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Faunsdale, AL | Heat doesn’t help belt life!
I was given an old trash pump with a 6 cylinder Ford gasoline engine on it. I wanted it to pump lagoon water/almost slurry through a traveling gun, so it was about the perfect pump for my needs, but it was missing the original radiator. The one that was on it was junk, so I found a top tank radiator out of an old 3/4 ton GMC that was stuck up in the shop and welded up a mount and fan shroud for it. Put propane fuel system on the engine and was ready to go.
I soon learned the tricks of running traveling guns, priming an old worn “self priming” trash pump and lots of other things I had never known before. Only thing that remained a frustration was I couldn’t keep a fan belt on that engine. The temp gauge ran about 220 so I kept good coolant in it and always let it cool down before shutting it off, so there was no real problem except every day or so I had to tighten the fan belt and about once a week I would have to replace it.
Fast forward a couple years and the old radiator fins were crumbling from being exposed to lagoon gasses long term so it was time for another radiator. Of course nobody had one like the one out of the old GMC, but the local radiator shop had one out of a international truck with a 466 diesel they wanted to get rid of, so I put it on there. This thing is 2X the area of the first one and thicker too.
Immediately I noticed the temperature gauge ran about 185 under load and I seldom had to tighten the belt. I probably have replaced it about once a year since.
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