any length of time, same as what you are saying with this tractor I guess yes the engine heads were caked with grass & dirt
. prolly has been running hot in the past,

This engine has a large flywheel but I can't see as to how it alone could create enough air to send through the cowl system to cool, it would seem to me these shields would hold in the heat appose to let dissipate, although I suppose it works somehow or why else design this way

 

[jonyyuma]

The huge flywheel fan is part of "Air-cooled" and yes VW engines needed most of the tin, even down to the sides of the jugs. Cylinders score quickly without air flow.. My house, i remove the tin on my mower and pull out and blow all fins and heads annually, with oil change..Think of an airplane engine and its fins and tin.In Canada, never ran an engine there. so maybe?

 

[deepNdirt]

had some more time to work on the Roper, got the engine started today and I see what y'all mean about the flywheel being a cooling fan as well, I went ahead and installed the top part for the time being for safety reasons, while still needing to do more things around the engine area I left off the other shrouds, I held my hand down under the edge of the top cover as it overlaps the cylinder head and a quite bit of air does blow through this area, Thanks for the advice:thumbsup: incidentally the engine runs great and I was able to engage into forward and reverse and seems to pull strong, it has a electric PTO clutch that drives the Rototiller and it also engages, the tractor will need rear tires, Both are dry rotted and will not hold air, not too bad expense though I am very interested in how well this tiller will work? before I go all out with restoring this tractor, Does anyone here have a tiller attachment or have used one with such a mower style tractor? the tiller looks to be well built but seldom used, I don't know if the owner simply never gardened or was it not worth the effort to use it? being it is in such new condition.... unlike the tractor itself

 

[Molerj]

Just a suggestion, you may want to check into tubes for the rear tires. Alot cheaper than buying new tires, that is, if they aren't in real bad shape.

 

[deepNdirt]

Just a suggestion, you may want to check into tubes for the rear tires. Alot cheaper than buying new tires, that is, if they aren't in real bad shape.

Yes this might be the option I take the tires have very good tread although dry rotted badly, and with past experience when changing out tires in this condition, By the time I break it off the rim its pretty much destroyed,
I have even though about the green slime stuff, its very expensive and I read that it would take 16 ounce per tire which the bottle I looked at were 8 ounce and 8.00 each, so 16.00 per tire could buy tubes:thumbsup:

I realized why the tiller wasn't used much there is a little more to hooking it up than simply backing up to it and making a quick connection,
what has to be done first Is remove the rear plate, the one that has the hole at bottom for towing something, the tiller then bolts in place of the other plate, an adapter plate with receptacle hooks had been installed on each side that made it appear the tiller would simply hook onto and would be off to use, Not the case yes the hook are used to line up the tiller but it does have to be bolted on with 4 bolts, the first time after figuring this out took me approx 30 minutes to install, the next time I could do it in half the time, I went ahead and put the belt around the PTO and starter it up and engaged the tiller, it turns great and I'm looking forward to trying it out:thumbsup:

 

[deepNdirt]

Hello again all,
update on the Roper, as mentioned before I got the 16 hp. twin ruining good, so I decided to further proceed with fixing the thing up, not really so much as resto, But getting it into a usable condition, Primarily as a garden tiller, I was able to score some much better and larger 12" wheel/Tires for the rear for only 10.00 each, But with the increase size on the rear I feel i will need to enlarge the front tires as well,

Today I manage to get about 1 hour worth of seat time try out the tiller, and it works great, only problems was the cable I had installed to lift and lower the the tiller stretched and I think I will need a thicker more heavy duty cable,
I have post a picture of before and after , what You folks think?
latter i will try gets some short video of the tractor and tiller in action and post them, I thought it was interesting to have a simple Lawn tractor with the ability to use a rototiller,:thumbsup:
Now I have seen them towing gas powered rototillers,not ones with Belt driven from an electric PTO,

 

[Harry Palmer]

Looks Good! :thumbsup: My neighbor has an old JD yard tractor with a rototiller setup similar to what your Roper has. Yes, it uses a V-belt drive. He gardens with it all year. His garden is about 15 x 30 which allows for plenty of corn, tomatoes, peppers, chili peppers, squash, and zucchini.

 

[SandburRanch]

That's quite a transformation for that Roper but I hope the tin is off the head just for the picture. Looks great. Yep, a video would be good with that tiller socked deepNdirt.