Gasoline or Kerosine

Drak

Member
Hi guys, I have just bought a 1936 unstyled WC in the USA and I am shipping it to the UK, I notice the tractor does not have the small gas tank, the tractor has obviously been run on Gasoline, here in the UK you need to mortgage your house if you have to run a tractor on gas (petrol), my intention is to fit the small tank for starting and warming the engine then switch to Kerosene (heating oil) is this possible ? or do kerosene tractors and gasoline tractors have different carburetors etc !! I believe they are the same but thought its a good idea to ask the experts as this particular tractor was designed to run on Gasoline only, hence the absence of the small tank .
 
Easily done. You'd need the correct hood with the holes in it for the tank as well as the tank and lines. The hood and tank can be bought as reproductions, the gas line could easily be made with copper line. There was a banjo fitting at the carb for the second fuel line. You may also want the original side discharge exhaust maifold. They had a different outlet casting for kerosene to help keep the carb warm. You can go to www.agcopartsbooks.com and log in as a guest to view the parts manuals. Does the gov tax old tractors using gasoline, or what makes it so cost prohibitive?
AaronSEIA
 
Tanks Aaron,Appreciate your help.
i got a spare tank and guess it can't be that difficult to drill a few holes in the original hood, and hopefully away to go, as long as every thing else is standard and the carb can run both fuels, I not sure what you mean by a banjo ? i am
guessing a two way valve, that I probably will find hard to get.
The gasoline price here is nearly $9 a gallon, there is no extra tax its the price at the pump !! kero /central heating oil is $1.9 a gallon, so hopefully that explains my need to convert !!!!
 
Hi Drak, I run a Farmall H on petrol all day on road runs. Typical 40 mile all day run here in Nottinghamshire uses only 4 gallons of petrol. Were in the UK are you located. MJ
 
Those old dual fuel WC tractors didn't run straight kerosene,it was some type of blend know as Tractor Fuel,even if it runs on Kero a lot will end up in the oil that's not
burned.Plus with tractor fuel you need a tractor fuel manifold so the mixture gets very hot before it goes into the cylinders.The old WC and B manifolds had a removable plate
on them to use on or off depending on the fuel being used.
 
Hi MJ, i live in Pembrokeshire, your probably right, just stick to petrol, I have a few other ACs and run them on Kero but i mix a concoction of kero, petrol and diesel, back in the day they sold what they called T.V.O tractor vaporising oil, but thats long gone !!
 
(quoted from post at 02:47:39 04/07/16) Hi guys, I have just bought a 1936 unstyled WC in the USA and I am shipping it to the UK, I notice the tractor does not have the small gas tank, the tractor has obviously been run on Gasoline, here in the UK you need to mortgage your house if you have to run a tractor on gas (petrol), my intention is to fit the small tank for starting and warming the engine then switch to Kerosene (heating oil) is this possible ? or do kerosene tractors and gasoline tractors have different carburetors etc !! I believe they are the same but thought its a good idea to ask the experts as this particular tractor was designed to run on Gasoline only, hence the absence of the small tank .

I have 1947 WF with the Kero set up. On a forum long ago I argued that the carbs are exactly alike (as to gas only) which externally they are but someone from the UK claimed that one of the jets has a slightly different calibration (no difference to the naked eye). This tractor is over in Sweden (going to work on it there in June) where my Dad ran it in the 50's and 60's. We definitely needed the engine kerosene for good running. The heating kerosene was cheaper but the octane was too low for decent running and as Traditional Farmer said you get oil contamination as unburned fuel travels down the cylinder walls and into the oil. In all likelihood your WF has the manifold with the side plate on it for switching to side exhaust. Connecting the two fuel lines is no mystery you just need a T-fitting to join the two lines. I've never had any Allis that started so easy as this WF but for a good cold start you needed to run it out of kerosene and quickly switch it over to run on gas for a few seconds before finishing the day. In the early WF's and WC's the compression ratio is low enough in the gasoline version for good running on kerosene if you convert.
 
We have 20 plus Allis tractors and we run them on straight KERO no additives or any thing you just have to keep them hot as for the difference in carbs the basic carb is the same but the kero one,s have a different venturi,s and a larger main jet,and as mentioned different manifolds and lower comp pistons,i do know for 1 forsale here in the uk.
 
around here you go broke running kero , its about $1 gal. more then gas , but where getting closer to being the U.K. everyday , so i guess its coming! better stock up on spark plugs now to replace all the fowled ones from burning kero. or buy a plug cleaner like my grandfather had.
 
