Thresherman's Special progress

Well, the new valves are in and ground, the heads planed and new gaskets fitted, a new radiator core fitted, mag rewound, new repro kerosene manifold from Will Woodward fitted, new starting tank made (thanks for the photos Fred) and fitted to replace the one removed (probably by the same guy who smashed the heat box off the original kero manifold!!), the carb has been re-stripped and more gunge removed with toluene and brushes, wire probes etc. Time to start the 5 1/4" X 6 1/2" Thresherman's Special kerosene engine - it really takes some pulling over compression now, but after 2 with the choke closed, it fired on the next with the choke open and quickly settled down to run as sweet as a nut - beautiful!. After 5 minutes, I changed the fuel over to kerosene and it ran better on kero than on gas, with no coughing when the throttle was suddenly opened and no misfiring at all, so I need not have worried about the carb - it just needed better cleaning.  The oil pressure was still right up to the mark (35 psi) after an hours running on kero, so all is now well. The sound from the stovepipe when it takes up the load of moving off is pure music - I'm very, very pleased with the old girl and I can't wait to try those 563 cubic inches "in anger" as it were! I'm half way through painting the tractor and hope to finish it completely within the next month.

I'm agreein'... We need pictures! Sounds like a beauty.

Don't let Butch kid you, he runs JP-4 jet fuel.  Smells exactly like Huey helicopter tail pipe exhaust.  LOL

I will post some photos when I finish painting the tractor Phil. By the way Butch, I use a blend of 85% kero with 15% super unleaded to raise the octane number to a similar level as the old TVO fuel Tricky Dickie

Our fuel blending is not very precise and changes  with what we are doing with the tractor. More heavy fuel gives more grunt but goes in the oil pan under light loads. Our basic blend is 2/3 kerosene and 1/3 regular unleaded gasonline. When we are going to plow or pull a parge thresher we stiifen the kersene percentage and often add a splash of #2 diesel for show plowing in July. For parades (yuk) we add only enough kero so it will run kinda right and keep the raditaor covered, other wise it will fill the oil pan quickly. Kinda fun to fool with actualy and it had its own exhaust smell as Ted said.

I wouldnt say Dave is a wussie  Butch,  just aint nuff lead in the loafers ta twist her tail!!!  Ya know in my old age Im thinkin them thar self starts aint such a bad idea!!!!

I think Butch is saying that he is thinking like some of the older guys, he gets the electric start and the boys get the hand crank. Wait a minute, who am I calling old?  Dave.

I don't have the option of fitting electric starting to my 25-40 because there is no provision for a starter in the bell housing. Guess that I'll have to keep pulling on that crank! Hey Butch, don't add diesel to your fuel mix! - it will only reduce the octane number of the mix and make the crankcase dilution worse. Keep the diesel for diesel engines!! Tricky Dickie

I have everything you need to make that 25-40 electric start, if interested call, 507-326-5158