F-30 rebuild?

[j_w_ander]

I've set my sights on acquiring my dad's F-
30, and am starting to investigate my
rebuild options. Any advice out there? I
want a strong wngine but nohing crazy.

 

[Fritz Maurer]

Find an after market cold manifold. And sell me your all-fuel manifold. A F-30 will run over an M pulling 3 12s, with a little stretch on the governor spring.

 

[Nebraska Kirk]

(quoted from post at 13:00:48 06/13/21) I've set my sights on acquiring my dad's F-
30, and am starting to investigate my
rebuild options. Any advice out there? I
want a strong wngine but nohing crazy.

There are some new parts available from The Fordson House and Rice Equipments, but there is no complete engine rebuild kit available any more. I have personally rebuilt 5 F-30 engines and I would be glad to share what I have done over the phone with you.

 

[Nebraska Kirk]

(quoted from post at 13:00:48 06/13/21) I've set my sights on acquiring my dad's F-
30, and am starting to investigate my
rebuild options. Any advice out there? I
want a strong wngine but nohing crazy.

There are some new parts available from The Fordson House and Rice Equipments, but there is no complete engine rebuild kit available any more. I have personally rebuilt 5 F-30 engines and I would be glad to share what I have done over the phone with you.

 

[F-Dean]

Make sure you have a belt pulley. The Twisted Belt method is the best way to fine tune a rebuilt engine.
Yes, a F-30 has more power than an M.

 

[Nebraska Kirk]

If you want to strong engine then you may want to consider doing a complete rebuild. Take the engine completely apart and go through everything. if the engine is already loose and then the cheap easy way would be just to rebuild the carburetor and magneto and get it running that way. But if the engine is stuck you will likely have to take it apart anyway to get it unstuck.

The method I use is to take the engine completely apart, pull The Fly wheel off of the crankshaft and pull the crankshaft out of the block. This requires special pullers which I had to make. I usually install new main bearings while I have it apart as they are usually rust damaged and very worn. They are big heavy-duty ball bearings that must be pressed off and on each end of the crankshaft. I press the pistons and sleeves out of the block too so everything can be cleaned throughly. Here is where I usually have to replace sleeves as they are almost always severely rust damaged. Having found that good used sleeves are hard to find, I devised a method of boring the sleeves to accept a thin-wall sleeve that is pressed in and then bored and honed to standard 4.250. I have done this with dozens of F30 sleeves now with vey good results and now have essentially new sleeves. I generally reuse the old original pistons, I just clean them throughly and sandblast to bare metal. It can be difficult removing the old stuck piston rings though! New rings on the pistons, rod bearings shimmed to proper clearance, sleeves installed with new O-rings and the short block can be reassembled.

The head usually requires some work. If you are lucky the valves and guides are still good and the valves can just be ground to make them like new again. Usually I have to replace some of the valves and often several or all or the valve seats must be replaced too. While the head is at the machine shop make sure they resurface it and on the intake/exhaust manifold side of the head

You will want to use all new gaskets when putting Everything back together. The only new gaskets that I personally buy are the head gasket, intake/exhaust manifold gasket and valve cover gasket, all the rest I cut out of sheet gasket material although you can buy all the gaskets ready made though it will cost more over making them yourself.

 

[j_w_ander]

Thanks for the guidance. I am still waiting
on an answer whether I can even get the
tractor back, but if I do, it won't be
until this fall as I am currently out of
town on Army business. I will probably have
my local Farmall experts do the engine work
if it's needed, but at least now I can talk
intelligently about it.

 

[derwen1959]

Hi Nebraska Kirk..... you know your engines but why
don't you fit complete new liners

 

[Nebraska Kirk]

Because new liners are practically nonexistent. A new old stock piston & sleeve kit shows up for sale once in a while but they are usually priced around $1000. F30s are almost 90 years old after all and new sleeves have not been made for 50 years or more, even by aftermarket suppliers.

This post was edited by Nebraska Kirk on 06/18/2021 at 01:16 pm.