Re: F-20 distillate or gasoline

Posted by LenNH on November 17, 2007 at 09:58:19 from (75.69.99.42):

In Reply to: F-20 distillate or gasoline posted by Scott Rukke on November 16, 2007 at 12:46:45:

Scott has said this, but I LOVE talking about this stuff, so I'll just add my 2 cents worth (less with inflation). I am not an expert by any means on all the IHC models, but I did "grow up" on a couple of 10-20s, an original Farmall, an F-20, several F-12s, and two Hs (one with a distillate manifold).
Both the F-20 and the H and M had a lever on the manifold. In the "hot" position, it allowed exhaust gases to heat the intake manifold and vaporize the heavy fuels better than if they weren't heated. In the "cold" position, the intake manifold received little (if any) heat from the exhaust, just because gasoline doesn't need much heat to vaporize. Most people got sick of the trouble of using kerosene or distillate (start on gas, turn off gas, turn on distillate, turn off distillate to stop engine, drain oil down ever 10 hours because of condensed heavy fuel making its way past the rings after the engine cooled off, and so on. I tried this on our 10-20 once, and vowed never again).
F-20s had two styles of heat control that I know of. The first type had a rod going from the lever (on the manifold) to a lever attached to some sort of bracket at the rear fuel tank support. The later one had a notched rod, similar to the throttle rod that was used on
F-20s after the changeover to the variable governor. There wouldn't be much need for this mechanism if it was intended only for warmup on gasoline, so it looks more like the manufacturer wanted to provide an option for working either with gasoline or kerosene/distillate. On the H and M, the changeover was not made from the driver's seat; you needed a wrench to loosen a setscrew that held the heat control in the "hot" or "cold" position. This wouldn't have taken very long, but it obviously wasn't meant to be done every morning when you started the tractor. It suggests to me that the manufacturer wanted the tractor to be "convertible" from one fuel to another.
Eventually, farmers got tired of using kerosene or distillate when gasoline got to be pretty cheap, and they left the manifold heat control in the "cold" position. Exhaust gases are not kind to metal, and eventually the levers froze in the cold position. I've seen a number of F-20s on which both the rod and the lever near the operator had been removed--a sure sign that somebody had decided, "No more kerosene for me."
Naturally, the lever on the manifold is frozen fast, maybe never to move again.

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