too hot

[yukon]

just bought a soverign the other day one problem is it gets so hot its blistering the paint on the hood the po had the engine covers off when i bought it cause it was leaking oil i put the covers on but it still gets real hot and the paint is pulling away from the front of the hood any ideas thanks.

[DanD]

Is the heat shield on the muffler? You can see it in this photo. It is the same on the Command and the Triad. (Ignore the arrows....that was from a different post.)

[wilm169]

You might have to take the blower cover off and see if you have a nest in there.

[befugiled]

I think you need to inspect under the cooling shrouds and you may find the cooling fins on the cylinders are stopped up with crud attracted by oil from leaking valve covers. I have a Triad with ~350 hours and discovered that problem when it had less than 100 hours. I also purchased a used Sovereign with a Command that had blistered paint on the hood and restricted air flow from crud on the cooling fins was the problem.

[kilalove21]

could it be running lean?

[JimS]

I got a mower that ran so hot it started to melt the muffler. Problem was a sheared flywheel key which let the flywheel shift and threw off the timing.

[yukon]

thank guys you have gave me places to look,and the heat shield is in place. this thing starts right away and purrs like a kitten.

[dentwizz]

Then you might need a kitten ;) Clogged fins happen pretty easily through mice or grass. When it is running try feeling for cooling-air coming off the fins. If it is oddly low then you have your culprit.

[MysTiK]

Also check when hood is closed that the muffler pipe exits THROUGH the hole in the hoody, and doesn't miss it, and add heat to engine area unnecessarily. My much older 716H doesn't have a heat shield over the muffler. I don't think it was supposed to either - ?? I just checked my cooling air flow when waking up the tractor after winter - great air flow, a good breeze blowing, at idle speed. But when I close the hood, there's little direct air flow can escape through the grille because the grille is down lower. It seems the air flows right at the muffler, and then spreads around open sides of engine area. I guess that's what's supposed to happen; but I have never liked this hot muffler being in the way, and SEEMINGLY contributing an awful lot of heat under the hood, even tho it must eventually be escaping - I just don't know the flow pattern during normal operations, and normal ops are at higher speeds, hotter again. It's tempting to go to a "stack" just to get that muffler out of there, and out of the way. And yes, the hood gets pretty warm, not quite hot. Perhaps the heat shield would also help channel the air flow to escape through the grille. And then there's the headlights above the grille, seemingly being baked forever - but they keep on working too. Pretty amazing, somehow it all works; but I think a lower temps environment would be better for the engine itself. As for blistering paint - wow - that is not right - definitely go looking for Mighty Mouse, and definitely keep clean the cooling fins, as others have said already. The "meeses" were in my hood area this winter - they stole paper towels from my garage, and built (almost) a nest behind my battery underdash. But the garage is freeze cold - and they abandoned it, or died. No big pee smell from the attempted nest, no dead bodies either. All clean now, and no chewed wires either. I'm going to serve up "traps 'n' peanut butter", fulltime.