Farmall Louisville Works Inventory FC-122 Engine Progra

[tcfJEN]

Hi guys, I'm new here and just started researching our Farmall C. It's been in the family since originally purchased from the dealer May 1951, manufactured in January 1950. I still have the original sales receipt and manuals. I began researching the serial number and manufacturing dates and found the serial number inventory from the Louisville Works. I'm just curious if anyone knows what the "FC-122 Engine Program" is that's mentioned in the notes of this document? I've been unable to find info with google and just wondering if that means there are C's out there with a 122 engine?

Just curious and appreciate any thoughts or insight.

 

[Jim Becker]

Most of what I know (and possibly that anyone knows) is on that page. But I can do some interpreting. The FC-122 Engine Program was to build 500 C engines with a 3-1/8 bore, I presume for extended field testing. Note, that bore with a 4 inch stroke calculates to 122.7 cubic inches. For the production engines, they rounded up to 123. In January they built 158 tractors with the 122 engine. The note about deducting 342 to get the number built implies that a block of 500 serial numbers in the January numbers were reserved for these engines. That is substantiated by the February figures that show 243 built with these engines and the note to add 243. The same with March and 92 tractors with these engines. The numbers 158, 243, and 92 add up to 493, leaving 7 of the 500 engines unused (if they were all built). Thus the note "deduct 7 serial numbers . . . to have correct built."

At least that is how I interpret the notes.

That leaves an open question of what happened to the (possibly) 7 engines. I have one answer that can be found in the Nebraska test of the Super C. That test from May/June of 1951 says the tractor serial number was 71669. That indicates a Farmall C built in December 1950. The engine number was FCM48245C122G. The number 48245 is about in range for a January 1950 tractor. The suffix C122 suggests it was part of the FC-122 program. So I believe it was one of the 7 unused engines. It seems likely that Farmall C 71669 was shipped off to engineering where it was converted to Super C specs, including installation of the FC-122 engine.

 

[Pembroke]

So what did the early combines with belt and engine sitting on combine being pulled by tractor have? 123 or 122 etc? No PTO on this combine. I have a motor off combine that fits right up on a 1951 Super A Farmall. Came out of box according to previous owner and mounted on combine. used 3 -4 years to combine fescue seed. 7 acres. Thanks for info you may have. Pembroke

 

[Jim Becker]

A combine engine that drops right into a Super A would either be a C113 or C123, dpending on year built.

 

[tcfJEN]

Thank you for the explanation! Do you think its possible that those 500 (or 493) engines made it into C models and were eventually sold to the public? Or probably not?

 

[Jim Becker]

(quoted from post at 08:16:38 07/25/23) Thank you for the explanation! Do you think its possible that those 500 (or 493) engines made it into C models and were eventually sold to the public? Or probably not?

robably yes, or sort of.

If they were built for extended testing of the engine changes, they would have wanted them on real farms. They had some specific farms that the company routinely worked with to try out equipment. Sometimes the farmer got to keep/buy the machine after the testing. Sometimes updated machines were just sold as a regular piece of equipment. In those cases, someone from engineering or from the relevant branch house would have kept tabs on the machine to see how it did.

I know nothing about what of those approaches may have been applied to the FC-122 tractors. 500 is a pretty big number. So I would guess that the majority were sold as regular equipment.

 

[tcfJEN]

Very cool. Im going to look a little closer at our engine just for fun.