Blocking off radiator?

[jjeff]

My buddy has a newer 3.0 Duramax on his halfton said the grill has built in electronically operated louvers to control airflow over the radiator when it's cold out.

 

[Gord Baker]

Find out what Thermostat you have. Some say blocking airflow through the rad allows salt to remain in rad fins and promote corrosion. I notice no difference with or without 'Winter Front' installed on my Denali.
Thermostat controls warmup and operating temp.

 

[BobLou]

I live in northern Ontario its often -40F
We plug in the tractor at night with a block heater.
Also if the tractor is only at iddle it will never heat up, it will run at corrrect temp only if we increase the rpm
Last week My tractor temperature would not come up.
The gauge would move but just a little,
I suspected an open thermostats.
With a stuck open thermostat your temperature will never go up.
With a stuck closed thermostat your tractor will overheat. I bought this tractor new, so I had never replace the Thermostat. When i took it appart i notice the original thermostat was only a 160F, i replace it with a 180F, a diesel motor will run better and use less fuel at a higher temp, but keep it below 200F but if you can run it hotter it is more fuel efficient.
And running with a cartboatd in front of the rad, is something we do here. Just make sure that you do not have another issue ( Termostat) before using the cardboard trick. But at -5F
I would not use a cardboatd, that's only -4C in canadian Temp, lol. and i get these temperature most every day from end of Nov to end of Feb. With some -40F.

Check your thermostat.

Oh by the way in the summer we get 72F and a 180F termostat will work fine for us.

 

[Boondox]

I also use a cast off corrugated political sign mounted behind the grill guard in winter. Here in northern Vermont it gets cold enough that my Deere 4044R can’t initiate burn out. Without blocking the radiator the engine temp never reaches the threshold and the tractor goes into limp mode, usually at the very moment I need it most. Deere technical support offered the extremely unhelpful advice to “wait for a warm day.”

 

[Gord Baker]

Those Bastards. WE have gone waaaay too far with Technology. They have us by the 'Modules'.

 

[PILOON]

In the '70's I had a Volvo that had a manually operated venitian blind in front of the radiator for faster warm ups.
Simple but effective!

 

[D.Vance]

I ordered a set of winter covers for my kubota LX3310 from David.
email address is dbratager@midco.net
The cover are good quality, fit well, and service was timely and competent. Not cheap but you get what you pay for.
They worked well the winter of 21-22

 

[LouNY]

I live in northern Ontario its often -40F
We plug in the tractor at night with a block heater.
Also if the tractor is only at iddle it will never heat up, it will run at corrrect temp only if we increase the rpm
Last week My tractor temperature would not come up.
The gauge would move but just a little,
I suspected an open thermostats.
With a stuck open thermostat your temperature will never go up.
With a stuck closed thermostat your tractor will overheat. I bought this tractor new, so I had never replace the Thermostat. When i took it appart i notice the original thermostat was only a 160F, i replace it with a 180F, a diesel motor will run better and use less fuel at a higher temp, but keep it below 200F but if you can run it hotter it is more fuel efficient.
And running with a cartboatd in front of the rad, is something we do here. Just make sure that you do not have another issue ( Termostat) before using the cardboard trick. But at -5F
I would not use a cardboatd, that's only -4C in canadian Temp, lol. and i get these temperature most every day from end of Nov to end of Feb. With some -40F.

Check your thermostat.

Oh by the way in the summer we get 72F and a 180F termostat will work fine for us.

I realize this is an old thread but it popped up again today so I read through it and saw your post.
I believe there is a slight error in your temperature conversion;
by my calculations, -5 Fahrenheit is around -20.5 Celsius,
now -40 is the same in F or C.

 

[5030]

In the '70's I had a Volvo that had a manually operated venitian blind in front of the radiator for faster warm ups.
Simple but effective!

So does my Ford Focus but mine is electrically operated. In the winter it's closed. Summer, open. My big truck has a 'Winterfront' that covers the grill in front of the radiator.

 

[5030]

I might add I never block the radiator on either of my Kubota's because they are both turbocharged with charge air cooling so the cooler is in front of the radiator and blocking the air flow isn't good.