Overheating from dirt in Radiator

[RobertN]

That is the way my old Kubota was. Still with the screen, the radiator would get loaded up with dust. I blew it out with the compressor every 3-4 hours when mowing at home or at my parents. It helped, not tons, but definitely helped.

As others have said the window type screen catches the crud floating in the air when bush hogging. I clip several small fields once a year with the weeds being taller than the tractor. When cutting such areas I have to clean the screen every hour or so. I watch the temp gauge and when it begins to move from its usual position of center I simply pull the screen. In less than a minute I am back cutting. After cutting this type of over growth I use a blow gun on the air compressor to blow out the radiator from the back side.

 

[daveinnh]

My Kubota's radiator got dust clogged as well. I waited untill the next day and hosed it out - plus the screen.

 

[sandman2234]

My little Ford 1100 had the same problem, and I was always having to clean the prescreen. I added a front bumper with a hood brush guard out several inches in front of the tractor. The pollen and dust would get knocked off and fall in between the brush guard and the grill, never making it to the prescreen, which decreased my cleaning time considerably.
David from jax

 

[Ford850]

I've had an issue with the radiator collecting a film of oil or something, could be residue from certain weeds, but once it was on there it would collect dust and dirt. I mix up dish detergent with warm water and spray it down from both inside and outside, then rinse well. That seems to slow the dust deposits and deep cleans the fins.

 

[GGB]

It seems like this is worse at certain times of the year. I can sometimes use the brush mower and have no problems, then have to watch for buildup just from finish mowing.

Because of this, and from concern about grass clippings catching fire near the engine or exhaust or from a hot bearing going bad (don't want to lose the barn and everything else in it), I try to clean by blowing everything off with the air hose every time I use it. I don't always get things cleaned off every time, but I try. The factory prescreens work pretty well on my CUT and lawn tractor at our home place.

On our farm, we have to clean off the radiator of the combine almost every other day, even though it has a rotating screen to help reduce buildup. On the big tractor, we have a piece of window screen ahead of the radiator, which acts like a prescreen, and saves the time of having to pull the side covers off to clean out every time Ugly but effective....

I vote for adding window screen to make it easier to clean off when you are out in the field and don't have the air compressor handy.

GGB

 

[blueriver]

Anybody got one of these?

Cleanfix - Reversible fans for radiator cleaning

 

[IslandTractor]

Anybody got one of these?

Cleanfix - Reversible fans for radiator cleaning

Donald Trump and Bill Gates may have them on their CUTs. Lovely German engineering but it would require me to value the 30-45 seconds it takes me to clean off the radiator screen at considerably more than the cost of an ounce of gold per hour to payback. Makes sense for big industrial/Ag machines though.

 

[Transit]

Al, a lot of the cooling air is drawn up from under the tractors front axel. Try propping the hood open a few inches to draw air from a higher clean point.

 

[EddieWalker]

I found that a flexible hose for a grease gun works perfectly on my air line. I can bend and fit it into the shroud and really blow out all kinds of dust from my radiator.

I do this once or twice a year and rarely have any issues. It takes a bit of time to get it all out because there is so much dust that gets into those little fins.

Eddie

 

[buck12]

I found that a flexible hose for a grease gun works perfectly on my air line. I can bend and fit it into the shroud and really blow out all kinds of dust from my radiator.

I do this once or twice a year and rarely have any issues. It takes a bit of time to get it all out because there is so much dust that gets into those little fins.

Eddie

Now that is a good idea I had not considered. I have been using a blow gun and can only get to most of the radiator. I am sure I have some flexible hose of some type laying around that I will try. Thanks for the tip.