Farmall MD (diesel)

[parts man]

Got this MD in this morning.



It's in really nice shape, but the engine is toast. It was getting anti-freeze into the cylinder and it gouged the head between valves in 2 cylinders. It also wasn't burning all it's fuel and dumped it right into the crankcase, ruining the bearings, and most likely scoring the crank so it will need turned.

[farmallmaniac]

NICE!! thats a sweet tractor! Can the motor be saved? Do you plan on reselling it?

[bear]

tractor looks great may be worth doing a patch on the engine and adding to your collection

[Ingersoll444]

Nice tractor. Looks clean!!!

[parts man]

I would love to rebuild the engine, but the head would need some extensive welding, and good used heads for MDs are non-existant. The crank should be salvageable, but would need reground. Basically, we're talking more $$ than my financial department is willing to consider on this particular tractor. The good news is there are a lot of goodies that will go right over on our M gas.

[bear]

find a safe spot to park it i'm going to look at 2 wd6's in july one burnt and the other they say was running good when they parked it

[parts man]

Bear, the CEO already has someone interested in the complete engine!

[bear]

can't argue with the ceo

[parts man]

That's for sure Bear, he's the one who signs my checks!!

[parts man]

Bera, just so you know, the engine is still availlable, or any piece there-of.

[Jon Glastra]

This one looks nicer than my '51 MD looked when it first came home in May of 2007. I have a neighbor who's a very talented heavy-equipment mechanic, and I told him to use it for fill-in work last year when the economy tanked.

In Sept. of '08 he got it running, but showed really ratty combustion & awful bad noises both in stack & the air intake. Off came the head, & we found very similar issues to what you describe; pitted head, obvious coolant leak between #1 & #2 cylinders, trashed pistons & liners on #1 & #2.

So began the search for parts. Steel Wheel Ranch came up with a head, pre-combustion chambers, 2 intake valves, 2 - exhaust valves, & a full set of crank bearings. Crank was actually OK, IH built these with a massive all-forged-steel lower end.

3-7/8" bore pistons & liners are no longer available, so I had to get a full set of pistons & liners from BAtes Corp in Indiana. There is an alternate supplier for these, Restoration Parts, or some variant thereof.

Injection pump was total rebuild also, this was done by Central Fuel Injection in IA.

The end result after much massage, patience, & $$s as delivered by my neighbor is a real cutie. ( I'll post picture when I get smart enough to figure out how to do that. . .)Mine is also a factory wide-front, which is very desirable according to local IH collector gurus.

Bottom line: expect to spend about $5-6K on the engine to do it right. I think it well worth it, these engines run superbly when taken care of. I have an un-restored SWD-6 ('53) with the same engine, & it runs smooth as glass. Can't say that for the MD rebuild. It is very smooth also, but I probably should have had the rotating assembly balanced with the new, larger pistons. I recommend you do that if you opt to rebuild the engine.

I don't think I'd waste time on trying to 'patch' this engine. The result will not be satisfactory.

Good luck, go for it, & let us know how it turns out!

[danbike]

In another life, I started a job at IHC Tractor Works in Chicago. They had a forge shop there that did parts for many of the other plants. I can remember seeing crankshafts and camshafts being forged. One impressive operation.