More W6 Questions...

I got a chance to go take a look at the W6 I just bought. One thing that caught my eye was the empty dipstick slide on the right hand side of the engine. My first thought was, how much water & crud have built up in the oil pan by now?My next thought was - hey, wait a minute! Since when did the letter series have dipsticks? I s'pose they did leave a spot in the casting where someone could drill a hole & put one in, but, there are no petcocks on the oil pan. If a dealership were to have done the modification, after the number series came out, wouldn't the dipstick be of plug & thumb screw style vs. a regular bayonet dipstick?

The other thing I was wondering about was the rear-end casting with the "new pattern" plate on it. There is no, as of this time, date plate anywhere I looked on the rear end of the tractor. As a matter of fact, I didn't see one on any major casting. But, I don't have the tractor home & cleaned off yet, either. To be continued.......when I bring her home. Thanks - Mike

Suspect a engine from a 400 or 450 is installed in tractor if it has a dipstick and no petcocks. The parts could be installed on the C-248 engine later though, or on a replacement block.

I have seen aftermarket dipsticks for Farmall M's on e-bay. So, this is one real possibility. And do not underestimate the ingenuity of farmers! Could be anything.

On the "date plate," it could have been lost. Look for casting codes, cast right onto the major iron chunks. Look for something like "xx-xx-x" where the last digit of that code is the date.

1938-H, 1939-I, 1940-J, 1941-K, 1942-L, 1943-M
1944-N, 1945-O, 1946-P, 1947-Q, 1948-R, 1949-S
1950-T, 1951-U, V, W, 1952-X. 1953-Y, 1954-Z
1955-A, 1956-B, 1957-C, 1958-D, 1959-E, 1960-F
1961-G, 1962-H

From that, you should be able to get a better handle on your W-6. I am not sure if the rear-end housings had casting codes. But if they do, you can probably compare those codes to others on other big pieces of your tractor, such as the transmission housing, engine block, etc. If they match, you've probably got factory stock. If they're several letters off, someone probably had to replace the housing for some reason. I know that later in the M production (and I assume the W-6 production, too), IH changed some of the bolt patterns. For example, a super-M hydraulic pump will fit my late 1951-M.

I hope this helps, and please keep us all posted. It's rather exciting to hear of a W-6 going to a good home!

I must be dain bramaged. I never thought of a replacement engine. Good idea.

Hey guys, it could very well be one of the stationary engines, which WERE installed at the factory if they didn't have a normal engine ready. The stationary engines of the letter series all had dipsticks.