fixing burnt tractors

hi just curious if any of you have any experience fixing tractors that have went thru a fire? Im in process of fixing a smta that was in a very hot barn fire and im starting to question if the cast looses its strength. the fire was hot enuf to melt the hydralic pump partly off and warp the frame rails.
 
A friend of mine had a dozer burn, he had the block Xrayed. He said it was just one big honey comb.
 
If your determined enough you can do it but my experience is you will have to fight leak problems for a while and anything inside it is going to need resealed or replaced. I would probably find a new engine if it got that hot. Nothing will have any temper left. The gear case should be thick enough to be ok but you won't really know till you try.
 
(quoted from post at 23:10:19 11/07/14) hi just curious if any of you have any experience fixing tractors that have went thru a fire? Im in process of fixing a smta that was in a very hot barn fire and im starting to question if the cast looses its strength. the fire was hot enuf to melt the hydralic pump partly off and warp the frame rails.
Friend of mine had a JD 420 burn up in a grass fire a few years ago. Two guys bought it and rebuilt it and it's now a show tractor. Not sure what all they ran into in the rebuild, but it sure is nice now. It was outside which might have helped it not get as hot as if it had been inside. Hottest part of the fire was probably from the tires.
 
The cast parts "loosing strength" are the least of your worries!

I can sympathize with you, 'cuz I used to think I had to save 'em all.

In reality, unless you have endless $$$$ and it's a really rare machine, sometimes you just gotta take 'em off of life support.
 
I was very determined when I started this project! I have now learned that I would have be futher ahead buying a good one. I have so far completly dissasembled it and sandblasted everything inside and out, then ressealed the gear case and put the rearend/transmission back together with differnt gears,barings and new gaskets seals and o-rings. then I put a new ta in and went thru a different engine and thats were I am now
 
I would worry about axle housings breaking. Castings might have warped and shifted a bit so they arent as straight and true as they were before the fire.
 
Was there still any water and oil inside the engine and trans/case?

It sounds like you are just re-using the cast iron pieces which I think would be ok as long as they did not get shock cooled. i.e. if they burned and got hot and then cooled off naturally they should be ok but if the fire dept. sprayed water on it while it was hot then I would worry.

Some machine shops clean blocks by baking them hot enough to burn all the oil and sludge off and some do a similar process to stress relieve cast parts for high performance. IIRC the temp for is in the neighborhood of 1000 degrees.

So the real question is how did it cool down? They harden iron by heating it to a certain point and then quenching it. So if anything you may surface hardened castings. Impossible for anyone to say without more info, mainly if it got sprayed with water or not.
 
Anything that was heat treated will more than likely be tempered back to an annealed state. Gears, shafts and high strength bolts will end up being problems in the future.
 
If the tractor was in a building fire. I think it's done. If it was outside in a grass fire and just got the wiring/tires burnted off. It can be saved.

Back when dad repaired tractors. He repaired a few that were in fires. None were in a building fire. They were mostly JD's that caught on fire while refueling. The mag on the lettered series sat right under the fuel tank. Over filling the tank fuel with engine running would splash fuel on the magneto and away they go.

he also had a few of the hundred series Fords. The under hood muffler would burn out and heat the fuel tank/fuel line if the heat shield was not in place.
 
Sounds like you're almost done, why stop now? If housings and such are damaged, you will soon know.
When I was with an equipment dealership we rebuilt a number of logging and chip machines because of fires, to the extent the sheet metal would be warped and tires gone. I don't remember any casting or housings being replaced. Engines maybe, depended on where the hot spot was. The machines went back to work and looked like new. These were very good repair jobs once the dirty work was done.
-Go for it-
Dennis
 
Hey Burnt!

I finished that Farmall 400 with the SM block you sold me. Just thought I'd let you know!
a173769.jpg
 
That tractor looks amazing! I cannot wait untill my 400's look that nice. Im glad that block worked out for you and kept your project going.
 

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