My NX6010

[MinnesotaEric]

I finished fabricating the underbelly up-armor plates and sent them out across the street for paint. Thankfully, my neighbors are used to my hanging stuff up in the painting tree. Here is one of the plates after the first coat of paint.

 

[k0ua]

I have heard of the "hanging tree" but that is my first "painting tree"

 

[94BULLITT]

I have news: Apparently Kioti consolidated their two $1105 part numbers into one $1105.00 part and so now I'm only half as stupid. Given 20 minutes of idling and not warming up at just above freezing is a problem, I checked and it seems that Kioti doesn't offer a hotter T-stat, and so it looks like I'll need to pull the stock T-stat out and run down to NAPA to try to match it up with a warmer T-stat. Pretty common problem with cars and trucks here in MN and other cold places.

Anyway, I'm off to my garage in order to finish fabbing the rear righthand underbelly guard. I cannot wait to be done as this project is super fiddly locating and drilling all the mounting holes.

How is putting a hotter t-stat in it going to make it warm up quicker?

 

[MinnesotaEric]

How is putting a hotter t-stat in it going to make it warm up quicker?

By not opening until the engine is nearly all the way warmed up, thereby building pressure sooner and faster warm-ups. Once open, there is no difference in performance. The stock T-stat starts opening at 160 degrees F and is fully open at 185 degrees F. In other words, unless the engine is under load, in the cold the engine cannot warm up. This is an issue for an HST machine that revs only so much as how fast the operator wishes to travel, in other words, it drives like an automatic car.

In my case, I'd like to try out a 180 degree T-stat.

 

[MinnesotaEric]

I have heard of the "hanging tree" but that is my first "painting tree"

All of the panels are out of the painting tree and in my kitchen. Sadly, only one fits into my oven for oven baked goodness.

 

[Threepoint]

By not opening until the engine is nearly all the way warmed up, thereby building pressure sooner and faster warm-ups. Once open, there is no difference in performance. The stock T-stat starts opening at 160 degrees F and is fully open at 185 degrees F. In other words, unless the engine is under load, in the cold the engine cannot warm up. This is an issue for an HST machine that revs only so much as how fast the operator wishes to travel, in other words, it drives like an automatic car.

In my case, I'd like to try out a 180 degree T-stat.

Interesting. If the 160 degree t-stat does not fully open until 185, do you know when the 180 degree t-stat fully opens? I can understand that there would be no difference in performance once fully open, if performance is defined as rate of coolant flow. But won't the coolant's operating temp be much hotter with the hotter t-stat? Don't know about the latest technology (maybe use of thermistors?), but historically automotive t-stats have used wax pellet response to modulate flow, and I've just assumed the response was linear. So if a 25 degree rise is required to fully open the 160 t-stat, i.e. 15.6 percent, wouldn't a 28 degree rise be required to fully open a 180 t-stat? That would put operating temp at 208 degrees. I know modern cars are designed to run that hot, I don't know about tractors. But maybe different wax compositions would allow hotter t-stats to reach max flow at lower operating temps. Haven't researched this, but I would think the manufacturers have published graphs showing rate of flow vs. temp rise for their various units.

 

[TripleR]

Very nice work.:thumbsup:

 

[MinnesotaEric]

Meanwhile, back in the tinkerage things are happening.

 

[MinnesotaEric]

Total bummer: After I transferred parts over from the old cab top to the new cap top, I flipped the new cap top over and discovered a dent and crack on the outermost right edge. The box it came in was undamaged and everything looked good-to-go until I flipped the cover over to install it. Given how this part was shipped sideways with the right-side of the cab-top on the bottom and banded to a pallet, my conjecture is that either the banding process itself mushed the right side or the pallet got slammed down hard. Either way, more packing material around the edges could help.

I sent an email to my dealer (now closed for the day) with the photos and video for them to discover tomorrow morning and am now in a holding pattern waiting for them to contact the mothership and then tell me what to do.

 

[murphy1244]

I hope they take care of it. You are doing one heck of a job!