block heater

suntreemcanic · Mar 15, 2011

Ampa, You are right. I did a quick and dirty hook up of a 1000 watt block heater to my tractor this evening. It was 38 in the shop and the tractor had not run for 24 hours. In 20 minutes time the block was 120 degrees. The tractor started right off without even the glow plugs. With out the block heater it would never start on it own. Now I have to decide when I won't need it for a while and I will install the heater properly. I just used the block drain and the temp. sender port temporarily for the experiment.

Ilikeurtractor · Jun 10, 2011

suntreemcanic said:
Ampa, You are right. I did a quick and dirty hook up of a 1000 watt block heater to my tractor this evening. It was 38 in the shop and the tractor had not run for 24 hours. In 20 minutes time the block was 120 degrees. The tractor started right off without even the glow plugs. With out the block heater it would never start on it own. Now I have to decide when I won't need it for a while and I will install the heater properly. I just used the block drain and the temp. sender port temporarily for the experiment.

Hi suntreemcanic,
Did you ever get this installed correctly? This will be one of my next projects on my TX1300 (KE70 2 cyl. engine). I couldn't quite make sense out of this entire post. I have an 850W external tank type heater coming and figure I'll use the block drain on the left side (opposite exhuast side) of the engine as either the discharge or supply line to the heater. Not sure where to go with the other end though. I'd like to avoid using the temp. switch port though like you. Looks like a connection is available on the lower radiator hose to the engine but I'm not sure about that yet. Also, I need to find out if my engine has a thermostat. The block seems to only be luke-warm to the touch after running for a while. I have some white smoke issues and am hoping to help with that by getting the engine up to proper temp. with a thermostat for starters. Of course, the thermostat will block flow of coolant from the heater if it tries to circulate using the normal engine flow path - plus I'm sure a person would rather avoid circulating warm fluid through the radiator anyway when it's cold. I probably need to re-ring the engine as far as the smoke issues but don't feel like getting into that now. I will definately need some sort of heater for the upcoming winter otherwise I can forgot about starting it. Tough to get it to start at 40 deg F. as it is, let alone -10 and I'd like to avoid using - heaven forbid - ether. Thanks for any help in advance.

suntreemcanic · Jun 11, 2011

Yes I have installed it and it works great. I used it this morning as it was 32 degrees and I left the tractor out over night. I used a tank heater, used the block drain for the inlet and the temp sender port for the return. I drilled a hole in the thermostat housing, tapped it and inserted a electric temp sensor and mounted a gauge near by so now I know how warm it runs. I also could not find a thermostat in my engine and no provision for holding one in place when I removed the thermostat housing. I was not working the engine hard today, it was about 70 degrees and the engine ran about 140 degrees. I can take some pictures if I am not clear on what I did.

Ilikeurtractor · Jun 11, 2011

suntreemcanic said:
Yes I have installed it and it works great. I used it this morning as it was 32 degrees and I left the tractor out over night. I used a tank heater, used the block drain for the inlet and the temp sender port for the return. I drilled a hole in the thermostat housing, tapped it and inserted a electric temp sensor and mounted a gauge near by so now I know how warm it runs. I also could not find a thermostat in my engine and no provision for holding one in place when I removed the thermostat housing. I was not working the engine hard today, it was about 70 degrees and the engine ran about 140 degrees. I can take some pictures if I am not clear on what I did.

Thanks suntreemcanic. Yes, a few pics would be helpful. I'm thinking that 140 deg F is a bit on the cool side for running temp. I was planning on installing a 190-200 deg F thermostat if it's even possible. Seems like most engines are set up to run in this higher range although maybe for these tractor engines that would not be good for whatever reason. I read somewhere where the tractors meant to be sold in the US were equipped with a thermostat and the ones meant for Japan were not. I don't understand why that would be and maybe it's not even true.

I'm wondering what the "normal" flow of coolant is through the engine? I would guess it would be from the lower radiator hose to the pump and then from the engine to through the top radiator hose and into the radiator for cooling but I'm not sure about that. Looking at the pump, most centrifugal pumps I'm familiar with have an axial inlet and radial discharge. That would mean the flow goes into the lower radiator hose to the radiator and from the top hose to the engine. Maybe someone with more experience can chime in on this. It would be good to know this when installing a block heater. I just don't want to "short circuit" the cooling system by installing a heater such that the fluid takes the heater path instead of the normal cooling path. Are there typically check valves or anything in these tank heaters to prevent such a thing from happening?

Also, it looks like there is a tap on the lower radiator hose connection to the water pump (see attached pic). Seems like this would be a good spot to hook into for a heater. Any thoughts? Most of this is all new to me.

suntreemcanic · Jun 14, 2011

Ilikeurtractor: My camera is playing games with me. I will get some pictures coming soon.

Ilikeurtractor · Jun 14, 2011

suntreemcanic said:
Ilikeurtractor: My camera is playing games with me. I will get some pictures coming soon.

No problem. Thanks for working towards it. I shot my tractor with a temp gun on the block after warming it up and was reading 170 deg F. Not sure if that means anything, but I thought it was much cooler than that. I guess last time I checked it I didn't run it long enough. Also, local opinion is that the coolant flow travels from the radiator to the pump via the lower radiator hose and returns to the top of the radiator. I hope that is the case. I'll shoot the lower and upper hoses after a warmup and hopefully I'll see a temp difference between the two.

Ilikeurtractor · Jun 14, 2011

Coolant flow path confirmed :thumbsup: : Temp gun showed 150 deg F on the upper radiator hose and 125 deg F on lower at the time I took the readings. I actually was anticipating the difference to be much less but I'm glad it was obvious. I suppose I could have felt the difference by hand but the lower hose is difficult to access - much more safe to shoot from a distance. It makes sense coolant would flow to the pump on the lower radiator hose but I just couldn't confirm it anywhere.