Mowing Case IH 254 Overheats When Mowing

[Jackal]

I have a 1985 IH254 with 857 hours that runs great when snow plowing etc. until I mow. I am mowing with a 5' MF 2220 Estate Groomer. After about 20 minutes of mowing the overheat light comes on. I stop mowing and let it run at about 1200 rpm and after about 10 minutes the light goes off and I can again mow for about 15 minutes and it starts to overheat again. To date I have had no loss of coolant. I am mowing at midrange, 2nd gear and grass is not super high or wet. Radiator is clean and has new 50/50 antifreeze. Any thoughts? Maybe a new thermostat or up the % of antifreeze/coolant? Could this mower be too much for the tractor? Thanks in advance for any ideas.

 

[willi67]

Hi
Increasing the antifreeze ratio will have the opposite effect, if anything I would drain and reverse flush the radiator (save the coolant if new) and try running with plain water if it doesn't get below freezing there. You could take the thermostat out and see what happens. I would also check the fan belt, check for collapsed hoses and if possible feel if the radiator is uniformly hot with no cold spots. It might have some blocked tubes internally. Have a read of this post, it may give you more ideas
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/yanmar/279426-disaster.html

 

[KubotaSam]

When you say the radiator is clean, does it just look clean or have you blown out the fins with an air hos to be sure it is clean. On my Kubota it will look fine but when it starts to get hot I use an air hose to blow out the radiator fins and lots of dust always comes out. After it will run much cooler.