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As Ross pointed out below, there should be a clear casting date on the bottom of the transmission, and I believe there is one on the bottom of the hydraulic pump, which may be the same one Ross meant. Just crawl under the tractor with a flashlight, some old rags and you should be able to get a date from the cover there. I looked in my own personal "archives" and found this text, which came from a post of Jim (UT) and others: "8N date codes Jim (UT): Whenever I have been examining an 8N for age, etc. I have never failed to find a clear date code on the bottom of the hydraulic pump next to the drain plug....until last Thursday. In a field next to my sister's house there is a non-running 8N parked there. I finally had a chance to talk to the neighbor who owns it and got permission to come over the fence to look at it. It's a side distributor, s/n 8N440xxx (late '51), date code on engine M71 (Dec 7, '51), date code on carb 11 51 (Nov '51), but when I crawled underneath, all I found where the date should be was the numbers "131". Any idea what's up with that? KCM : The last 8N's used a cast iron housing for the pump, rather than the aluminum. I believe the cast iron versions never had a date cast into them. (Jim replies) : Stahlmaster: I'm 80 miles away from the tractor and will be for another week. Can you tell me where all the #'s can be found? I'll check them all next week.
Jim (UT): Engine block: look on the bulge just to the rear of the starter. You should find a letter followed by 2 or 3 digits. The letter is the month (A=Jan, B=Feb, etc). The last digit (probably a 1 in your case) will be the year. Whatever is in between the letter and the last digit is the day. So the tractor I'm looking at has a code of M71. M is the 13th letter of the alphabet so that's a bit of a twist. The letter "I" (9th letter) was not used due to the confusion with the number 1, so J=Sept, K=Oct, L=Nov and M=Dec. Carbureator: on the side of the carb there is a round brass tag. If the tag is still there, you may find a part number stamped there and also a date code using all digits (mm-yy). The 8N I'm looking at has 11 51 stamped on the carb meaning November 1951. Hydraulic Pump: crawl under the tractor with a rag, some spray degreaser and a flashlight. Clean off the area next to the drain plug. Usually I find a clear straightforward date cast there (ie "12-15-51") but on this one I only found the numbers "131" and I'm curious if yours has something similar since the s/n are so close to each other. Rear axle: If date codes are there you will find them on the forward facing surface. I've seen different formats in this area. Sometimes they're the same as the engine block (letter with digits) and other times they're the same as the hydraulic pump (straightforward date "mm-dd-yy"). With some axles there is a logo from the foundry (I assume) that consists of the letter "I" inside an upside down triangle shape. On axles with this logo there is sometimes a code, but I've never seen anything that explains how to decipher it. There may be other date codes cast into other parts of the tractor, but I'm not to clear on any of them other than the ones I've explained above." I hope this will help you. By comparing all the various dates you can obtain from these places, AND using the info from Smith's excellent site, you should be able to pin your tractor's date of manufacture down pretty well.
So if you've got a 2N engine, then do you have a front mount distributor? Carl
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