what grinds your gears

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
Can,t keep the f ing combine cool, tried everything, must be the rad core shagged.:mad:

We have had a run of unsolvable overheating problems. Tractor - must be the fan belts. Changed, no difference. Must be the stat. Changed - no difference. Must be the radiator cores bunging up. Probably isn't but I will only find out after I have spent thick end of £600. Its very annoying. All I can do is drop a gear and keep going. There isn't time for a forensic examination of the system.
Back in the day you just cleaned them off with an airline and off you went. Now that doesnt seem to work any more. Maybe its becasue all my kit is very old and completely shagged.
 

Sharpy

Member
Livestock Farmer
We have had a run of unsolvable overheating problems. Tractor - must be the fan belts. Changed, no difference. Must be the stat. Changed - no difference. Must be the radiator cores bunging up. Probably isn't but I will only find out after I have spent thick end of £600. Its very annoying. All I can do is drop a gear and keep going. There isn't time for a forensic examination of the system.
Back in the day you just cleaned them off with an airline and off you went. Now that doesnt seem to work any more. Maybe its becasue all my kit is very old and completely shagged.
Have you changed the air and fuel filters? Can make a serious difference.
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
Have you changed the air and fuel filters? Can make a serious difference.

Yes. The older I get, and the more experienced I get, the more difficult problems seem to get. And if it's simple, then it probably isn't the answer. I think this is a result of running kit way beyond its normal life. Probably now into injection timing and injection pump wear issues, having tried all the obvious stuff.

I had the combine rad recored and it made a bit of difference but not the definitve difference I would have liked to see.

I am now wary of recoring the tractor rad without definitive diagnostic evidence to pinpoint this as the actual problem. I fin d it hard to believe that the rad core has somehow blocked when it has been regularly serviced and used coolguard or some equivalent for its entire life. Looking in, all seems good and clean.
 

ARW

Member
Location
Yorkshire
Long story
Cut a mans hedges every year in early August for 4 years no problem, went to cut them one year and they had already been cut, (badly and cheap)
Thought never mind its an awkward job anyway, for the last 4 years now I get phone calls, texts, emails, personal encounters that’s bordering harassment, he even gets angry at me to why I won’t cut his hedges!
Get the hint
 

icanshootwell

Member
Location
Ross-on-wye
Easy to tell if a rad core is blocked, or scaled. Just put your hand on the core when the engine is hot. cold spots are trouble! Cores can loose cooling capacity if oil has entered the cooling system at any time, this can form an insulating scale.
This happened to my combine a few years ago, the oil cooler let oil into the water system, we did flush it through when the repair was done but by the sounds of it the damage may have been done. Problem is the rad is a bitch to get out, any tips on adding any thing into the system to keep the old girl running. :whistle:
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
This happened to my combine a few years ago, the oil cooler let oil into the water system, we did flush it through when the repair was done but by the sounds of it the damage may have been done. Problem is the rad is a bitch to get out, any tips on adding any thing into the system to keep the old girl running. :whistle:

Fill up with water and detergent, run for a bit to warm up and circulate, flush? I think somebody once recommended washing machine detergent. @Ley253 would know.
 

bumkin

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
pembrokeshire
We have had a run of unsolvable overheating problems. Tractor - must be the fan belts. Changed, no difference. Must be the stat. Changed - no difference. Must be the radiator cores bunging up. Probably isn't but I will only find out after I have spent thick end of £600. Its very annoying. All I can do is drop a gear and keep going. There isn't time for a forensic examination of the system.
Back in the day you just cleaned them off with an airline and off you went. Now that doesnt seem to work any more. Maybe its becasue all my kit is very old and completely shagged.
have you tried the thermostat take it off and drop it in a pan of water and see what temp it is when it opens
 

Ley253

Member
Location
Bath
One other point, if getting a recore, make sure the new matches the old! There were a batch of pattern rads made for Ford and Leyland cars, which were a row of tubes less than the original diesel requirement, they were fine for the petrol models, but cooked many diesels.
cant help re dishwasher tablets,but never had much success with cleaning agents, hydrochloric acid does work, but its a toss up as to which it dissolves more of, limestone or metal!
Gloss paint on a core is a no no, it has a gloss finish on the inside as well as the one you look at, and so reflects heat instead of passing it to the cooling medium. there are special matt finish paints available which dont have this problem
 

icanshootwell

Member
Location
Ross-on-wye
Fill up with water and detergent, run for a bit to warm up and circulate, flush? I think somebody once recommended washing machine detergent. @Ley253 would know.
Thanks i will try that, been working on the combine this morning, changed the fan belt that looked liked it may of been slipping, this would of made her run warm as well. Will let you know how it goes later.(y)
 

Celt83

Member
Livestock Farmer
After a few years you develop the split brain that can appear to be listening to the speaker and give convincing responses while actually concentrating fully on the program. Its something I learned shortly after getting married.
I haven't got my full qualifications in this art yet as I was watching a film the other night and said yes to a question, next day I'm frogmarched up the local DIY shop and I'm retailing the bathroom [emoji24]
 

Baker9

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
N Ireland BT47
I haven't got my full qualifications in this art yet as I was watching a film the other night and said yes to a question, next day I'm frogmarched up the local DIY shop and I'm retailing the bathroom [emoji24]
That will learn you to pay a bit more attention, you will develop a physic ability to detect questions that involve spending money while watching TV etc. and the ability to answer them correctly without being clocked by the frying pan or getting the cold shoulder. It takes a lot of practice though.
 

bovrill

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
East Essexshire
Today I got a sharply worded letter from the DVLA telling me that I hadn't taxed the combine, due at the start of the month, and they could fine me, seize the vehicle, and crush it!

In the same post the DVLA have finally sent me the V5 document, 55 weeks late!!

So obviously they've not sent any notification/reminder in the first place about the tax!

They've now given me until the end of this month to tax it. How kind of them, the useless bunch of bureaucratic wasters.
(Obviously it'll get done tonight, it's not exactly hard, when you know it's got to be done!)
 
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Celt83

Member
Livestock Farmer
That will learn you to pay a bit more attention, you will develop a physic ability to detect questions that involve spending money while watching TV etc. and the ability to answer them correctly without being clocked by the frying pan or getting the cold shoulder. It takes a lot of practice though.
In my defence I've only been married a couple of years (and that was a conversation during a James bond film), so I'm a pup at this game and I bow to you married ninjas knowledge.
 

Tomr10

Member
Vegans lol
829112
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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