Farmall 450

[Jack Stanley]

I am looking at buying what I think is a farmall 450 I can read the serial number but not the model on the serial tag. It has the 450 engine but all sheet metal has 400 emblems and the whole tractor was painted orange. I was wondering of there was any other way I could find out for sure if it is a 400 or a 450? Is there any other way to tell?

 

[SDE]

I believe that 400 is a 264 cubic inch engine and the 450 might be a 281. You might find that number on the block somewhere. Most of the 400s were made in 55 and 56, and the 450s were 57 and maybe 58. Look at the casting codes and they should give you an idea of the year it was assembled. If the grill is not white, it should be a 400. 450s had a white grill, but some people would paint their grills white to make the 400 look like a 450.
SDE

 

[D beatty]

The 400 was built 1954-1956 and had the 264 engine and painted all red. The 450 was built 1956-1958 with the 281 engine and painted red with white grill and white on the side of hood. The 281 sleeves and pistons will fit in a 264 block.

 

[Hugh McKinney]

There is at least one other way that I know of to tell a 450 from a 400, that is, if the sheet metal is still in place: there is no way, on a 400, to switch the hydraulics from single-acting to double-acting, without taking off the sheet metal to the right side of the steering wheel near the hydra-touch controls. But on the 450, there is a little knock-out plug, about an inch in diameter, that you can temporarily remove to access the valve that changes the hydraulics from single to double-acting and vice versa. Good luck, Hugh

 

[D Slater]

Several ways to tell about the chassis. Trouble is a lot of parts from one tractor to another sometimes get added.
Something that doesn't get switched to often is clutch pedals. Look at the pedals very bottom below the pivot shaft. 400 will have a adjustable stop bolt with a jam nut there. On a 450 the hole isn't drilled in the pedal for a stop bolt and none used. This is were the pedal contacts the transmission housing when depressed. Pedal total travel adjustable on a 400. Not adjustable on a 450.
Also if the serial number is higher than a 450 would be, that's also a giveaway its a 400. 400 tractors went around 15,000 higher than a 450. not uncommon to find 400 tractors with a replacement block with C281 on it. But it may be a 450 chassis.
Don't know until checked.
Looked up the highest serial for a farmall 450, 26067. That leaves a lot of overlap but 400 went to over 41,000.
Also if the tractor has a T/A, lever on the left side of the center housing that the operating rod from the T/A handle goes to will have # 359907R1 for a 400 and 366352R1 for a 450.
Ignition and starter switches, gauge panel, steering wheels steering support tube and side of battery box the light was mounted on were also different between tractors along with some other things, but those get changed over the years sometimes.
All 450 unless diesel had the 21 gallon fuel tank. some 400 also got the larger tank and some real late ones had holes in the sheet metal for adjusting valves from single to double acting. One difference between the steering shaft supports was the slot in the casting for switching the control valve on a 450.

 

[mkirsch]

Check casting date codes too. They are in the format of MM-DD-? where ? is a letter that indicates year.

Most 450s will have date codes ending in a C or D. Some very early 450s would have castings made in the last quarter of 1956, which would end in a B. 10-DD-B, 11-DD-B, 12-DD-B.

 

[Dblair]

my 450 was made in March 1957 and has c-281 on the block .

 

[Jack Stanley]

This may be a dumb question but should the
Cast numbers on the rear end,the center section an the engine all be the same numbers?

 

[mkirsch]

It would be unusual for the casting numbers to be EXACTLY the same.

They almost always end in the same year, but the month and day could be far apart.

On the assembly line, they used whatever castings the supply guy brought to them, paying no attention to keeping date codes consistent. Probably a lot of "last in, first out" going on in the warehouse at that time too.

 

[Jack Stanley]

Yes that"s what I figured how do I find out the year is that in
the cast numbers somewhere??

 

[mkirsch]

Several online resources have the casting codes.

http://www.external_link/id/id_004.htm

For the vast majority of our purposes, all you have to remember is that 1955 = A, and work both directions from there...

BACK: 1954 = Z, 1953 = Y, 1952 = X...
FORWARD: 1956 = B, 1957 = C, 1958 = D...

The only hiccup in the sequence is 1951. They used U, V, and W that year for some reason.

 

[D Slater]

Look for raised castings like the picture on the major castings. That will be when the housing was cast. Not exactly the same as a tractor build date. Post the serial number on the serial plate and some date codes found to see if they fall in line. Does the engine have a serial number stamped below # 3 spark plug? Like picture.
Just post the tractor and engine serial number to see if they originally went together.