IH 656 Diesel (Hydro)

2.) Use straight number one fuel. This fuel is called "stove oil" here and costs slightly more than normal Winter diesel fuel which is a 50/50 mix of number one and number two fuels. In summer you can use number two. Treat every tank of fuel with good quality diesel fuel conditioner.

3.) Make sure the starter, generator and glow plugs are in top condition.

4.) Change to zero w 30 oil (yes, zero w 30) when temperature stays constantly below freezing. As far as I know thi oil is only sold here by Imperial Oil (Esso). Change back to normal oil in spring.
5.) Install a battery warmer around every battery and of course install a block heater. I like frost plug heaters for safety ( if for some reason
the coolant leaks out the tractor and shed don't
burn down.
6.) Keep the tractor inside a shed or at least under cover. Plug in the heaters if temperature is expected to get cold. Keep a good quality electric "charger booster" handy just in case. I am a diesel fan and I believe the future will
see a lot more diesels on the roads in cars and light trucks. This is what is happening in Europe in response to high fuel costs. We have colder weather here than most of Europe and will have to do what I have outlined above.Thanks and good luck.

We have a 706 with a D282, this past winter if you really needed it, you plugged it in 8 hrs. before you drove it out of the shed..... ..... ..And it still didn't want to start.

But, those 282D's are good on fuel!

My tractors were not used daily in the winter, so it was not practical to keep them pluged in. My livestock feeding and manure handling was all done by skidsteers. The Deere being a forestry skidder did run most days all winter. If I wanted to use 1066 it had to be pluged in the night before as it had a low watt heater. The 656 and 560 two hours at the most even if they hadn't been started in two weeks. Most tractors up here were not sold with standard IH factory run batteries. We knew what climate we were dealing with and acted accordingly. We also went diesel on mass long before you guys. I have only ever seen one 6 cylinder gas Farmall in my life and that was a 460. We always paid in common dollars 40% more for fuel than you guys, thus we very quickly became quite comfortable with diesels.

I bought two 282 diesels new in the 1960s, a 560 and a 656. I farmed in Canada and sub zero temps were the norm all winter. Yes they had to be pluged in with a circulating block heater. And yes you often had to use the glow plugs 3 to 4 minutes in cold weather, and always a minute in summer. They were not pluged in during summer however. You guys must remember these were the IH pioneers of direct start diesels. I put a total of 25,000 hours on my two tractors, and yes they had two 6 volt batteries in series that weighed about 65 lbs each and had battery cables the size of your thumb. These were truly the most efficient horse power I ever farmed with.

Now the reason you shouldn't buy the tractor is that bloody old HYDRO. Unless you have precission vegetable seeding and harvesting they are just a waste of money. That my friend is what they were designed for. Baling hay and haybine are not precission work. Many many times I have baled 4,000 to 5,000 bales per day with thrower and pulling wagon, and I have done that with each of 300, 560 and 656 gear drives. In fact the 300 still holds the record on my farm for baling production. My 656 with TA and 9' haybine would put down enough hay to keep round baler or 1066 on NH 890 forage harvester going, and that is a lot of hay. I have seen that 1066 with NH 890 fill a 24x70 tower silo in 24 hours, and the 656 mowed it all.

Those old hydros by now will be absolutely nothing but grief for you. The main reason a lot of them still look half decent is no one could ever afford to use them very much. I'm just trying to save you some headaches.

On the starting issue those circulating heaters need to work much like the thermosyphon in a SA. It must be mounted in such a way that you get unobstructed flow from the engine block drain up through the heater with the discharge going into one of the ports on the engine head. I used 1500 watt heaters as I did not use those tractors most days in winter. I would suggest on your use and keeping it pluged in all the time 500 watt probably sufficient. The heaters I had used thermostats.

You will also find that 282 diesel very fuel efficient. The later 666, 686, Hydros 70 and 86 started a bit better, had a bit more power, but fuel economy suffered. My 656D would on 9' haybine or baler with thrower, run on 1 Canadian gal per hour. 282 was absolutely the most fuel efficient hp I ever had on the farm. And both of them went over 10,000 hours before any major rebuilds.