Wow 20 ACs thats fantastic, where about are you ? I got only 3
I guess from what you are saying that my WC is not capable of running on Kero due to wrong pistons, manifold and carb ? the manifold i have does not have a vertical exhaust, just a pipe coming out at about 45 degrees, their is no plate !!
So all this said I guess just run it on petrol, if just the carb will do the trick then yes i would be interested in the carb
By the way for your information TVO is still available, I found one company selling it in the UK, go on ebay and type "tractor vaporising oil" 38 quid for 25 ltr or 230 for 205 ltr
 
Kero and heating oil is one of the same in the UK, can't see it being any different in the US
During the war they refined what they called TVO (tractor vaporising oil) for the agriculture industry due to petrol being scarce rationed and expensive.
Their is a slight difference between TVO and Kero in regards to flash point.
 
(quoted from post at 05:33:45 04/08/16) Wow 20 ACs thats fantastic, where about are you ? I got only 3
I guess from what you are saying that my WC is not capable of running on Kero due to wrong pistons, manifold and carb ? the manifold i have does not have a vertical exhaust, just a pipe coming out at about 45 degrees, their is no plate !!
So all this said I guess just run it on petrol, if just the carb will do the trick then yes i would be interested in the carb
By the way for your information TVO is still available, I found one company selling it in the UK, go on ebay and type "tractor vaporising oil" 38 quid for 25 ltr or 230 for 205 ltr

The way you describe your exhaust you're ready to go for kerosene there, the side plate mentioned only covered up the access to the 45 degree outlet you already have in place. I suggest you test the compression and if you don't exceed 80 to 85 lbs you're good to go. Even the old 201 engines for gasoline I've never had a reading over that (often between 60 and 70 lbs). Wether you do the conversion or not depends on how much work your tractor will do for cost saving purpose. Even though these tractors run perfectly well on the right grade of kerosene you do have a little more power and convenience staying with gasoline.
The North American heating fuel for the most part is the same as diesel fuel. There is also stove oil but I don't know what percentage of use that has currently.
 
Sounds great, i will give it a go, fingers crossed by the sounds of things it might just work
Thanks everone for all your thoughts and guidence its been very interesting
 
We are Nr stonehenge if your W C has the side exit exhaust with the stubby pipe it should have a G or a K stamped on it that part is held on with four nuts and is interchangeable as for the T V O why use it as i said we use straight kero with no problems and is cheaper than T V O.
 
Just because you have a manifold with a side plate does not mean you have the 'hot' manifold. The distillate manifold was 'inverted' compared to the gasoline manifold. Carb was still at the bottom, but runners were upside down. That way the exhaust stream surrounded the intake part.
 
I don't know much about specifics, but I have heard that the kerosene/distillate tractors had adjustable shutters ahead of the radiator to make it run hotter. I have never seen one with shutters, but have seen the linkage crank on a tractor or two. They removed the shutters when they started burning gasoline. It might also have been that shutters were necessary on older models without a coolant thermostat. If I am wrong please correct me. Just something else to consider. Anybody with more information chime in.
 
(quoted from post at 15:48:45 04/20/16) I don't know much about specifics, but I have heard that the kerosene/distillate tractors had adjustable shutters ahead of the radiator to make it run hotter. I have never seen one with shutters, but have seen the linkage crank on a tractor or two. They removed the shutters when they started burning gasoline. It might also have been that shutters were necessary on older models without a coolant thermostat. If I am wrong please correct me. Just something else to consider. Anybody with more information chime in.
I don't know which year they quit the shutters but they were put on some gas only models also. I have a gas only model 1949 WF with shutters from the factory and a 1951 WF gas only model with no shutters. I think someone on the forum a while back mentioned that possibly tractors being shipped to cold climates got equipped with shutters, that could well be true.
 
I have two ACs the C been built in the UK and the B an American built and sent over during the war effort, both are equipped for Gas and Kero together with the rad blinds.
This has been an education to me as now i understand why my C does not run well on Kero, I purchased a manifold from the US and it does not have the header for keeping the inlet HOT.
I am surprised you guys only run on gas !!
 

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