Regular - a little junk in the trunk (PICS)

Well, not the trunk... but the water part of the engine block. Looks to me like a great reason to do a complete tear-down when getting an old tractor up and running.

Thought these photos might be interesting to some who have never dug into a tractor that is over 80 years old... and has sat out in the woods for over 40 years exposed to the elements. (Feel free to add pics of your rusty-crusty tractor to this post.)

I have never watched the restoration process of an old tractor engine because my husband did his other 4 tractors before we got married.

Recently he started cleaning up the engine block... came in the house and said, "Grab your camera, I'm going to do something with the Regular that you might find interesting."

I was amazed at all the crud that came out of that old beast (rust, lime-scale, even parts of acorn shells as it had a hole in the valve cover and a "scrat" live in there).

<img src="http://photos.yesterdaystractors.com/gallery/uptest/a136498.jpg" width="650"/>

<img src="http://photos.yesterdaystractors.com/gallery/uptest/a136499.jpg" width="650"/>

<img src="http://photos.yesterdaystractors.com/gallery/uptest/a136500.jpg" width="650"/>

The pile of debris on the floor after sweeping it up.

<img src="http://photos.yesterdaystractors.com/gallery/uptest/a136501.jpg" width="650"/>

COOL! Save that crud - it's "original".....8^)

Reminds me of when I completely re-did my grandpa's Case SC. The tractor was leaking coolant into the oil, and when I tore it down the rear of #4 sleeve was eaten through, and so was half of the block. I had a pile of sludge/rust/goop that I scraped out of water jackets (the crankcase was actually pretty clean). I sent it out to have it boiled and checked, and ended up building up the rear portion that was missing with JB Weld. Reassembled the sleeves and o-rings in the block (with a small amount of high-temp RTV silicone). And it has been holding great ever since first run in 2009. Enclosed you will find a couple pictures!

Tell me about the grill positioning & hood scoop on the pre-resto picture.

Glenn

Here are your photos.

Thanks! How'd you do that???

Was weird... they were there until I went to Modern and edited the text. Only added "water part" to engine block and the pics disappeared.

Then tried to delete them and re-load them... so they may appear in multiples later. LOL>

Looks like the stuff that came out of my 2000 Ford F150 4.6L. And I know I only got about half of it.

My JD R had a little crud settled into the lower radiator hoses when I got it....

The best money I ever spent was to have a Farmall M engine tanked in Louisville, Ky. before a major overhaul. The block was actually shiny. Ellis

I know how you feel I"am restoring a1929 inter. 10-20 in bad shape pistons frozen clutch was rusted. But they can be fixed.

Have it tanked and the see what you get I'm betting that block is history. That's a lot of rust and it came from the block so there has to parts of the block that are just to thin to save.
Walt

That's an interesting story, actually. This happened probably around the year that I was born (1986). My grandpa bought the tractor in the early 70's, and somewhere in its' life, the original radiator must have started leaking. He decided that the easiest fix would be to grab a car radiator out of a local junk yard and replace it with that.

In the process, he had to cut up the radiator side panels to clear the inlet/outlet hoses. He then mounted the radiator on top of a couple blocks of wood, and cut the top shroud away from the grill. Bent the grille out so that it would fit the width of the new radiator, and held it all in place with a few nails in the wood blocks, and a couple of bent up wire clothes hangers.

That is how I grew up with the tractor looking, until one day, (several years after his death in 1993) I was walking around the woods, and stumbled across this piece of metal laying upside down in the weeds. I picked it up and low and behold it was the top shroud for the grille. So, I shoved it on top of the radiator and that is what you see.

I guess it kind of started the entire process in restoring it - even though I already had a love for tractors. All of my relatives, including my parents, told me that the tractor was just "wore out". Basically that it was a lost cause. Well. Look at it shine now! I've enclosed a couple more pictures. Sorry for the quality, as they are pictures of pictures.

Just a thought. As well built as things use to be a 100 years ago. That block still may be thicker than some of the stuff I have seen today.

Rick