Cleaning Parts!

Not much done this week so far. Cleaning parts and got the head ready to go to the shop for cleanup. Valve job, etc...The top photo is the toolbox that sits on top of the bell housing. You can definitely see how clean the washing soda solution gets parts!!

Trying to get a good process for storing parts after cleanup. Need more shelves!!

First Part out of the Cooker

Got the valve cover out of the cooker... It was clean as a whistle! Sprayed it with etching primer, and WD-40 inside the cover to keep it from rusting...

Chemistry to the Rescue

So, I'm not liking the concept of using a wire wheel to clean all of the tractor parts. I dig around on the internet, and find this concept of electrolysis to clean the tractor parts...

My setup for the prototype was pretty simple. 23 gallon tub, a few bungee straps, battery charger, and a basketball hoop! You can see the F20 valve cover in the tub above...

Here's the unit in action... Doesn't look too exciting you say? Well, before I show you an updated photo, here's the key ingredient: sodium carbonate! Otherwise known as:

Yip! Simple washing soda is all you need! We dropped in 1 tablespoon per gallon of water, and wham! Super Washing Tractor Part rust killer!

So the battery charger is pulling about 2 amps. Not shabby! I intend to get more electrodes added to the tub to boost this up to 6-8Amps. More power!! Grunt grunt!

Here's the tub after 90 minutes. If you are wondering where the basketball hoop went, I pitched it in exchange for a rusty carpenter's square. You can see the nasty rust stuff around the square. The valve cover is completely submerged. Paint is literally falling off of it, and the little rust that was on the part is gone gone gone!!

So, for my tub 2.0, I plan on getting stainless parts for the sacrificial metal, and to create a metal RING around the inside of the tub. This should speed up the process!!

Engine is Almost Bare!

Mice can get into EVERYTHING!!

The oil filter, magneto, and governor are all off now...

Also removed the fan tonight...

When I removed the drainplug, nothing came out. When I took the cap off, I discovered that the drainplug lied to me. It was plugged up with gunky goop. Kinda like hot fudge...

Closeup of the clutch plate.

Still getting engine ready to pull this weekend. After seeing the junk in the bell housing, it definitely made up my mind to pull the engine to clean it all out. I only want to do this once!!

The Headless Tractor!

Got the exhaust manifold off with a bit
of cold chisel work. The stud under the
manifold popped loose, and I was able
to wrench it off.

What's this?!?! A headless tractor!?!? I better go back and show some pics on how I got to this point...


You can see where the block was welded. I'm guessing (well, my father in law gave me this idea) that the block froze up in winter.







Can you see the stuck valve? Not hard to spot!

Closer look at the stuck valve. I'll give it a whack when the head is off...
So, what was the cause of the soldering on the valve cover? Another mystery!

Valve train. Notice the wicks sitting on the top of the rocker pans. There are oiler caps on the valve cover. No oil pump or water pump on this engine!! Good old fashioned thermal, gravity, and splash physics to keep the engine running...

You can see the left most valve in this picture is stuck. Well, it WAS stuck. I popped it with a rubber mallet and it closed. It really wasn't THAT stuck...

So, all in all the bolts have been falling out, the parts have popped off, and I haven't hit any big challenges...

Its time for me to slow down, package up my parts in an orderly fashion, and start planning out the next few weeks..

Oh, in case anyone wants to see this engine in ACTION!! (with the help of my youngest daughter)

Saturday Can Lead to Broken Parts

So Saturday rolls around, and being the weather is nice, I decided to get a few hours in on the tractor. I'm working towards pulling the engine next weekend (Labor Day weekend) and needed to get some more parts removed...

After letting the antifreeze puke all over the garage floor, I pulled off the radiator (with some family help. I think the radiator weighs about 125 pounds, based on the imprint it left on my foot)

The girls pitched in with scrapers to get 70 years of crud off of the parts I've removed so far...

Just when I thought this was going to be a piece of cake restoration, I broke off my first bolt. It didn't provide much resistence. POP! It was gone. The good news is that I just need to remove the tranny cover, and use a little soaking and heat to back the stud out. That will be a later project.

I also broke the exhaust manifold, which wasn't a big surprise. It was already on my list of things to replace. It was rusted solid full. I need to get to two sneaky bolts up under the manifold (see the massive amount of WD-40 in the photo) to get the assembly off. I need to pick up a 13/16" combination wrench to get this little project done...

More on the Color and Birthdate of Tractor

Found this while researching on the internet. Its always fun to see actual documents that were produced in the era of the F-20... It calls out the date of change of paint color. This means Grandpa's F-20 was produced in either November or December of 1936.

IH built 36,033 F-20's in 1936. That averages to 144 tractors per day! Since this F-20 is 68,060, it means only 688 more were built in 1936. That's 4.7 days of assembly.

In the 1930's, workers would have built machines on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve Day. If you look at a 1936 calendar, and back up 5 days, it means this F-20 was assembled on Christmas Eve!

At this point, I'm officially declaring the roll-off date of my Grandpa's F-20 as December 24th, 1936. It will be 72 years old this winter. Time to start planning its 75th birthday party!

(Granted I'm taking a few liberties in calculations, but I'm very confident I'm not off more than a few days). A Christmas time tractor for sure!