I don't think my Farmall C is cooling. I just got done with the restoration on it, and put it back together, put the radiator on, put a 50/50 mix of green Antifreeze and Hose Water into it, about a inch full from the top, and have let it run for about 20 minutes a couple times. The upper radiator hose and top of the radiator get hot to touch, but the lower hose, and bottom of the radiator stays ice cold. Someone told me the lower hose should be warm, and the top should be hot, but to put your hand on the radiator fins, the top is hot to touch and the bottom fins towards the bottom are ice cold. Is this not normal? How do I fix it?

Your holes in the block at the bottom of the sleeves mite be plugged as thats just the nature of the beast. Its not uncommon when replacing the sleeves to find those holes plugged with lots of rusty stuff and not letting the water flow down and out to the radiator. You need to remove the radiator and lower housing and using compressed air and some stiff wire to get them clear. Or drain the radiator and remove it. Then withgood pressure and flow back flush till waster comes out the top fitting. You will need to put something around the hose to seal the lower fitting as you turn the water on. 20 min is not a long time but the bottom should get warm but it wont get as warm as the inlet. Ive installed many kits and without fail will find the crud in the bottom of the block. Not a big deal but have you put a tem guage in the radiator to see the temp when the engine is warm it will run around 170 or so.

Thats how it should be assuming it doesnt have a water pump like alot of the older Farmalls and other tractors. So the coolent circulates by rising up through the engine as it gets warmer than into the top of the radiator and going back to the bottom as its cooled by the fan.

(quoted from post at 13:58:03 12/06/10) Your holes in the block at the bottom of the sleeves mite be plugged as thats just the nature of the beast. Its not uncommon when replacing the sleeves to find those holes plugged with lots of rusty stuff and not letting the water flow down and out to the radiator. You need to remove the radiator and lower housing and using compressed air and some stiff wire to get them clear. Or drain the radiator and remove it. Then withgood pressure and flow back flush till waster comes out the top fitting. You will need to put something around the hose to seal the lower fitting as you turn the water on. 20 min is not a long time but the bottom should get warm but it wont get as warm as the inlet. Ive installed many kits and without fail will find the crud in the bottom of the block. Not a big deal but have you put a tem guage in the radiator to see the temp when the engine is warm it will run around 170 or so.

Click to expand...

I have not put a gauge on it. I would like to, but am unsure as to where to tap in to put one. The engine was freshly built when I bought the tractor, and I used it for a few months prior to tearing it down for paint and as far as I know it always cooled fine.

Cover the front of the radiator so no air flow cools the liquid; this will allow the engine to warm up faster especially if the tractor is not working.
The bottom of the radiator will be cold this time of year if you are in the Northern lattitudes indicating the system is normal.

That's kind of the nature of the beast with the old thermosyphon cooling systems. If you want to make sure it's not getting too hot your best bet is to use a non-contact infra-red thermometer. They can be had at most tool places and are quite cheap (certainly compared to what they used to be) and once you have one you'll wonder how you ever did without it. If you check the heat at the upper coolant outlet on the block anything up to ~212 degrees F will be fine. Chances are that when it really warms up you'll push a certain amount of coolant out as the thermosyphon systems cause the tractor to get warmer than a conventional system would. The only other problem you might have is if you didn't premix the coolant prior to installing it then drain it, mix it, and refill. There isn't enough flow to cause them to mix and the difference in their weights can cause it not to flow at all. Hope that helped, Sam

(quoted from post at 16:14:11 12/06/10) That's kind of the nature of the beast with the old thermosyphon cooling systems. If you want to make sure it's not getting too hot your best bet is to use a non-contact infra-red thermometer. They can be had at most tool places and are quite cheap (certainly compared to what they used to be) and once you have one you'll wonder how you ever did without it. If you check the heat at the upper coolant outlet on the block anything up to ~212 degrees F will be fine. Chances are that when it really warms up you'll push a certain amount of coolant out as the thermosyphon systems cause the tractor to get warmer than a conventional system would. The only other problem you might have is if you didn't premix the coolant prior to installing it then drain it, mix it, and refill. There isn't enough flow to cause them to mix and the difference in their weights can cause it not to flow at all. Hope that helped, Sam

Click to expand...

I think that could be my problem. I poured half the antifreeze in first, then filled the rest up with the hose. Guess I'll go try to pick up one of those Infared thermometers and if it's getting too hot I'll drain it and re fill it already mixed. Thanks for the help!

A lot of good thoughts in the posts down below.

I've told many times about listening from the house while someone was out cultivating on our BN back in the day -- you rarely heard the exhaust, all you could hear was the fan. It moves a lot of air. And the result is, as others point out, that you could shut it down after a good workout, and the top of the radiator would be hotter than you'd want to rest your hand on, and the bottom quite cool.

The thermosiphon was very efficient with the high volume fan. It does need to be clean, though, as gene points out. Sounds like someone else did your motor, but both the 113/123 motors I've torn down, there was a lot of caked up sediment, mostly toward the rear of both the head and the water jacket. In one of them it was quite remarkable -- the muck in the water jacket was highest at the back and probably surrounded a third of the #4 sleeve and a quarter of #3. Who knows how thorough a job they did rebuiding your motor. What you might want to try before you refill with an antifreeze mixture is to scrub it out. You could start by opening it up as gene suggests and poking/scraping/blowing out what you can. Then follow that up by refilling with a solution of washing soda and water (two pounds to the 4 gallons or so it will hold) and give it a couple of good hot runs. You can get it to run hotter, as another of the guys suggested, by covering your grille or radiator. Cardboard works, but I usually just start the tractor and let the fan suction hold a tall kitchen trash bag up against the grille. A couple runs like that, especially after scraping and whatnot, will get a lot of the crud loose. Drain and flush with a hose, refill, give her another hot run with plain water, then drain and refill with your antifreeeze mix.

It seems like a lot of trouble, as it sounds to me like your system is working just the way it's supposed to but it might set you more at ease knowing your system's clean.

As far as a gauge, look at the lower, inlet casting on the front of your motor. It may already have a plug in a hole tapped out to take the temp probe. If not, it will have a heavier section that you can tap into for that purpose. In that setup, the gauge mounts over on the right side using a couple (maybe just one) of the bolts securing the governor housing to the crankcase.

Dont worry your solution is already mixed. Just get a cooking therm they have a probe long enough to take the reading of the solution