Farmall H questions

I just bought a Farmall H and it has a smaller tank in front of the gas tank. The filler cap is just in front of the regular gas cap. I was told it might have been a diesel. Is this true did they make such an animal? If not what would it be for? The line that goes from it is disconnected but is in the same area as the fuel sediment bowl. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks you.

The little tank is for gasoline. The large tank was then used for Kerosene or Distillate.

Several of the earlier models had the option of a lower grade of fuel. Start with gas and switch to distillate when engine got hot. Some of the h"s and m"s had it and the F series also had it available.
The Md was probably the most popular diesel model that would start using gas and sfter the engine was warm it could be switched to diesel mode.

So they did make a diesel/kerosene H's?

No kidding?!?! Cool, I think the fuel switch over device is now missing. How could I find the stuff to make it original? I would really like it to be that way. Thanks you so much for the answers.

No H Farmall was ever a diesel.
A diesel is a compression ignition engine with between 16 and 18:1 compression ratio. Farmall has made Diesel powered tractors and crawlers for years before the 2nd WW. Those True Diesels were Started on gasoline and switched to Diesel. They are equipped with a compression relief and sparkplugs to allow real gasoline operation to warm the cylinders, and spin the engine. (never designed to be used in the Gasoline mode (Though I Have moved Mine around in Gasoline mode in low gear)
Your H was designed to operate on Distillate fuel Which was a near waste product from producing gasoline and higher viscosity lubricating oils. This ""tractor fuel"" was cheap and available for somewhere near 1/2 the price of gasoline. It had terrible Octane rating, and required low compression to avoid knock. It also smoked like a fiend,and smelled bad. It worked and was cheap. The total power was about 80% or less compared to a higher compression gasoline only tractor.
There were also Kerosine burning Farmalls which were also similar but needed additional changes to use that fuel (which is far more like the #1 and #2 fuel oil we call Diesel. In both configurations the intake system had two tanks to allow starting on Gasoline and getting the tractor up to hot operation (not overheated) this allowed the fuel to vaporize in the intake manifold and thus burn in the combustion chamber when the spark plug ignited it.
Heat control was mandatory with radiator shutters in front of the radiator to assist and control engine heat, and exhaust flow diverters in the manifold to concentrate heat on the intake to assure vaporization.
Because the fuel is no longer available, and because they were a pain to start and run, almost all tractors so equipped were setrofitted with higher compression pistons, and the heat controls were removed. Those remaining with fully operational distillate equipment are usually show queens.
You sure can put yours into that category, but unless you intend to deal with the limitations I would avoid it. New distillate manifolds and radiator shutters are not even a little common. If your starting tank is not rusted through (miricle) it is worth a little change. Were it mine, and I intended to use it, I would put a gasoline only head from a 350 Farmall, and a big bore kit for added displacement, and run it on gasoline. Jim

There is no "device" to switch over, you opened the valve on the main tank, shut off the valve on the small tank. Before shutting down, you did the reverse to make it easier to start back up. This did require a dual inlet sediment bowl assembly, and the earlier ones had the sediment bowl assembly on the small starting tank. There were no diesel Hs, but I have heard of people trying to convert one with limited success. The first diesel in the H range would have been the 350, with a Continental engine.

I was at an auction one time and saw a guy buy an H for parts just to get that little tank.

Seems like I remember my dad referring to "distalate" or "power fuel" Like others said, start on gas from the little tank, then switch over.

I need to the owners manual out for the H they bought new on April 25, 1944. I remember seeing a section on distilate in there.

There is also an insert in the manual for care of "wartime" tires. Distilate came about due to World War II and rationing and shortage of gasoline.

Gene

There were radiator shutters that you closed to make the engine run hotter to burn other fuel.

Right.

One of my H's still has the hole for the small tank in the hood.

It's all been switched to gasoline, but the hole for the small "starting" tank is still there. (the tank isn't).

Two of the three Hs we had while I was growing up had the small tank. The other one came as a gasoline tractor and never had the tank. We always filled both tanks with gasoline but left the small one turned off to serve as a reserve tank. It saved quite a few few trips walking back to the farm after running out of fuel on the main tank.

I filled my little tank up with diesel today just to keep,it from rusting away. It's in really good shape. The engine is stuck, the person I bought it from had the tractor redone then let it sit outside with no weather cap on it and filled it with water and it sat that way all winter. I'm not sure how bad it's going to be but I plan on making it my summer project.

Thank you all so much for the answers. I'm no stranger to these old pieces of iron, we have had a H and a Super M. Just never saw one like this and now I know, so once again, Thank You.

If there is still any water in the tank it will still be able to rust since the water will be at the bottom under the diesel fuel. Adding some alcohol and mixing will help because the water will mix with the alcohol.

Thanks, I don't think there was any water in it. The tank has had a cap on it but yes I'll do the alcohol thing, I've never thought of that.