everyone was right

[oledocward]

Changing to Rotella made no difference in the operating temp of my BX2350. I mowed yesterday in 85 degree weather and as usual the temp indicator on the tractor raced well above normal. As Big Bubba suggested, when I finished, I turned the tractor off and CAREFULLY removed the radiator cap. I immediately checked the water temp with a laser thermometer. Multiple reading showed it to be between 173 and 179 degrees--NORMAL, although the tractor instrument still showed it to be quite high.

Now I can run my tractor in peace without keeping one eye on the temp gauge. As sereral of you have stated, the Kubota instrumentation (temp, fuel, etc.) only offers a vague suggestion of the reality it is supposed to measure. Thanks again to all who advised on my first thread.
oledocward

 

[EddieWalker]

For just a few bucks you can buy a mechanical tempature gauge and be sure of where it's at all the time. With mowing and bush hogging, it's just a matter of time until the radiator gets pluged up. When my tempature gauge starts to rise, I stop what I'm doing and clean off my radiator. Depending on what I'm doing, I might have to do this fairly often. It's really important to have a reliable tempature gauge on your tractor.

Eddie

 

[Adam23]

I agree - If you know that your temp guage is inaccurate then I would supplement it with a good one. The last thing that you want to do is overheat your tractor and put that investment at risk. The add-on guage is VERY cheap in comparison to the engine.

 

[idaguide]

Pardon my ignorance, but where/how does the add-on guage work?
grae

 

[big bubba]

a relief for you that it's just an inaccurate gauge not sure if after market temp sender units have a universal thread, imagine they do....just be sure not to force threads on the head if they don't mate up (pardon my caution, am sure you realize this) you don't want to mess up a thread on the head (or is it the block?). next question would be to go either mechanical or electronic. having degree readings is handy and helped on my old massey 35 hogging in fields w/lots of airborne debris think most thermostats open fully at 185. bb

 

[RobJ]

Pardon my ignorance, but where/how does the add-on guage work?
grae

Couple of my threads might interest yall...

mech gauge verses OEM gauge...thermostat is set for 160 degrees

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/...-temp-gauge-vs-mech-temp.html?highlight=gauge

And how\where I put the gauge..

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/...-temp-gauge-kubota-l2500.html?highlight=gauge

 

[RobJ]

Changing to Rotella made no difference in the operating temp of my BX2350.

Where did you hear changing the oil will make it run cooler? Oil is not really there to do the cooling.

 

[oledocward]

there were a couple of posts on this webb site that made the observation that thier engines ran cooler with the Rotella 10W40; I believe I searched "Rotella."

 

[joe48]

Where did you hear changing the oil will make it run cooler? Oil is not really there to do the cooling.

If you do a search of diesel engine tech articles from different sources including diesel mfg's and oil mfg's, you will note that in almost all diesel engines there is a cooling oil jet against the under side of the pistons. This is to cool the piston head and skirts as these areas run much hotter than gas engines because of the much higher compression ratios ( remember these are compression ignition engines) and the desire to extract as many BTUs from the fuel. The higher the combustion temps the more energy from every pound of fuel. (at $4.50+ / gal this is a good thing)
Shell Rotella is an excellent diesel rated oil, I run the Rotella 15w40 full synthetic with excellent results. Synthetics typically will help an engine run cooler, especially if there is an engine oil cooler.

 

[Lockport]

Just curious if replacing the sensor might not be your answer. Mine shows it about a quarter way off the bottom when normsl temp. If it gets up I know the grill is plugged. It stopped working once but the wire had detached itself.