TD-6 motor change to make T-6
Being the King of Obsolete, i have many obsolete cats that i make a living with. which makes for getting parts harder and harder each year. my four International Td-6 cats which are a popular and dependable cat which is a gas start diesel motor. but the only problem is the diesel motor does not like going for a swim when the cat falls through the ice. the cold water cracks the cylinder head right now and cost a lot of money to repair. my friends on the internet were telling me to buy gas farm tractor motors because they are the same thing and cheap because they are a dime a dozen in the USA. so listening to my internet friends, i went a head and bought 2 gas motors in the USA and had them shipped to Winnipeg Manitoba. next i had to buy a 53 foot van trailer that was in road worthy condition to make the 1200km trip to the Kingdom. of course i get a friend to deliver the van trailer to the end of the world because the Screaming Ford would cost too much in fuel. i also bought a black trailer to match the Screaming Ford.
when you buy a 53 foot you have fill it up with more and more goodies because everything is cheaper in the south. of course i had to empty 1/2 the trailer to see for the first time my gas farm tractor motors.
the fellow in the USA sent everything with the motors including the dirt which i liked because i knew what i had purchased. a little pressure washing to clean up the gas farm tractor motors didnot take long. the yellow muskeg buggie in the back ground was in the trailer from the south. more on that by click here Bombardier Muskeg Buggy.
next i lined up the 2 cats which will recieve the gas farm tractor motors. on the left is Lavern and on the right is the Curse of Reverse.
the first thing i noticed is there was no starter hole in the gas farm tractor motor bell housing plate because the starter mounts in the frame of the tractor i guess.
once i start comparing the bell housing plates that is when i decided "thought" was going to be required for this to work. my internet friends told me that these gas farm tractors motors fit the cats but did not mention you have the mounting plates which i don't.
at this stage of the game and it being the long weekend i could not wait to buy the correct plates on ebay or have a machine shop whip me up a couple. it was decided after several beverages that we will make it work. there are only 2 bolt holes that are the same on the gas and diesel motor plates. everything to make it work is based on these bolt holes.
the trick in welding the plate pieces together is to get the plate to warp in the right direction so when the motor bolts up the warp is going with the bolting compression of the bolts tighten up the motor to the bell housing. not sure if this makes sense but try it and see how it works out, lol.
with the plates welded up i used another plate as a template to get the starter hole correct. lots of paint markers and test fits of the starter to get a prefect hole. also all holes were drilled in a smaller size because drill bits don't drill round holes. then a die grinder was used to get the holes perfect as per the template.
it took several test fits of the plates on the bellhousing where they will be bolted up too.
once complete, the bell housing plates were bolted on the gas farm tractor motors and the famous black paint splashed every where. i also marked the rear main seal showing that is was changed in 2018 too.
now with the gas farm tractor motors bolted to the cat bell housings other minor details appeared on the gas motor change over.
the gas farm tractor motors use the bolts on the side of the engine block to support the front of the engine. the cat diesel engine used a front cross member to support the weight and let the frame flex on the cat. the gas farm tractor motor has the front cover not machined for the front cross member to slide on.
just a little minor detail that my friends at the machine shop will handle in getting the front cover of the motor to look like the diesel one.
to get the cats back together plus the long weekend was coming to an end, i just set the front cross member in place to hold the front of the motor. also in this picture you can see that the gas farm tractor motors are 2 inches shorter then the diesel motor. just another minor detail with needing a longer bottom rad hose pipe and longer shaft for the hydraulic pump.
also you end up with needing a new hole for the exhaust pipe and then you have to weld the other holes closed.
more to come on this project as i find more hidden surprises.