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LenNH
10-31-2007 11:35:02
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Re: f-20 fuel in reply to linemanfarmer, 10-30-2007 15:21:44
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Early literature for the Farmall, 10-20, etc., talks of these as "kerosene" tractors. Most of the early Nebraska tests were done on kerosene. I don't know the history of distillate, but I do know from looking through the Nebraska tests that distillate tended to be used sometime in the 30s.
The drill with either kerosene or distillate is to start on gas, after making SURE there was no kero or distillate in the carb (a drain was provided). When the engine got warmed up, you turned off the gas and turned on the kerosene or distillate. Most of the original manifolds had a way to switch from a "hot" (kerosene/distillate) manifold to a "cold" manifold (gasoline). Sometimes, this involved turning a baffle around, but more often, from what I have seen, it involved moving a lever (F-20, F-12, H, etc.).
Most of the original manifolds burned through after 20 or more years of service, and it appears that most have been replaced with a "gasoline" manifold, often from aftermarket suppliers. I don't believe a tractor with a gasoline manifold would run at all well on kerosene or distillate. All these tractors had some way to keep the engine really hot. In the 20s, this often involved a curtain that could be pulled up in front of the radiator. In the 30s, a number of tractors were given a shutter, adjustable by a crank near the driver. I tried kerosene just ONCE on my father's 10-20, and I vowed never to do it again. When you stop for any length of time, the engine sputters and spits until it gets hot enough to vaporize the fuel again. Another disadvantage of these fuels is that they can become liquid when the cylinders cool, and the liquid runs down the side of the cylinder walls and dilutes the oil. This is why these tractors always had the drain spigots on the side of the crankcase. The IHC instructions for the 10-20 call for draining to the bottom petcock after every 10 hours of work, and refilling to the top petcock.
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