onan p220 questions

[Desko 552]

Hello all! I was reading some threads about the onans and how they like to pop seats and how to get cooling to your rear cylinder by louvering the belt guard. My million dollar question is if you take the muffler pipe heat guards off it would expel more heat. In my mind without those it would expel heat and not have it pop seats as often or ever because wouldn't those keep heat closer to the cylinders causing it to get to hot and pop seats. What do you guys think.

Edited January 27, 2014 by Desko

[Martin 2,130]

i think Onan designed the engine cooling to work at its best with all the shields installed.

the key to keeping the engine cooling working the way it should is to keep crap out of the airflow path.....

that means regular blowing out and/or removing the shrouds/guards etc to make sure head and block fins are clean and there is no junk left in the cooling path through and over the engine.

 

removing shrouds or shields is a no no on any air cooled engine. 

[JackC 616]

That may help but not sure that is necessary and that is not the cause of the problem.  One of the biggest culprits is grass plugging the flywheel screen and reducing cooling air flow when mowing with the side discharge decks.  Especially on hot summer days in dry dusty conditions.  Another problem is neglecting to do periodic inspection and cleaning of the cooling fins.  There is also a rubber gasket that goes around the oil filter to keep cooling air flowing onto the rear cylinder fins and those gaskets are often missing.  

 

The few cases that I have seen happened when the tractors were being used for mowing.  Also, excessive carbon build up can occur if the engine is not run at high enough rpm and that can cause problems.

[Desko 552]

I mow with a RD mower deck and have all those parts for when I put it back together. Also I'm the type of person that can't leave well enough alone so grass build up should not be a problem. Thanks for the info.