On Tue, 8 Apr 2008 17:58:56 -0700 (PDT), Tim
wrote:

BTW, further icing on the cake. This same engine series is used in
lots of farm machinery

Speaking of interesting farm machinery, Harold Foskett here in town
just picked up a couple of really interesting tractors yesterday.

One was a pre-50s 60 hp Belarus - yep, post WWII Russian tractor. No
clue as to hours, but it's a lot. He's having a crank forged and
doing a complete rebuild on the engine. He's already contracted out
the sheet metal which is a little funky. Funny thing is that the
engine appears to be part British as some of the parts are stamped in
English rather than Cyrillic. The block seems ok, he's going to
sleeve the cylinders and probably oversize them to standard size
pistons.

The second one was one I found for him - an IH Farmall F-12 with a
model-T engine in it as a retrofit. Little beastie runs great - I was
a little surprised at that when he showed me. When I found it, I
tried to start it with the crank, but couldn't get it to turn over
quickly enough. I tried towing it - nada. He picked it up, one spin
and bam - running.

~~ mutter ~~

If I get a chance, I'll post pictures of his collection of IH tractors
and trucks - it's pretty amazing.