It was already getting hot when I walked down to retrieve the 8N this morning. Most of the gunk blocking up the radiator had fallen off over night but there was still a considerable amount of it stuck in the radiator flow thru holes. Took me about half an hour or so of poking them out with a thin little screw driver to get the air flowing like it should.
I drove her back up to the barn and ran her a good long while to make sure I didn't detect any bad engine noise. Not that I really expected to hear any as I caught the over heating long before it got to really going and these old 8N's have some big cooling systems. I just over filled the radiator and caught the steam when the water began to boil which was the plan all along.
The entire radiator was covered like you see the top part in these pics. This is actually a pretty common issue with these old 8N's and I should really put a screen behind the grill bars to keep it from happening.
Another little minor thing on my list that I never seem to get to.
The hay seems to be drying well despite the humidity going up but it still was not ready for raking this afternoon. Only a slim chance so far of a shower Wednesday so I am still rolling the dice on this batch yet. My hope is to rake it tomorrow afternoon and then start baling Wednesday late morning and hopefully getting it in the barn by Wednesday night before we get more rain on Thursday.
Using the Brush Hog still knocked a lot of the stuff down rather than cutting it so I will need to set the rake up higher to keep from picking up any green stuff with the dried hay.
So still keeping my fingers crossed!!!!
As I was putting the Brush Hog up and looking over the tractors and rake today this chicken was bound and determined to dig her way to China.
She was making pretty good headway at least. I was beginning to wonder if she was going to dig so deep she would get herself stuck down there.
Keep prepping Everyone!!!!
Those honey do lists seem to grow all on there own. More rain here another 1" oh goody. Flood watches again.
ReplyDeleteWith all that gunk it looks like you were mud boggin. At least it wasn't from leaf cutter bees putting up their stores for the winter. And it was good you caught it all in time so no damage done.
ReplyDeleteAnd the hen is looking for buried treasure (she needs an eye patch) ... or maybe she wants a tree planted there. She does look quite happy in her work, though.
Who knew Mother Nature was such a tease? I want fall!
ReplyDeleteHope you get your hay in!
Is there a way to install a screen in front and attach it to what looks like side bars with zipties? The screen would catch the grass and there would be enough space for the tractor to breathe. Did you ever find your donkey?
ReplyDeleteMy old Ferguson has a temperature gauge but it doesn't work, I should fix it I guess but I don't do hard work like you do. I will put it on the list of things to do. The 8N is similar to the Model A engine but with a lot of improvements. Being a flat head, most of the oil stays down low so they take heat a little differently. Often the old model A and early V8s would just crack, usually toward the rear of the block where it was hot. The tractor motors were so good that the prototype WW2 jeeps used them.
ReplyDeleteThe bales look awesome! Ralph's Grillo has a problem with the cover on the motor and we have to watch it, the advantage of a walk behind tractor in terrible heat is the operator overheats before the equipment does:)
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