Over heating

[Dean Plute]

I have a 1965 ford 4000 four cylinder gas. Last few time using it to bushhog after a couple hours use it overheats. The outside temp when I use it is 80 to 85 degrees with heat index in the 90s. The radiator fins are debrie free. I am thinking thermostat (not sure if one is installed or not) or water pump is the issue. These seem to be the easiest to fix. Any suggestions or tips

 

[jhwis]

A couple of hours is a long time under load to some tractors. Something easto check...How tight is the fan belt?

 

[the tractior vet]

Well slow over heating can be caused by incorrect ing timing , the gas your using . heat range of the spark plug . Your reg gas your getting at the stations burns way hotter then what that tractor ran when new . I have seen this issue many times in my area as we still have a ton of older gas tractors still doing what they were bought for . I personally chased over heating on my one combine many years ago . We flushed out the rad , inside and out , changed water pump as not many knew that on A Chrysler product that ones with factory A/C used a higher flow water pump. Next was a full tune up and timing check and still running over 220 . Till the day i happened to buy two 110 gallon L shaped pick up fuel tanks at a auction and while filling my pick up for the 430 mile ride home i saw a PUMP at the station at Mt Comfort In. that read FARM GAS and it was a whole bunch cheaper and i filled both of them and used that gas in my combine for corn harvest . engine temp dropped to 185-190 . when i ran thru that we went from Reg 87 gas up to the 93 and engine temp stayed below 200 . 87 is blended to burn faster and flash hotter . Gas at the pumps changed big time back in the 80's . I ran high test in my pick up's because NONE of them had the factory stock engines and none of them had a compression ratio under 10.5 along with 38 total degrees advanced ing. timing at 2000 RPM . So what i usually used in my trucks was what i used in my gas tractors and did not suffer what others were having with there gas tractors . If you have a Org. owners manual it will tell you the fuel requirements were for that when new not what they sell you today. . This comes from 65 PLUS years of working on engines from mild to WILD .