Hey, the old IHC 4 cylinder gassers were just about the best of their time, maybe all time. Particularly the M series (248/264/281) and the A/B/C series (113/123). I know people that bad mouth the 6 cylinder gassers and generally say gas engines in tractors are a waste of resources, but do give the 4 cylinder IHCs their grudging respect.
Would like to see the bigger gas/diesels. I have, somewhere, a 450 Diesel, needs ALOT of work but does run, sort of. That whole system is neat, to say the least.
Chris B.
I'm certainly not badmouthing any of the IHC fours. I saw/heard a C335 in an I9 years ago. That was a beast. They're all fantastic engines. I have a grandson (or great grandson) of them in one of my Scouts as well. It's a 196 (3.2L for the metric crowd) I4. Has as much torque as a good medium size I-6 and will lug down below 200rpm without complaining. They used the smaller version of this engine (152) in combines and such (as well as in Scouts and the C900 pickup). The 152 is basically half of a 304 V8, while the 196 is half of a 392. They share several parts (including heads, pistons, valve gear, valve covers, etc) with the V8's. When I ran the Scout with most of the exhaust plumbing cut out it sounded like the C248 in the IHC T6 crawler sampled at the beginning of Craig Morgan's "International Harvester". That was his uncle's T6 (gas version of a TD6) by the way. He mentioned it in an interview...
The IHC gas/diesel system was fantastic as well. It's amazing that it worked so well, given how complicated it is.
For the non-IHC nuts here who are actualy reading along with us:
Basically, the IHC gas/diesel system makes the main engine it's own pony motor buy opening up a secondary combustion chamber (thereby lowering compression) and utilizing an ignition and small carb for starting on gasoline. Once it's warmed up, you move a lever to close the valve that leads to that combustion chamber (thereby bringing the CR back up to diesel levels) while bringing up the diesel 'throttle' at the same time. Some early versions actually did this automaticaly after 900rpm (approximately a minute and a half at high idle).
IHC developed this system because 'corporate' insisted that
all their engines be capable of being started by hand (crank) as well as battery power. Cat had patents on diesel starting systems using separate pony motors, so IHC did their own thing. It actually works quite well and preheats the whole engine (and not just the coolant and manifolds like the Cat separate pony system).
Hey Chris,
Does that 450D of yours have a direct start or gas/diesel start engine? I don't know squat about the D281. I know they switched to direct start at some point, but can't remember with what models they made the switch.
My friend with the TD18A also has a TD9 with a stuck engine, a TD14, and a TD6. The TD6 is a nice runner, and I hope to get it some day. He never uses it, as it's too small for him now.
