5000ford engine number

[Roger l hall]

65 5000 I am confused about about the engine #. Rd. 68773-h2. H-2 is August 1972. Rd is rite for 65. 68773 seems wrong
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<image src="http://forums.yesterdaystractors.com/photos/mvphoto27998.jpg"/>

 

[Sean in PA]

51014C is a 5000 ag chassis tractor with diesel engine, independent PTO and 8 speed transmission made before 4/1/1968, as they changed the fiirst character from a 5 to an F on that date.

C121997 is a 1965 serial number as you have said.

Engine serial number looks to be RD0687734H20 or RD0687734H20 to me, as the 3 and 4 ave over struck, so it's hard to tell which order they're supposed to be in, but if you follow my analysis, you'll see why I think that it is RD0687734H20.

In either case, the 068773 or 068774 would be the actual serial number portion, and both of those are low enough to be a 1965 engine, but that would make the production code portion be either 3H20 or 4H20, which would be August 20 of some year that ended with either a 3 or a 4, and since they started making the 1965 models in late 1964, I am inclined to think that the engine block was made on August 20, 1964. If it were 1963 that would be way earlier than when they started any of the production on the 5000 series, and if it were 1973 or 1974, the first letter would be a, F rather than an R, as they changed form the old power designator "R" to the new one "F" on April 1, 1968.

So the only logical reading of the entire engine number would be RD0687734H20. That would mean, as I said above, that the engine was made on August 20, 1964, and it was installed into a tractor that had serial number C121997. If you look above the model and serial numbers, up in the rough part of the casting on the flat spot, you should see another string of numbers and letters which will tell us the exact date that the tractor left the assembly line. I wouldn't be surprised if the entire tractor was assembled prior to January 1, 1965, although the new thousand series were officially called 1965 tractors, there were a number of them actually made during late 1964.

 

[souNdguy]

An easy WA to check for an early 233 or later 256 is to look for knockout or screw out core plugs. Mid 68 is the cutoff imho. If it has screw plugs,bits not a 72, so that would solve the 65/72 dilemma.

 

[Roger l hall]

I will look for the other numbers. If this is a pre 65 I wonder what ford used it for( demo maybe) I would welcome all info on this tractor. It runs strong Best at 28btdc the book says 19 That is why I want to know about the engine numbers Thanks Soundguy and Sean. I will post more nums tomorrow

 

[Sean in PA]

(quoted from post at 22:05:14 09/21/15) I will look for the other numbers. [b:a94e8a444b]If this is a pre 65 I wonder what ford used it for( demo maybe)[/b:a94e8a444b] I would welcome all info on this tractor. It runs strong Best at 28btdc the book says 19 That is why I want to know about the engine numbers Thanks Soundguy and Sean. I will post more nums tomorrow

As I said, they started making the new thousand series tractors in late 1964, but they were referred to as 1965 models. They couldn't start making them on January 1, 1965 and have them show up in the dealerships on the same day. They needed lead time to get a number of them made and into the shipping/delivery pipeline before they could actually sell them in the dealerships. The production (date) codes of the major components (engine, transmission, rear axles, hydraulic top cover) are the dates that the various components were made at the factory, and then the Unit Number is the production code for the final assembly of the tractor itself from all of the major components. Then they were put into the delivery pipeline, and it could take several days to several weeks for the tractor to make it to the dealership depending on where in the country they were going, and even longer for the ones that were made in Europe that were shipped over here to the US to be sold here.