Is my MF 231 running too hot??

[sawtooth]

Check with Autozone. Maybe you will get lucky.

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[sawtooth]

Heres a couple others so you know what they look like.

All of these are basically general coolants plus have SCA's which is a additive package. These additives do wear out after a year or two. I normally buy the test strips to check the coolant annually. If and when it needs refreshing you can buy just the additives to add back in to the system.


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[Travis_R]

Ok I let it run for a very long time and then tilled with cardboard in front of the radiator. I here is a pic of where the needle on the gage was. Plus the ifrared red light readings.. The radiator was like 120 at the top and 80 at the bottom. Could keep my hand on the radiator. Was barely warm at the top and the middle and cold at the bottom. The metal part where water goes into the top of the water pump was like 170-180. The part where the muffler attaches to the exhaust elbow was 203 or 205.
Opened the radiator cap and still no swirling!

Is it running too hot? Should I change the thermostat??

The ONLY reason I thought it was running too hot was when I bush hog for a while in tall thick grass, the needle would gradually get to the white part of the gauge. Then I'd get off and clean the radiator out.
Maybe the needle has to be completely pegged out in the white part of the gauge before it starts to run hot?? I don't know.

Just sitting and idling or letting it run about 1300-1500 RPMs with cardboard in front of radiator, the gauge is in the middle of the green.

Any thoughts or recommendations?

 

[Travis_R]

Here is the gauge after it's been sitting for a about 15 minutes with the engine killed...

 

[Travis_R]

Regardless if the thermostat is bad or not, I'm changing the antifreeze anyway. I bought the "Fleet Charge" from Tractor Supply. Plus I'm flushing it with radiator flush.

Here are pics of the antifreeze...

 

[TomSeller]

I am not sure you have a problem. I have two MF245s (on two separate properties) which share the Perkins AD3.152 engine with your MF231. One has a front hydraulic pump and one does not. The one with the front hydraulic pump clogs up the radiator with grass seed while brush hogging that comes through the opening in the grille for the pump shaft. When plugged, the engine heats up and the needle will get into the upper end of the meter if I don't stop and blow the radiator out (backwards) with an air hose. The other that does not have an opening for the pump shaft never plugs up the radiator and never overheats.

I have never checked temperatures in the locations you have but they don't seem to be too abnormal to me. The fact that your top to bottom temperature drop on the radiator seems to indicate flow.

 

[Travis_R]

Here is the radiator cleaner and flush that I'm using...

 

[Travis_R]

Ok here is the needle on the temp gauge with the tractor running right at 1800 RPMs for 25 minutes sitting in one spot, no load. Has nothing but water in radiator.... I drained all the old antifreeze and put water because I'm fixing to drain the water and put the flush in it.

I opened the radiator cap with engine running at 1800 RPMs, for right at 30 minutes and no water boiled out.

 

[sawtooth]

This is a diesel engine right? If so I doubt it gets very hot with no load as they normally run much cooler than a gasser. To be safe I would change the Tstat as its cheap and may just solve the issue. I'm not familiar with your tractor but all my Fords and my MF 461 will never over heat even with 1/2 or more clogged radiators on 90F days so sounds to me like you have a issues some where provided the motor is diesel. For example my 461 would not over heat even with the defective Tstat until I put a decent load on her. Once I put a good one in it now it never goes beyond mid range of green on temp gauge. Sent from my iPhone using TractorByNet

 

[Travis_R]

Ok I ran it at about 1800 RPMs with no water in the radiator, and the radiator cap was off for just a couple minutes. The needle climbed all the way just into the white. Put the laser down into the neck of the radiator fill and it was 215 degrees. The outside of the thermostat housing was like 204 or 205. I quickly added water because I didn't wanna blow the head gasket. When the water was back in it the needle on the gauge came back down very fast in the green just like the pics. The thermostat housing went down to 166-170 depending where I pointed the beam on the laser.

I'm not sure if there's a problem now or not!