Planning: Easy Start for Winter

[DickB]

Yesterday put the heater element for water into the water inlet elbow with the heater being sideways for ease of water flow. All bolted and cinched down. Dumped about 2 gals. of old and yukky looking coolant (saved for recycle guys...I hope they take it), and refilled. My book says the Cub takes 9 3/4 qts. I put in 2 gals. with a bit coming out of the overflow tube. Washed down ground so cat won't be tempted to lick that poisonous sweet smelling stuff. Replaced those old hose clamps with stainless steel hose clamps because I wasn't too sure the old clamps would do the job...but I've saved them because the look kind of interesting--anyone reuse them?--I'd like to maybe reuse them someday.

Now I want to soon plug the heater element into the barn electrical circuit and check for heating potential. At the 2 gal. +/- level, I cannot see any fluid at the refill cap, and I used to always think that I had to see something there to make sure it wasn't running out of fluid. What do you guys do about that? Then I want to plug in, check water temp. at, I guess, the refill cap every hour just to see if it is heating. Would be better to measure temp. on engine block, but not sure how to do that. Ideas? And, is there a usual, optimal operating temp. for the water?

I'm guessing the snow plow will go on soon.

DickB

[Billy Fussell]

On my cub, the water level stays about the top of the fins. If I fill it all the way to the top of the tank, it will puke out what it doesn't want, and maintain the level which is at the top of the fins. It doesn,t run hot. Than is just mine.

Billy

[John *.?-!.* cub owner]

Water just needs to be above the top of the radiator tubes. Much more than that it will come out overflow when the engine reaches operating temperature. You did not state whether your heater has a thermostat, so i would suggest just plugging it in a couple hours before use, or putting it on a timer. even if it is stored inside, an old blanket thrown over it will make it warm up quicker due to restricting air circulation. Normal operating temperature when working is around 200 degrees at the water outlet. Many people when using their cubs in cold weather cover part of the radiator ( about half) to keep engine at right operating temperature. To check temperature the infrared (IR) thermometers can be bough at many places pretty reasonable, but you need to remember, they only read surface temperature. If a fan is blowing over the surface, the reading will be lower than internally.

Here is a link to the ones Harbor Freight sells, but you can find them at many auto parts and hardware stores.
http://www.harborfreight.com/catalogsea ... ermometers

One note, if it is tuned properly it should start easily at least down to 15 or 20 degrees. Probably lower than that, but below 20 degrees I do not worry much about starting my cubs, being an old retired geezer I hatch the stove.

[Matt Kirsch]

If you can see coolant by shining a light in and looking at an angle past the inlet tube on top, you've got plenty.

[Buzzard Wing]

If the Cub starts easily now you really shouldn't have any problems in the very cold weather. Surely it will help to have a warm engine, but more important is a well tuned Cub and a decent charge on the battery.

This one started on the first try, but I had to chip the ice out of the throttle linkage on the carb to keep it running.... (best to keep them under cover!!)