Mowing MF 1250 Overheating with finish mower

Anonymous Poster · Jun 20, 2003

lwh,
Re your 6/19 post. My temp guage without finish mower running is about the same as you described on yours. I do have a screen in front of my radiator and shroud behind. My air filter and intake are clean. Not being much of a mechanic especially on a diesel engine I do not know how to check for proper injection timing. Any suggestion there? As I mentioned in a previous post, after cleaning the radiator I have gotten better results. However, I must still run with the side cowlings off to keep the temp below the red line when using the finish mower. In that configuration the temp guage runs between M and P, closer to P. dlj

JerryG · Jun 20, 2003

What rpm are you running?

JerryG · Jun 20, 2003

I just thought of something. Have you ever changed the fan belt. Or has it ever been changed to your knowledge?

lwh · Jun 21, 2003

dlj,
Jerry's fan belt suggestion is a good one. Try turning the fan: it should require significant force before slippping or may even turn the engine.
His question on RPM is also good. If you are at full "throttle" and RPM is consistently running under 2600, you are overloaded. Or, purposely running reduced RPM may accomplish the same thing,
I'd be suprised if injection timing is the problem, but one never knows. If late injection (which is most likely unless someone messed with timing) were the problem, you'd probably have smoke when cold as was noted in an earlier post. Early injection might not have any obvious sign although it tends to make the diesel rap sharper. At any rate, I have the shop manual info on timing and it doesn't look to require any special tools. If you'd like, I could try to scan it and email it to you.
Have you stopped by the Massey dealer and chatted with the mechanic? If this is not a unique problem, he probably knows the answer.

s1120 · Jun 21, 2003

Cooling problems can be one of the toughest to track down. I have seen some real STRANGE things. Not that I think this is your problem, but I had a car that I was working on, that would overheat under high speed, and under a load. After trying almost everthing else, I found the problem. The water pump impeller was spinning on the water pump shaft. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif At low speeds, it would spin with the shaft, and pump water, but at high speeds, it would slip.

Sorry that I am not giving you anything to help in your case, just showing you that your not alone.

Anonymous Poster · Jun 22, 2003

SUCCESS! I finally found the time to tear down the front end of the tractor enough to get a clear look at the radiator. No surprise to some of you especially Jerry G. The radiator fins were probably 30 to 35% clogged with dust and dirt. It took just a spray nozzle on my garden hose and a little compressed air to fix that. The interesting thing is that none of this was visible what so ever until I was able to look directly into the radiator from the front. I ran the tractor with all cowlings on while operating the finish mower. No overheating, in fact, the temperature guage went only going slightly above the normal operating temperature. Thanks to all who took the time to offer suggestions.

lwh · Jun 22, 2003

Great! I just swung by here after reading this http://johnstractor.homestead.com/AirFlowMods.html to suggest that more cleaning might be helpful!

JerryG · Jun 23, 2003

dlj,
Great. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif Now you can enjoy your tractor. Mine looked clean just like yours did the first time I used oven cleaner on it. But after a 10 minute soak and going at it again with the water hose, it looked like it was full of mud. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif I would have sworn that it was clean. But the oven cleaner got it all out.