Increasing Horsepower

I'm looking for someone out there that knows what they are talking about. I have a Farmall 300 and would like to add 10-15 hp up from what it is stock. I am having a hard time finding many parts or people that sell them. I'd appreciate your recommendations on where to find parts and what parts/upgrades I can make. I have very little knowledge as to what is out there for 300 upgrades, so your ideas are much appreciated. I'd also like to know if the head on a 350 is the same as a 300? Thanks.

Put it on a Dyno First!!! Then adjust Valves,Points,Dis Timing on the Dyno and Finaly the Carb! You will be Suprised what HP is still hidden in the old tractor!

This make it as you want. Put in thin sleeves making it 350s displacement. Put high altitude (8000 ft) high dome pistons in it.
Put the intake and heads and exhaust from a 350.
Put on an M carb. Put an electronic ignition in the distributor. Put the cam from a 350, or a competition ground cam from puller suppliers.
Shave .080" off of the head. Use high ratio rockers (puller suppliers) and now you must use premium fuel.
Advance the spark until it just barely starts spark knock then back off till it stops.

These could net you 20HP, but none are cost free. Some can be seen, all take money, some reduce reliability. Have fun, parts can be obtained from many places. Do not port and polish, do not run w/o an air cleaner. JimN

Yeah, Do as Cliff suggests, put it on a dyno to see what HP you have right now. Then take extreme care to tune the engine per spec, throw back on a dyno and see what have afterwards.

What ya did not like what i told ya ??? and one thing about it i do know what i am talking about . Ya want 10-15 pony power more then fallow my advice as there is no easy cheap way around this horse power will cost ya some buck .

You will probably come out much cheaper to sell your 300 and buy a 400.
mike

You wanted someone who knows what there talking about. At this point in my life I know just enough to know there's a lot I don't know, so I will just answer the part about heads and a little more. If comparing original 300 and 350 heads that were for same fuel type, there the same. Differences I know in original C169 and C175 engines as they progressed.C-169 used 3-9/16 bore. Early in production C169 had a dipstick added and petcocks in oil pan droped unless distillite or kerosene. C169 changed from a R1 carb. to R2, R2 continued on 350. Camshaft gear was changed from DA to DB. Connecting rods and pistons were changed to use a smaller piston pin. C-175 engines used 3-5/8 bore, by now most C169 have been changed to a C175. The pistons and sleeves will fit right in with correct piston pin size or adapter bushings in rod. Early in 350 production the intake exhaust manifold was changed a little from 300 type on gas tractors. During 350 production the camshaft was changed to use left hand threads and nut to hold cam gear on. Rest of cam stayed the same as 300 and early 350. There was other small changes that don't amount to much between the engines and as production progressed.

I have a 350 at 175 ci, making 50 hp on 87 octane pump gas. No LP head. I also have a 300 engine making 115+hp on "pump gas", and every part number is IH.

Everything mentioned will be a nice upgrade for what your doing. It should get ya up a good 10 hp once the tuning is done. If its still gotthe HYD pump, watch the cam gear and nut! When ya pep up one of these, the throttle response is alot quicker, more aggressive, so it can put more stress on weaker links by the sudden jolts from sudden, and faster rpm increases. Eliminating the pump is good for 5 hp easy! But it takes the usability factor down to a limited basis if hyd is required to work on the farm.

350 is a handy tractor, I use this one quite a bit, and got it in the shop to fix some hyd leaks and put on new rear rims and tires. I got a 300 Im gonna restore soon to take to a show or two. ChadS

May I ask why I shouldn't port and polish? I've talked to others that have said it should be done.

Chad, What did you do to your 350 to make 50 hp?

I did some extra work to the rod and pistons before instalation. The gains were more cyl pressure, and a strong low end torque curve that wont quit!

The ol 350 was found in a northern Indiana tractor salvage yard. It was lightly stuck, but ran last year. It was pretty tired, price wasnt out in left field, so it found its way here. Dad actually went up to buy a SM with a wide front, but came home with the 350 instead.

It needs the plastic gear in the distributor for the tach to work, that reads 1575 hours, so its either flipped over, or its low hours. TA works, but I think its noisy, it sounds like a dry bearing rumble. Has fast hitch, power steering. Just a nice worker! Im working on finding a fast hitch plow for it, I have a fast hitch IH sickle mower, I think its a 7ft.

Once we got the engine running, we had to go up town and work the tractor pulling track, we took the 350 and 14 or a 16 ft Kewannee disk. I was following Dad with thhe 856 with the water trailer, the intention was to use the 856 on the disk, but somehow we used the 350 instead,,,

Once we got the surface scratched up, the disk was able to go pretty deep in the wet heavy clay, and the 350 seemed to have no trouble pulling the disk in 3rd high and 4th low with ease! Dad was pretty impressed with it, I thought it ran real good! Later on I brought my Super H up to the track, and decided to hook on to the disk and see if the SH would pull it as easy as the 350 did. I had to put some weight on the SH to pull it, but the SH had all it wanted in 2nd gear, and its 43 on the dyno for sure. Both had 15.5X38 tires, the SH was around 5000# and the 350 was at 5800#, but a big difference none the less. The tractor pull was the next day, so I entered the 350 in the local class, I got 3rd with it, spun out, in first high, never even thought of shifting the TA it had good power! Took the 350 home after the pull was done, put it on the dyno, the pto isnt the best of condition, but seen 48 out of it before it started slipping, It was around 580 on the pto rpm when it slipped. I got the parts to rebuild the PTO, but have not made it that far yet. I do have a "3-16" pull type IH plow Id like to put back together. We had two of them, we cut one down to a 2 bottom for the Super H, and used the 3 for parts for the 2. Mainly it was the tail wheel that needed fixed, but still got everything to one day rebuild it. I know where there is a 4-16 pull type IH that we always borrowed from the neighbor that we pulled behind the JD 730, and I was thinking Dad"s ol Super M would be a good canidate to pull that one if I can aquire it.

I hadnt got the chance till recently to read the Red Power article on the huge plow day they had down in central Indiana last year, and ever since then, Ive been finding all the old tillage equipment dad had in the woods, found 2 #46 IH balers, new idea turd hearse, a pair of 7 ft IH sickle mowers, Found an old IH wagon gear, and still got to go over to the tractor row and see just exactly is out there and when spring hits, I will be taking a few of the "Pullers" off the track and put em back to work once they pass inspection. No sence in not knowing if something is broke, Id rather know its good to go. Pulling has been alot of fun, but they belong in the fields working, and I have enough of em to have a toy or two, and the rest be in working clothes.

Sorry for the longer post thats kinda irrelavant (spelling) But, might be interesting reading and good conversation,,,,, Soon, will go back to working the land we live on, memories of my Dad and I working late nights plowing the fields, me on my Super H and dad on his old JD 730, I dont know,, but feel I need to do something more these days, and that plow day article got me fired up. Have a good day. ChadS

There is strong valid research indicating that a rough (as cast) surface flows substantially more than smooth ports. The idea is that micro turbulance at the tube wall produces less restriction than smooth laminar flow. Modifying the shape and smoothing the port has no effect at all unless the engine is approaching its volumetric flow maximum. Wjth the port sizes on a tractor engine that would be in the 3500 to 4500 RPM range (where an H would be swapping pistons in the holes)unless way modified. JimN