bgsengine wrote:what brand of tractor? where's exhaust located? Exhaust heat shield present and accounted for? Tractors with hoods often have air ducting (usually the top vents) to direct outside air into the rotating screen, which aids in cooling - just changing position of the hood you are altering the air flow dynamics of cooling air getting to the engine... Which is why I wonder about any missing heat shielding from exhaust area.. Likewise an exhaust leak could potentially be sending exhaust gas (low oxygen content) back to the air intake.. not to mention, those with the enclosed air cleaners are pulling their intake air from the engine cooling air flow, again a dynamnic altered by changing hood position..
It's a Poulan Pro lawn tractor, model 96042012303. Briggs model 31P677-3373-G1. The exhaust is in the front of the tractor, below the plane of the engine deck. I looked on the IPL, and there only appears to be a heat shield underneath the muffler, and nowhere else. And this tractor has that. The hood does have vents in the top, as well as one of those round intake ducts that sit on top of the engine.