manifold heater
Printed From: Unofficial Allis
Category: Allis Chalmers
Forum Name: Farm Equipment
Forum Description: everything about Allis-Chalmers farm equipment
URL: https://www.allischalmers.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=140090
Printed Date: 19 Jul 2025 at 4:08pm
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 11.10 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: manifold heater
Posted By: ac hunter
Subject: manifold heater
Date Posted: 04 Jul 2017 at 7:49am
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I was talking to a friend yesterday and strangely enough the subject of old tractors came up. He was raised in a small town but his grandparents had a small farm in SE Ohio when he was growing up. When he was about 5-6 years old (60+ yrs ago) he was at their farm in the winter and remembers his grandfather starting a tractor he had. Seems the tractor had a sort of metal box around the manifold and carb with perforations in it and a small door on the side. His grandfather lit a rag soaked in kerosene and stuck it in the door and let it burn for a while to heat the manifold. Has anyone ever heard of such an accessory? My friend didn't have any idea where it came from. Maybe grandpa just made it himself but it sounds kind of dangerous what with the carb right there. He thinks the tractor may have been a Fordson but only remembers gray paint and big steel wheels with lugs. Any thoughts?
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Replies:
Posted By: wfmurray
Date Posted: 04 Jul 2017 at 12:02pm
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My dad had a 31 A model ford car that had a manifold heater .Had a door under dash and you opened it and speed of car pushed air over manifold into car .Have not heard of set up above but there were a lot of ideas in older days
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Posted By: DougS
Date Posted: 04 Jul 2017 at 12:32pm
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Was that tractor set up to burn distillate?
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Posted By: Gerald J.
Date Posted: 04 Jul 2017 at 12:48pm
Could very well have been set up to burn distillate. Most tractors that burned distillate had a small gasoline tank to allow starting and warming up the manifold on gasoline before switching the distillate. The heater burning a rag soaked in kerosene probably used less costly (probably distillate rather than kerosene) fuel that gasoline for getting the engine running.
Gerald J.
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Posted By: ac hunter
Date Posted: 04 Jul 2017 at 2:03pm
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Not sure what the tractor burned for fuel. I think the idea was to heat the intake to help starting in cold weather. Must have heated the carb too since he said it was inside the metal compartment too.
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Posted By: Dakota Dave
Date Posted: 04 Jul 2017 at 7:19pm
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Our military H1 heaters had an intake heater. Small metal tray with a lid at the bottom of the carb. Open the door push the primer twice pumped gasoline into the tray. Light it with a match and close the door. It warmed the intake when the fire went out pull the cord till the engine started. Usually by the time you got the stupid thing started you were sweeting.if it was below 32 deg it wouldn't start without preheating. Luckily at the time most of the crew chiefs were smokers and carried lighters.
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Posted By: LeonR2013
Date Posted: 04 Jul 2017 at 7:28pm
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We had a old CJ2 that we used in the woods and on cold days we just poured a little chain saw fuel on the manifold, let it burn for a little bit and started it up.
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Posted By: groundhog55
Date Posted: 05 Jul 2017 at 9:59am
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the wd45 diesels had a plug on the intake manifold that could be unscrewed and heat it up. I was told that people would use a burning corn cob to heat them.
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Posted By: j.w.freck
Date Posted: 06 Jul 2017 at 7:21pm
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I have 4 45-d and the ops manual says to open the manifold plug,lite a diesel fueled torch and start cranking it over...don't need that here in texas.....
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