Tractor story

About twenty years ago My brother bought a sad looking 600 Ford on the back line of a construction auction. It had a sweeper on it and appeared that it had not run in a while. We brought it home and cleaned the points and plugs and put gas in it. It would not crank with the starter so we pulled it off and it cranked. It smoked badly and had a great deal of back pressure. We pulled it apart and the cylinder walls and bearings looked good. We are thinking that all it needed was a set of rings and without any marks on the tops of the pistons we made the "assumption" that it was standard bore. When the rings came in I took one out and put it in the bore to check the end gap. Huge gap apparently they had given us the wrong rings so we took them back and parts man said they were right for a standard bore 600. Went back and measured it and found that it was only a few thousandths from being 4 inches instead of 3 7/16 as it should. Went back to parts place and they had nothing listed for that size bore. The parts man looked it up by size and got us a set of rings for a GMC six cyl. I had to file the rings to the get the right end gap and put it together. It ran good and had lots of power. We had almost made the same mistake that the previous mechanic had and installed the wrong rings. It was a good little tractor and we used it at the hunting club and gardening for several years. It only had one headlight and it was affectionately named Popeye.
Ron

Today, I think you would find very few parts people that could cross reference rings to see what else would interchange.

Rick

Never assume anything. Always measure first.

The 172 engine is a 3.90 bore. Could have been replaced at one time. We needed a new engine for a NAA, and the 172 was the same price as a 144. We put the 172 in it. I would bet the engine has been replaced.

The guy's probably an old hot rodder or auto restorer- they have to do that kind of stuff all the time. The Hudson folks even have a substitution list, of various stuff that will work (modern pistons and rings for the various Hudson engines, '57 Chev electric wiper motor will replace the original vacuum type, etc.).

I saw my dad take a piston for a Peugot car, machine it to fit a 40's harley.

Back in the day-we raced open roadsters on dirt tracks. One guy had a car with a Hudson engine in it. He cleaned our clocks every time he raced! Never could beat him. This was around 1948-50! And yes, i am that old!

RBnSCNeat it worked out to not be a major part.

Popeye... I like it.