radiator cleaning

[BertS]

I find myself once again looking to the experts on this forum.

YM2200

I've noticed after about 50 hours of use, lots of shredding, that my radiator baffles have begun to fill with seeds, and dust from all the shredding.

Short of pulling the radiator off the tractor, is it possible, to use compresed air to help clear the debris? I have used a wire brush to remove some, but it isn't very time efficient, trying to be gentle and not bend the baffles.

thanks for any help.

 

[tallyho8]

You should have a screen on the front of your radiator that will catch most of the debris. A small amount gets through the screen and I occasionally rinse mine off lightly with a hose.
Screen

 

[BertS]

I do have a screen, and I'm constantly cleaning it with the wire brush, but the particulates that get by this are pretty small, and are clogging up the radiator baffles.

 

[BruceR]

BertS,
Like tallyho8 says, use a hose. Either water or air, to blow the chaf from in between the baffles. Pull the screen and either blow or rinse from both sides. It can make a lot of difference.

Bruce

 

[Underwaterdog]

I have used a wire brush to remove some, but it isn't very time efficient, trying to be gentle and not bend the baffles.

Just don't bend the fins. Watch it closely and if you see fins starting to bend reduce the pressure. Radiator fins are supported better than A/C coils, and are more resistant to bending. If you use air make sure you can see what you are doing to the fins, and wear eye protection. I have seen A/C coils destroyed with compressed air. I thought mine was clean until I had to pull it to fix a solder joint. Then it was obvious that it was full of seeds and bugs, especially on the sides where I could not reach when it was in place. The screen can't catch everything, especially finer stuff. I know you don't want to here this, but the only way to clean it good would be to pull it out and lay it flat. Then you can really see what you are doing. You could try using a finer mesh screen, but may reduce airflow, and require more frequent cleaning.

 

[BertS]

thanks for the advice guys. the only damge that i could tell from using the compressed air, was blowing a little paint off.


what a huge difference in the operating temp it made.

 

[SCDolphin]

I have been bush hogging about 15 acres of fields and found a leaf blower is the quickest in the field. Pict of field, grill after 15 minutes of BH. I blow off the grill the blow off the trans cooler then the radiator. It takes about 2 minutes and beats the heck out off pulling off the side panels and screen. Normally my 5240 runs about 4 blocks on the digital guage and when it moves to 5 blocks I clean again.