Farmall M Exhaust/Intake Manifold

SadFarmall · Jan 19, 2011

I have a 1939 Farmall M. The manifold has just about fallen to pieces. I bought a replacement, but it is different. It has no heat adjustment for running on Kerosene. Can I still run the tractor on kerosene with the new manifold?
Henry

gene bender · Jan 19, 2011

NO if you want to use the kerosene fuel you will need to get the distillate manifold keep looking as they do show up on e-bay and other places.

John M · Jan 19, 2011

Why would you want to run it kerosene anyway? Around here its nearly twice the price of gas, well maybe not twice, but its at least a buck more.

sflem849 · Jan 19, 2011

(quoted from post at 04:34:09 01/19/11) Why would you want to run it kerosene anyway? Around here its nearly twice the price of gas, well maybe not twice, but its at least a buck more.

Two bucks more here. It also isn't as efficient.

rustred · Jan 19, 2011

no you cant. those manifolds are obsolete , and why would you want to be washing the oil from the cyls. as this is what happens when its not working hard. the unburnt kerosene gets past the rings and goes into the oil pan thinning the oil. on many of these old tractors you had to drain the oilpan level daily.just use the new manifold and your farther ahead.

NDS · Jan 19, 2011

The only advantage to the kerosene/distillate burners were fuel cost and that advantage is long gone. Back in fortys you could buy kerosene for 5 cents gallon now it is more like $4.00 gallon. By mid fiftys everyone I knew that had the kerosene/distillate tractors were burning gasoline or converting to LP.

Michael Soldan · Jan 19, 2011

Well I'm going to start a brawl here. Everyone has said no and although I would agree with the advice,I have my doubts as to why you couldn't.
The kerosene burning depended on an engine running in a much higher heat range. The distillate manifold helped create that range..BUT...that was not all.
The distillate tractor had shutters that you closed to get the engine up to operating temps for kerosene and the kerosene tractors had a heat shield that fit over the entire manifold to hold the heat in.
If you closed your shutters and had the heat shield in place the tractor would run on kerosene and run fairly efficiently once it attained the right temperature. The manifold itself is only a third of the equation.
Yes why would you want to burn kerosene in todays world..but I think you could. I have two tractors that will run on kerosene, an H and an M, I have the proper manifolds and shields and they are shuttered. Once the heat guage goes up to the high end it doesn't matter if its the manifold,the shutters, or the heat shield thats responsible,it will run on kero.

sflem849 · Jan 19, 2011

(quoted from post at 09:04:17 01/19/11) Well I'm going to start a brawl here. Everyone has said no and although I would agree with the advice,I have my doubts as to why you couldn't.
The kerosene burning depended on an engine running in a much higher heat range. The distillate manifold helped create that range..BUT...that was not all.
The distillate tractor had shutters that you closed to get the engine up to operating temps for kerosene and the kerosene tractors had a heat shield that fit over the entire manifold to hold the heat in.
If you closed your shutters and had the heat shield in place the tractor would run on kerosene and run fairly efficiently once it attained the right temperature. The manifold itself is only a third of the equation.
Yes why would you want to burn kerosene in todays world..but I think you could. I have two tractors that will run on kerosene, an H and an M, I have the proper manifolds and shields and they are shuttered. Once the heat guage goes up to the high end it doesn't matter if its the manifold,the shutters, or the heat shield thats responsible,it will run on kero.

No fights here. It can and it would, but it still wouldn't be worth it. With that, I would always love to find a kero/dist manifold for my H. I would probably never run kero in it anyhow. When I said it wasn't efficient I mean dollars/HP wise.

SadFarmall · Jan 20, 2011

Well, it probably isn't worth it, but I like this tractor. My Farmall is a tractor in constant farm use. We have operated it on the farm since 1940 and (it being Summer here in the Southern Hemisphere) it has been out cutting grass. It is still used to plough with an IH GL-70 Disc Plough (5 Discs). It bales hay with a Gehl round baler behind it and generally works hard. It is fitted with an IH A-84-HB Angling and Tilting Blade for pushing dirt around. Even the Lucas 6V (Yes Lucas in Australia) starting and lighting system works. As it has been with us so long, I would like to keep it as it was. Also, the new manifold does not accommodate the outer heat shield, which annoys me. I'll look on ebay.
Henry

SadFarmall · Jan 20, 2011

OK, as insane as this may sound… I have a solution. Local foundry in Castlemaine will cast a new manifold and pipe as per specifications. Is this plan too pig headed?
Henry

Farmall M Exhaust/Intake Manifold

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gene bender

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John M

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sflem849

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rustred

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NDS

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Michael Soldan

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sflem849

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SadFarmall

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