farmall h

[TODD WERTZ]

I HAVE A FARMALL H. THE SERIAL # IS 98343 X3. WHAT DOSE THE X3 MEAN. I WAS TOLD IT HAS A LOW LOW FIRST GEAR?

 

[Andy Motteberg]

X3 means Kerosene

 

[jonny2006]

no x6 is low speed

 

[Mike CA]

I have a '44 X6 (171344) that was shipped on steel, which is why it has low gearing.

X3 was for kerosene, like Andy said, which, from what I understand means the head was specifically optimized for kerosene burn. So it may have been upgraded over the years for gasoline use. You should check the head's serial number to be sure.

 

[CNKS]

Steel wheels have nothing to do with lower gearing, except that if from the factory, 5th was locked out. Your H won't start in 5th on steel anyway, been there, tried that. Anyway the X6 option applies ONLY to 1st gear, possibly reverse, the others are not affected.

 

[Mike CA]

...Anyway the X6 option applies ONLY to 1st gear, possibly reverse, the others are not affected.

Does that mean it would be a more effective puller if I used it in an antique pull?

 

[CNKS]

I have only seen tractor pulls on TV (boring to me), other than that I know zero about them. But, it seems that most tractors stop from lack of traction rather than power. So you need to add more weight to the tractor to get more traction to take advantage of the lower gearing. What you can do depends on the rules of the people organizing the pull.

 

[Anonymous-0]

About the kerosene option: These tractors had lower compression than the gas models that came from the factory. The intake manifold was designed to send some exhaust heat to warm up the intake mixture. There was a small "starting tank" that held gasoline needed for starting (kerosene will not start in a cold engine; if the engine is stopped on kerosene, the carb has to be drained through the little petcock in its side, then refilled with gasoline). My dad had a 10-20 and once I decided to give it a try on kerosene. What a hassle! First, if the tractor was stopped by shutting off the kerosene, you turned on the gasoline valve, went through the usual starting routine, then after the engine got warm, you turned off the gas, turned on the kerosene and went to work. If you stopped and idled for a while, the engine would spit and sputter until it got hotter. That tractor had a curtain that you pulled up over the radiator to keep the engine up to working temp. The H and others of that generation had a crank-operated radiator shutter that was used to keep the engine hot (AND, there was a heat gauge to tell you just how hot it was). By the time I got to spending much time on tractors (just before WWII), most people simply used gasoline in the tractors designed for kerosene. There was probably a slight improvement in performance, but of course the low-compression ratio meant that the gas was not giving as much power as it would in a "gas model," which had a substantially higher compression ratio. I seem to remember that after-market parts suppliers sold pistons that were meant to raise the compression ratio for use on gasoline.
Aside 1: My dad had a low-compression H, eventually replaced by a high-compression model.
I spent a lot of time on both, and I didn't think there was much difference in their performance.
Aside 2: most of the IHC tractors from the 30s and before have had their manifolds replaced with a so-called "gas manifold"--one that is NOT heated much by the exhaust. A lot of farmers bought these manifolds from after-market suppliers when the original kerosene manifold burned through. There was usually some kind of valve to bypass the heating feature when these tractors were used on gasoline. On the few tractors you very-occsionally see with original kerosene manifolds, the valve is usually frozen in the "cold" position because there was no reason to switch it from hot to cold and back again, once the farmer switched permanently to gasoline.