Engine not heating up?

DieselMonk · Jan 23, 2005

We've got here a nice snow storm again in N.S. and the temperatures are between -15C and -11C. I am not sure what that is in F. Anyhow, I have no problems warming the tractor up. No cardboard and tape or anything. That thing just warms up even ideling (just takes a little longer). Once the engine reached her operating temp, it stays there, if I am ideling or blowing snow.

djradz · Jan 24, 2005

Kip, I don't think I'd just cut it off. I believe that has been tried before, and believe it or not, apparently there's quite a bit of flow that then get's through. What a few of us have done is plug the hole with a rivet, and then drill a very, very small hole somewhere else on the thermostat.

kiphorn · Jan 24, 2005

I used the cardboard method on Saturday when I plowed. I didn't have time to fool with the thermostat. With the cardboard covering 2/3 of the screen in front of the radiator, the temp went half way to the normal operating temperature.

Maybe this weekend I'll pull out the thermostat. I hope it warms up by then. I changed the oil on Friday night and it was mighty cold in the unheated gargage.

Thanks for all the advice.

Kip

BGL990 · Jan 24, 2005

I drive green instead of blue but I'll chime in anyway /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I've been using my tractor in fairly cold temps recently (-20ish C, -5 or -10 F) and I've had to block almost the entire radiator with cardboard to keep the engine warm. Actually I did have it 100% blocked off for a while but it did get a little too close to the top end of the temp gauge. Just cutting a little off the cardboard, so maybe a 1" strip of fin area was exposed across the top of the rad was enough to keep the temperature reasonable. I'm not surprised if you have to block the majority of the rad to keep the engine warm in cold temperatures.

djradz · Jan 24, 2005

On my old Ford 1720/NH 1720, I had to use cardboard too, but with all the thermostat problems on the larger boomers, thought you should at least look into that too. At least with the easy access to the thermostat is one of the simpler projects to undertake.

Soundguy · Jan 25, 2005

I didn't get the impression that this was a 'flow' issue.. but rather a ball placement issue.. as when the ball dangled.. if it hung down.. it could block the t-stat open. If it was on the side or bottom.. it hung down, and out of the way? right?

Soundguy

jinman · Jan 25, 2005

Here's a picture of the "issue" on my thermostat from back in 2002. The part that is turned up is normally pointing downward into the engine and surrounded with hot fluid as the thermostat heats up. When the thermostat heats up, it does not take much turbulence to get the little ball valve in the wrong position. Once it is there, the thermostat never gets hot enough to open back up and release it, so you are just stuck with having to take it out and "fix" the ball. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

Soundguy · Jan 26, 2005

Is the ball oriented at a higher point than the opening lip of the valve, when installed?

Soundguy

kiphorn · Jan 26, 2005

I spoke to the local NH dealer. He didn't think that the TC-24's had the "jiggle ball" but couldn't be sure. Told me to check the thermostat and remove the ball if it had one. After that we need to look at the sender or the gauge itself. If all goes well this weekend, I'll find out if I have a "jiggle ball" or not.

He told me that NH corporate has indicated that cutting the ball off was the reccommended method of repair and that flow through the opening was negligible. He also said that on the new thermostats that the ball was moved futher out toward the edge so that it couldn't get hung up.

Thanks again for the input.

Kip

Cool, my last post put me to silver status. Long way to go to catch up with Bird, Soundguy and Jinman.

jinman · Jan 26, 2005

( Is the ball oriented at a higher point than the opening lip of the valve, when installed?
)

Nope! That's just the way I oriented so I could take a good photo. The part you see in the photo always points down into the engine.

BTW: Have you ever seen someone put a thermostat in backwards? It's not pretty. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif I've seen it twice. Both times the engine was overheated. ...no big surprise. /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif