Liquid or air cooled

[presnewt]

I have a 25 hp diesel liquid cooled with rough cut mower. The radiator continues to get clogged with material. Today i had to stop every 10 minutes to blow out radiator. Would an air cooled engine solve this problem? Thanks

 

[Raw Dodge]

Air cooled trades that problem for other ones. An air cooled engine will overheat as well,you just won't know it,they were also plug up the cooling fins with chaff and debris after a while, and cleaning is much more difficult,often require removal and complete disassembly of the shrouds.

 

[presnewt]

Any suggestion to help deal with this. I dont mind stopping every once in a while to clean out radiator, but today i cut for 30 minutes and had to stop 5 times.

 

[TomSeller]

Any suggestion to help deal with this. I dont mind stopping every once in a while to clean out radiator, but today i cut for 30 minutes and had to stop 5 times.

What kind of mower? Is there a screen you can add to make cleaning easier?

 

[presnewt]

What kind of mower? Is there a screen you can add to make cleaning easier?

it haas a screen but the smaller stuff still gets thru, i have tried to wrap screen wire around the parts of the body that clippings go thru but it has not helped

 

[aczlan]

Is it starting to overheat? If so, can you see through the radiator? Our BX2660 was having overheating issues and blowing the radiator out with air didn't help. I cleaned it out with the pressure washer and it was amazing how much junk came out.

Aaron Z

 

[CCWKen]

Don't wait so long to cut. I did a cut on one of the fields about two months ago. I waited too long and the weeds went to seed. All kinds of fuzzy stuff. I was making about 6-7 passes on about a 700' run before have to stop and clean the screen and brush off the radiator. I vowed not to let it go so long in the future but the flowers did look nice for a while.

Forgot to mention: Check your air cleaner too. Diesels will run hotter with clogged/dirty filter.

 

[prs]

Agree with RawDodge that the air cooled will foul too in different way and more difficult to clear. It is the nature of the rear discharge mower in dry, pollen loaded, or chaffy grass or weeds, plus the VT is so low to ground.

I clean about once per every 30 minutes when rough cutting unless I catch the dew still wetting the vegetation and even then I have to clean on the hour. My other mower (contour) is rear discharge too and about every two hours I dump the screen and also use an umpire''s base brush to knock the fine dust/pollen off of the radiator fins' surface. At the end of the work day, I use my blower to clean the radiator fins in reverse flow, then blow the rest of the machine clean too.

I notice that when the work is dusty, pollen/chaff rich that the primary air cleaner also gets loaded and I gently tap it out on a flat surface.

prs

 

[brucet47]

What model Ventrac do you have? If an older 4100 or 4200 there is a radiator upgrade available.

Bruce

 

[prs]

Another important thing; if the radiator and air cleaner are getting choked; consider your sinuses and lungs! Dust mask is a good thing, I have one on order.

prs