In theory, a hotter engine is more efficient, because less heat is lost to cooling. But there are a lot of other factors, so the difference between running an engine at, say 150 degress vs 210 degrees is not that much. The temperature of the incoming air/fuel mixture has a more dramatic effect, since the cooler air is much more dense.
Over the 100+ year history of the gasoline internal combustion engine, the trend has been towards higher cooling system temperatures. This is for a number of reasons, not just efficiency. The hotter the coolant, the smaller the radiator needs to be. It's also easier to maintain a constant engine temperature with hotter coolant. But hotter coolant temperatures require higher system pressure and glycol coolant to avoid boilover, so it wasn't until the seventies when we had engines designed to run at over 200F.
Why did the 8N run so cold? Well, I suspect at least some of the coolant was bypassing the thermostat. I'm not familiar enough with the 8N to know why that would be, but looking at test 443 I see that when the water temp dropped below 150F, the tractor was running at low load (less than 10 hp) at about 2100 rpm. I'll also note that the specific fuel consumption went through the roof in these conditions, indicating the engine was probably being cooled by the evaporation of unburned fuel. (At full power, 26 hp, sfc was .56 lb/hp-hr. At 6 hp that went to 1.16, and at 2 hp sfc was a whopping 2.93 lb/hp-hr!)
Upload one or more videos to your post. Photo and video filesizes should be less than 5MB. Formats allowed are gif, jpg, png, ogg, mp4, mov, and avi. Be sure to use filenames without spaces or special characters, and filetypes of 3 digits lower case.
We sell tractor parts! We have the parts you need to repair your tractor - the right parts. Our low prices and years of research make us your best choice when you need parts. Shop Online Today. [ About Us ]
Today's Featured Article - Chores - by Frank Young. The ceaseless passing of time! It is at once our friend and our enemy. It measures our progress and it makes us old. Like most features of our life, few things are all good or all bad, and most such judgments depend on our own perspective or viewpoint. In our particular hobby, we enjoy the nostalgic return to the days of our youth as we recreate many of the scenes that took place on the family farm that served as the stage for the first few acts of the play that is our live
... [Read Article]
Latest Ad:
Sell 1958 Hi-Altitude Massey Fergerson tractor, original condition. three point hitch pto engine, Runs well, photos available upon request
[More Ads]
All Rights Reserved. Reproduction of any part of this website, including design and content, without written permission is strictly prohibited. Trade Marks and Trade Names contained and used in this Website are those of others, and are used in this Website in a descriptive sense to refer to the products of others. Use of this Web site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy
TRADEMARK DISCLAIMER: Tradenames and Trademarks referred to within Yesterday's Tractor Co. products and within the Yesterday's Tractor Co. websites are the property of their respective trademark holders. None of these trademark holders are affiliated with Yesterday's Tractor Co., our products, or our website nor are we sponsored by them. John Deere and its logos are the registered trademarks of the John Deere Corporation. Agco, Agco Allis, White, Massey Ferguson and their logos are the registered trademarks of AGCO Corporation. Case, Case-IH, Farmall, International Harvester, New Holland and their logos are registered trademarks of CNH Global N.V.