A couple weeks ago I got a call from a neighbor asking if I was interested in his F-12. He knew I restored old Farmalls (mostly letter series) and said he wanted a good home for the tractor, as his dad had bought it new in 1936 and no one left in the family had any interest in it. It had been sitting in his shed for 20+ years, they drove it in there but had not run since they parked it. Went and checked it out, it looked in remarkably good shape and pretty complete. I asked what he wanted for it and he said if you want it its yours, just call me when you get it running, I'd like to see it run again (he's 83). So it's now sitting in my shop.
This is my first attempt at a pre-letter series tractor. My hope was to get it running, evaluate the engine (as long as it runs fairly decent, good enough) and then work on the cosmetics. It suffers from the typical issues from sitting for so long. Fuel system was plugged up, radiator has mouse nests (and leaks), magneto needs some work. All fairly minor. But my hope of getting it running fairly soon was dashed yesterday, did a compression test and results were not good. So it looks like the engine is coming apart.
Ok, thats the story (kinda long, huh?) leading into my question. I'm a bit apprehensive about the condition of the block. It's had some freeze damage in the past, weld repair at the water inlet, and weld repair in the middle of the block right at the head gasket surface. Also after cleaning the gunk off I can see another unrepaired crack. So I'm thinking if I'm gonna tear it down and rebuild it, it might make sense to start with an undamaged block. Question is where can I find one?
This is my first attempt at a pre-letter series tractor. My hope was to get it running, evaluate the engine (as long as it runs fairly decent, good enough) and then work on the cosmetics. It suffers from the typical issues from sitting for so long. Fuel system was plugged up, radiator has mouse nests (and leaks), magneto needs some work. All fairly minor. But my hope of getting it running fairly soon was dashed yesterday, did a compression test and results were not good. So it looks like the engine is coming apart.
Ok, thats the story (kinda long, huh?) leading into my question. I'm a bit apprehensive about the condition of the block. It's had some freeze damage in the past, weld repair at the water inlet, and weld repair in the middle of the block right at the head gasket surface. Also after cleaning the gunk off I can see another unrepaired crack. So I'm thinking if I'm gonna tear it down and rebuild it, it might make sense to start with an undamaged block. Question is where can I find one?