kpaine wrote:Were the radiators originally black? I would think they would operate more efficiently without any paint on the fins.
Jim Becker wrote:The original paint on the radiators was pretty thin, so not much of an effect either way.
The radiators came into the factory with black paint. After the tractor was assembled, the whole thing was painted red (or yellow or . . .). No masking was done to keep paint off the radiator so they typically have a lot of overspray and are mostly the color of the tractor.
Most radiators are black. The color black radiates heat better than other colors (the darker color the better) when the heat source is internal, like a radiator. On the flip side black absorbs heat when the heat source is external, like a solar panel. Like Jim infers it probably doesn't make much difference, and a Cub usually doesn't run real hot anyway. The thin coat of black is by design to allow better heat transfer, Kens thinking is right on, and for that reason I wouldn't put a lot of paint on a radiator.
P.S. I've stored things I knew I'd need later so well I've never found them again!
- but I got this much done. Getting pretty excited now. 
