Two years ago my dad and I traded off an old motor home and a jeep for a 12 foot mower to take care of a new place we just moved into. It's a John deere diesel, 54 horse, that we use to mow 12 acres (below is a picture of one just like it). After tomorrow I'll be headed home from college for the winter and I'll start maintenance on all our equipment. I usually run it at wide open throttle in the summer but whenever the ambient temp was above about 80F I would get problems with it overheating. When the thermostat climbed above 230F it would start to bog down and lose power. To combat this I would stop half way (after about 2 hours) and grab an air hose to clean all the grass out of the engine bay and radiator, when in the past I would only clean it off before putting it away.
What can I do to improve the cooling? Would flushing and replacing the coolant make a difference?
What can I do to improve the cooling? Would flushing and replacing the coolant make a difference?