Sense of fuel level, or lack there-of

[Recovry4x4]

10 acres is great. Bjorn, if you have a favored realtor can you send me the phone number? I would love to invest in some land. Would be a great place to build a little log cabin. I might not be able to live there full time for a while but sure would love to get started.

 

[cranetruck]

Try this:

http://www.mountaintravelguide.com/links/virginia/floyd/FloydCountyRealEstate.htm

Counties to look at : Floyd, Patrick and Carroll along the Blue Ridge Parkway.

 

[Recovry4x4]

Thanks Bjorn, I'm on it!

 

[Squirt-Truck]

Bjorn,

You keep making reference to running either the winter cover or your plywood cover for the radiator. Also, the reference to the engine temperature being poorly if not uncontrolled, especially the fact that your engine will not warm up or will cool below "normal" operating temperature when operated under light load. (Such as light crain work.)

This sounds like you have a leaking bypass or such in your cooling system. The thermostat should maintain temperature to within 5 degrees of the opening point up to the cooling capacity of the radiator.

Yes these engines are slow to warm, due to the mass and mostly to the air flow through the cylinders, but when warm should maintain the thermostat setting easily. The 4 units I have direct experience with all perform this way. The exception was the newest (1974), it was VERY slow to heat, and would cool excessivly under light load of cruising. Solution was replacement of the bypass seal in the thermostat cover. Now she warms in approximately 20 minutes, and will hold at 185 degrees regardless of idle, low load, cruise, even in 20 degree weather. It will climb to 200 degrees under long heavy pulls on 85 degree days with a total moving weight of 36,000 pounds. (Yes it was pulling my trailer with a substantial load..) It will also see 200 degrees when climbing such as MonEagle or running in the mountains and pushing it hard in 5th, but cools back to 185 at the top or coming down.

Any thoughts on why you seem to have a truck that has a thermo system that will NOT isolate the radiator? Your coolant filter is not the bypass path is it?

And by the way, the hotter you run the engine the better the fuel milage will be, and the more power it will make.......BUT it is diminishing returns due to not haveing an aftercooler on the turbocharger.

An after cooler is what we need to figure out how to retrofit...



Squirt Truck

 

[cranetruck]

Thanks for your comments ST!
I'm satisfied that my cooling system is functioning normally. The coolant filter is on the engine side (like the personnel heater connections) and does not bypass the thermostat.
At idle the engine burns about 1 gallon of fuel/hour and may never reach operating temp
in the winter while idling.

Driving up and down in the mountains is a good test of the cooling system.

The thermostat alone cannot keep the temp within 5 degrees under these circumstances.
A radiator shutter plus thermostatically controlled fan(s) could.

My partially covered radiator is a compromise. The engine will now reach 180-185 in 15-20 minutes at fast idle and maintain it there. Mountain driving will now limit the extreme excursions of the temp, especially going downhill.

Without the radiator cover, the temp would drop to 145 or so driving the interstate from VA to NC, which is a 7-8 mile long "hill".
Level highway driving keeps the temp at 185 deg (plus or minus).

I use a digital thermometer to monitor the small changes and to check the calibration of the dash gauge. The coolant is fresh and clear 50-50 glycol/distilled water w/additives.
Mounting the air filter outside the engine compartment would probably help make
the system more efficient.
I will still recommend that the radiator be partially covered at ambients of 60-65F and below and at low power operations regardless of ambient temp.

 

[Squirt-Truck]

Bjorn,
You are a numbers guy, lets look at the math here. At one gallon per hour, that is 139,000 BTU's/Hr. With the flow through the engine and the rise in temp of the air, still leaves a BUNCH of heat to be dissipated by the oil (not much going there at idle) and through the walls of the block.
Have yu ever run this calc. to get a feel just how much hear has to be radiated after the exhaust?

Just curious??

Squirt Truck

 

[cranetruck]

That would be one heck of a thermodynamics problem, someone probably wrote his master thesis on just that problem. I'm sure mathematics models can be located on Google(?).

For now I mostly measure to get the solutions.

Don't forget that fan, it's very efficient at cooling the old multifuel.

 

[cranetruck]

ST, it appears that some posts have been lost during the down time. I know you asked for the pyro temp at idle to help with this calculation and it is 200 deg F for an rpm of 800. With the radiator cover I have, the coolant temp would gradually increase to about 175 in about 20 minutes. Ambient about 80 F.