Overheating after mowing steep side slope

[GManBart]

Nice....gotta love easy fixes!

 

[MHarryE]

Well you guys were right about the radiator screen. I had just glanced at it and it looked pretty clean, but after reading your comments I took it all the way and there was a ton of debris near the bottom. The radiator grill itself was pretty much pristine. After cleaning the screen, I mowed for another 45 minutes or so and the temperature stayed at 50% the whole time. I am surprised that the radiator would be much less effective despite being only 25% or so blocked. I guess I learned two important lessons today. I call that a good day! Thanks, everyone.

Remember where you said it was blocked - near the bottom which means near the outer tips of the fan. In designing a cooling system one tries to optimize the shroud to get good air distribution but in fact the fan is turning a lot faster in feet per minute near the tips than near the center. In fact when measured the center ends up being a near dead spot. So when you block the outer 1/4 of the radiator you are actually losing possibly 50% of the cooling capacity.