1st Farmall (A); water in oil; story; tips please

Brought home my very first Farmall experience, a 1945 Industrial A with street sweeper, (see recent post, "1st Farmall.")

Story: this sweeper A worked for our little town until about 5 years ago when it was sold off to local man. He hardly used it and did not regularly cover straight exhaust stack. So 2 years ago it showed up at local shop to have the, "stuck," engine fixed. Today they told me they thought they pulled the head, cleaned everything up and rebuilt the head. Then they had put it outside where it sat for 4 months before owner came by, tried it, found it was stuck again, and towed it home. He died last week and his son gave the tractor to me yesterday because I had showed so much concern about it in the past.

A few minutes ago I drained about 1/2 gal. of antifreeze out of the crankcase, followed by brown/black oil. So much for the easy fix dream. I plan to pull the plugs and squirt a mix of diesel and ATF in each cylinder and let it sit for a few days. Then, perhaps, gently bump the tractor occasionally with it in gear and hope the pistons begin to move. Might also be good idea to pull hood and valve cover and make sure each rocker moves freely, (stuck valve check).

I wish I could get lucky and get her going without pulling the head or rebuilding the whole engine. I'm 67, retired and money doesn't grow on trees.

This is a rather nice A; not beat up; all original that I can see and deserves good treatment and operation. I'd like to sell/trade off the sweeper for an under-belly cultivator or some attachment(s) that could be useful around the place.

I'd appreciate suggestions for dealing with my engine problems. Thanks for listening,
Dennis in E WA state.

It looks like you are on top of things. The brown sludge is water in the oil. Change the oil. Rock the tractor in high gear to get the motor loose. I would get it running first, retorque the head gasket after it ran awhile, then if you still get anti freeze in the oil, then change the head gasket.

Quit wasting your time as you will need to tear the engine apart as there is areason for the anti-freeze the o-rings on the sleeves are bad someplace so replace them all and whatever elxe needs replacing.

The coolant in the oil points to another problem other than rain through the pipe. Must be a crack somewhere, or bad head gasket. Strange that a machine shop would rebuild the head and not even look at the bottom end, at least check the oil for coolant/water. Then set it outside with no rain cap. They should've known better.

That said, I just got my first Farmall a few years ago, and to me the fun part is working on it. You may find the same. 67 is not very old, so quit saying that!

If you plan on working it any at all, you probably need to do as others have said in this, and your next post, and start taking it apart. It's not hard, they were engineered to be easily rebuilt by farmers with mostly basic tools. If you're not going to work it and just put around with it, then you may be ok trying to get it going as is, but that coolant leak, if it continues, and it will, will wear your bearings pretty quick, rings, etc.

If you don't have one, get a manual. Easy to do, they have them here on this site, or Binder Books site). If you have some experience working on motors you can start without one, but you will find having one a great help.

Pull the valve cover, remove rocker arm, then head, see what you've got. Then pull the oil pan and see what the bottom looks like. All that won't take an hour or so, and at least then you'll be able to see if a cylinder o-ring is leaking, or other likely culprits, cracked sleeve, block, freeze plug, etc.

A complete engine rebuild kit is only around $350-$450. Click link below.

I am by far not the most knowledgeable person here, but I do know what it's like to be a rookie tractor owner looking at having to rebuild a motor. Others will gladly lend assistance too.

Start in on her and let us know how you're progressing.
Rebuild Kit.