The Cardboard Trick

[Steve_in_Ont]

In days of old, when it got cold outside, we always used to place a sheet of cardboard over the front of 3/4 (or so) of the radiator. Is this still a good trick, or are modern cooling systems sophisticated enough to properly control the heat of the engine without this trick?

I like the idea of not having to do this, as you know what I always forget when it gets warm...

 

[RoyJackson]

Well, I see a lot of trucks and buses with cloth or canvas covers attached to the front grilles. The covers have a vertical zipper that allows full or partial cover of the radiators.
So, reckon the cardboard may be passe, but the principle behind it is still in vogue.

 

[Thomas]

I know of a couple guys that plow driveways w/brand new pick ups,and they even said on really cold morning when traveling to another driveway w/the plow up they get better heat.

The card board trick still common in this parts.

 

[Mike_Dumond]

<font color=blue>The card board trick still common in this parts.</font color=blue>

Geeze, up here, they give you a piece of cardboard when you buy the truck. /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

 

[frank_f15]

a lot of people still do this, asa matter of fact i have one car that i don't like the heater operation, in really cold or snowy cond, i will put a peice on cardboard over part of the rad. be advised to watch the temp gauge. but this only for extreme conditions.

 

[djradz]

Steve, since you have a New Holland TC series tractor, you may want to ensure the engine is getting up to normal operating temperature. Cardboard is not necessary, but on the larger TC series tractors had been necessary until someone figured out the coolant drain lines coming from the radiator and engine block also were serving to bypass the thermostat. Make sure your temp guage rises to mid-range after about 15 minutes of operation. If no gauge, figure some way to ensure the temp get up there.

 

[cowboydoc]

I for one think it is completely not necessary Steve. I never put one over any of my cars and pickups for the last 10 years and none of them have ever had any problems with heating. My newer 4600 never has had a problem either or for that matter my old Massey that I just got rid of.

 

[hwp]

Steve, I am old enough to remember people, including my father, using cardboard to restrict the airflow through the radiator of his trucks, etc. As I try to reconstruct the need for this, methyl alcohol was used to lower the freezing point of the water in the cooling system. Glycol anitfreeze was not available at that time (immediately after WWII). When travelling at any significant rate of speed (over 30 mph) in cold weather the alcohol could freeze in the radiator from the wind chill. The engines were relatively low compression and did not run very hot. As a result there were times when the air flow through the radiator could cool the coolant to the point that it would freeze before it got to the bottom of the radiator. The point of the cardboard was to reduce the airflow through the radiator to prevent freezing. I can remember draining the radiators at the end of the day (and refilling them the next morning) so that they wouldn't freeze overnight. It was quite an art to figure out how much of the radiator to cover. I can remember having both extremes happen - too much cover and the rad boiled over and not enough cover and the coolant froze. Boiling over was the easier situation to deal with. When we switched to trucks with diesel engines, they ran 24/7 through the winter.

 

[skent]

My 1950 Case DC has shutters in the front of the radiator to allow a quicker warm up at cold temps. They are operated by a hand crank on the instrument panel. When I first started using the tractor in real cold weather, I noticed the engine took a very long time to heat up, due mainly to the surface area of the engine. (Thermostat was tested and worked correctly). The Shutters were rusted open and when I got them working. . . I'd close them till the temp gauge got to warm then open them as needed.

 

[JRP]

With a thermostst mostly closed and little water flow, the water at the radiator outlet is cold, close to ambient temp. This makes the bottom and front of the block cold, and the top of the head at thermostat temperature.

If the cardboard limits the heat removal it will have the water flowing into the water pump closer to operating temperature, with more coolant flow and the thermostat "fine tuning" the temperature. This should give a more uniform engine temperature. I think this is good. The cardboard sounds like a good idea to me.

My boat motor has an alarm horn if engine gets hot. Something like that would be good on a tractor. A reminder to adjust or remove the cardboard, or at least check the gauges.

Last month it got down to 31 here.