jd 60 how hot should she run

Picked up a nice 56 jd 60 gas and put the 300 gallon spray rig behind her went out and sprayed 15 acres the other day running in 3rd gear. The gauge came up to around 190 and then went slowly up to 210. Seemed a little hot to me dropping throttle rpm didn't help. How hot should she run. Belt and fan looked fine temp was 80s

Don't think a 60 would be different than other old 2 cyls. I have a 620 and a 70, used to have an A. Have to really work them on a hot day to get the gauges up above 120. Can go months of just choring around and barley see the gauge even register.

So long as the coolant wasn't boiling and going AWOL, all was well.

Check the actual coolant temperature with another thermometer to verify if the gauge is correct. What coolant mix are you running? It sounds a little warm but not to bothersome if it doesn't get any hotter.

200 to 220 is where they work best .

My 60 runs between 170 and 200 as the thermostat opens and closes to regulate the temp.

It should not get nearly that hot just pulling a sprayer especially in third gear.

Probably a slobber of greasy mud blocking the Center of the rad due to oil or grease dripping from the steering .

Sorry for the long story but......

There are times when a 50:50 mix as recommended by the anti Freeze manufacturers actually makes them run at higher temperatures. This can be because of dirt & crud like B&D said but it can also be just because of the coolant mix! With a 50:50 mix they're not prone to boil but they can run hotter and within reason, that's not always bad! Before I'm called a goofball though.... here are a couple stories.

I had a Chevy Biscayne with a 250 in it. The water pump started leaking so I got a new one and a can of radiator cleanser with a neutralizer. (Back in those days you could get stuff that really WORKED!) I drained the system, rinsed it, installed the cleanser and did as it said then drained, rinsed, neutralized rinsed some more, replaced the water pump and filled it up with a 50:50 mix. Because we had JD lettered tractors, I mixed the coolant with water BEFORE pouring it in only to find my formerly non leaking radiator was now closer to being a lawn sprinkler! I've never used a stop leak product of any brand and I planned on running this vehicle 'till the wheels fell off so I loosened the radiator cap & drove that way until I could afford to get it fixed. Sometimes it ran hot according to the light on the instrument panel but I was assured that was because the cap was loose. That didn't actually make sense to me but I was a young feller & those telling me this should know. It never boiled over but if I closed the cap, the coolant disappeared FAST so I just let it light up & ran with the windows open & the heater on high until I could pay to have the radiator fixed.

The radiator shop would not fix it. Said it needed replaced (which I'd figured they would say) so I paid them to install a new core.

I was quite unhappy! It was not leaking but... the temperature light still said it was running hot so I installed a mechanical gauge. All that did was verify the temperature light had been working correctly! The system was running much hotter than it did before all this preventive maintenance took place! I suspected the pump and since I still had the old pump in the trunk I put it back on! Temp gauge said the same thing! I could watch the gauge steadily climb as it warmed up. It would get to 200? and suddenly it would drop. This drop was the 195?F thermostat opening up to let coolant in from the radiator. It would drop clear to the 170? range & then climb fairly quickly back up to the 195? to 200? and sit there BUT... It would very slowly creep higher. Didn't matter if I was idling, city driving or cruising at 55. Didn't matter if it was 50? or 90?, it would slowly creep up to around 240? and stay there! Never boiled over but that 240?F seemed too hot according to the light, according to the gauge and to all the shutter controlling I'd done for so many years as a kid running the H, A's and B's!

I went to the radiator guy. He showed me the papers from the manufacturer showing this core had 15% higher capacity than the original! He insisted it could not be the radiator.

I even took the thermostat clear out. Then it took 20 miles of driving to get to 160 but in another 5 or 10 miles it would creep up to 240?F.

As the months passed something occurred to me. In the spring when we started tillage operations with our early styled A (then the farm's big tractor), it was customary for us to drain the anti-freeze out of it & fill it back up with plain pond water. With anti-freeze the temp gauge pegged some place over 220? and it would sometimes boil over. Just couldn't keep it cool unless it was cold outside. With plain water no matter how hot it was outdoors, it would run 210? all day long according to the white faced gauge. That made PERFECT SENSE! It didn't boil over or even just loose water and it stayed there all day long!

At the time, I was going to OSU studying Physics so I did some research there. Some book I found told me the mix of Ethylene Glycol (EG) and water is very much more reluctant to freeze than plain water! Well DUH, why else would it be used as antifreeze? Also the high boiling point made it much better than the alcohol we'd used as winter coolant for years. This high boiling point is what made it permanent and that's how they sold it making a big deal of it being PERMANANT anti-freeze! We could use it year round & not have to constantly replenish it like we had to with the alcohol! The other thing I found in that book was a 50:50 mix could only carry away about 80% as much heat as plain water! Said another way, 10 gallons of plain water per minute will haul away about 20% more heat than 10 gallons per minute of a 50:50 mix of EG and water! The site http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/ethylene-glycol-d_146.html has some fairly easy to read charts & tables that back this up!

Back then I was skeptical of THAT being the problem because everybody I ever knew had always said the 50:50 mix is the best thing you can ever do for a machine! But why was that old Biscuit running so hot?

I pondered what I'd read on my way home one day watching the Biscuit run 240?. After the milking was done, supper was over with and the old Biscuit was completely cooled, I drained 3 quarts of coolant out of it, added one quart of water then went for a drive! It never topped 225? so I filled it back up with plain water & went for another drive. It never topped 215? and the hydrometer said it was safe to something like -25?F.

Ever since I've run everything with only enough EG to be good to the -25? to -30? range. I've only once seen it as low as -37?F here and that morning there were ice crystals in the cooling system. They clogged the heater core enough to keep the truck cab cold until they melted but it was not close to breaking anything!

I'm told there are additives that will make an anti-freeze mix more efficient and do a better job of cooling while still not freezing or boiling. I have no experiences with them! I and am however sold on using more water and LESS Ethylene Glycol in my cooling systems and not making anti-freeze sellers quite so rich!

As long as it isn't dirt and crud related like B&D said or if you live where it gets to -40 or colder you MAY find your 60 will run cooler and you'll feel better if you run a bit less coolant & a bit more water! I know I ran that Chevy another 150K without problems!

That sounds odd. They were designed to run in the 180 - 200 range for peak efficiency. Have you checked the rad with a thermometer (or the gauge)? I have trouble getting my (mostly ) restored 60 to run over 150, but I have no means of 'working' it other than a few runs up and down the drive (steep). Just sayin'.

thermostat opens at 160 degrees. my 60 only runs 180 no matter what even with a powerblock.

The gauges might not be all that accurate. These aren't restored, just old workers still working. All get put to use regularly. All run smooth and idle well. All have full radiators.

Had a JD 60 several year ago that overheated with very little to no load. The shutter thermostat was not working which kept the shutters from opening. The thermostat is located at the bottom of the shutters facing the lower radiator tank. When the tractor starts to overheat check the shutters to see if they are open.

Depending on the serial number. There were three different versions of stats.

Thanks those were my thoughts as well just concerning when under a light load it just kept going up. It has a good day of running a no 5 sycle ahead of it next week. And I don't need problems