Dire need of assistance

We have a 1948 John Deere M. I had noticed that for some time the engine has been consuming coolant, but not enough to be alarming. However today I have discovered that when you put coolant into the radiator, it is literally pouring straight into the crank case. Once you pull the dipstick, there's a chocolate colored fluid pouring right back out. I am not even kidding. The question I have is, is this something that is repairable? Or should I consider taking it to the junk yard before I put more money into it than I would get from the junk yard.

This tractor has a lot of sentimental value to me, as it was purchased by my grandfather and restored by him, my father and I. I really don't want to have to get rid of it, but at the same time, I know that if needed I need to cut my losses and do what needs to be done.

Fix it. It could be as simple as a head gasket.

I would fix it If it has a modicum of sentimental value, you would hate yourself for
not doing so. Even a motor job should not be so bad, if you can do it yourself If it has sleeves
in the motor, could be a bad O ring where it seals in the bottom, or bad gaskets elsewhere,
like the head. When you have it apart you would better be able to judge. Might even be simple

I'm not a JD mechanic for the most part, usually IH stuff, but I've done a fair amount of work on 2 Jul JD's, and of the 4 or 5 M and 40 tractors I've worked on, I've had to replace the head itself due to cracks in the runners in the head, I can't remember if it was the intake or exhaust runner. These weren't my tractors, so I don't know the backstory, I just know they were filling the crankcase with coolant just like yours. I'm not saying it isn't a headgasket, just informing you on my experiences with the ones I worked on. On the ones I did, I pulled the spark plugs and looked in the cylinder, I could see the antifreeze hanging off the valve in whichever runner was cracked. To be sure on each of the tractors, I took the manifold off, and rigged up a coolant pressure tester to the radiator. I didn't pump it up much, maybe 5 pounds, but it was enough to see the coolant coming right through a crack between the coolant jacket and the runner in the head. I'm not sure anymore, but 10 or 15 years ago, it was easy to get a NEW head for an M or 40 tractor, and they weren't terribly expensive. You'll want to get it taken care of before it wipes out the bearings in the bottom end. Good luck on it, you'll be able to get any help you need on this site, a lot of knowledge here.

I?d personally fix it if it were my Grandpas tractor. If you choose not to repair it, I?d use it for yard art just because it was Grandpa?s tractor. You can always get another work tractor.

ditto!If indeed it turns out to be unrepairable(it wont be),set it out for 'yard art'. You will think(and smile) about grandpa everytime you look at it.Just don't scrap it!

Keep it even if you don't repair it now, Lateron you just might want to do it. I would pull head and check for blown head gasket and if not check head for crack and go from their, I would guess gasket and don'think that tractor has sleeves.

I would try to fix it, don?t give up just yet. Pull the head and check for a crack. Check piston bores.You may want to consider sending to a machine shop to be checked for warping and magnaflux for cracks. Get a new head gasket, clean block and head surfaces to perfectly clean , install head and torque to spec. If you find any broken head bolt/ stud when removing head that?s probably the problem. If you feel lucky you could try tightening the head bolts first with a torque wrench . If ihead was off before maybe it wasn?t tightened correctly. Change the oil before you run it. Any chance something froze over the winter and caused a crack?

Pull the plugs and turn it over by hand one or two rotations, no more. if coolant is pushing out the plug hole, you know for sure you need to pull the head as described below. Jim

You kinda need to make a decision now.

If it sits with water in it it will be stuck and have to come apart further if you later decide to get it running.

Get it running now you can work the moisture out of it by running it at operating temperature.

At the very worst you can just swap in another motor,I see tractors with those motors go pretty cheap sometimes that are beat up but run good.

At least get the water out and check for a bad head gasket. You can't get anything for it at a salvage yard so just preserve it until you decide it is time.

Fix it.....they are easy to work on.

Thanks everyone for the responses. Seeing as there is nothing but time on our hands with the pandemic, I will be sure to get to work on it.

I had the same problem on a B years back. It was the tubes in the head that the pushrods pass-thru had rusted out. Easy fix popping new ones in