401 tractor engine

New to this site, I probably should have posted this here instead of on the Restoration forum.

I have a Ford 401 tractor engine and want to rebuild it as a 401 turbo. What are the differences I need to take into account? I'm assuming I would use a Ford 9000 rebuild kit, but are there differences in other parts, i.e., oil pump, crank, etc?

I think the Turbo's have an extra fan blade to keep it cool, Some have an intercooler. Not sure on the internals though. Ask Bern.

Who is Bern and how do I contact him?

Normally a turbo engine has piston oil squirters built in to the bottom of the block to spray cooling oil on the piston undersides.

And special high chrome rings to withstand the higher heat,

and lower compression ratio, so you dont blow the head off... with or with out special pistons and or head.

And oversized oil cooler....


And may or maynot have an inter cooler to cool the compressed air down going into the engine...

Other than that, nothing different.

Is it out of a 9000? The 401 was used for about 20 + years in a lot of applications. There are differences, oil pump drive is one. NA and turbo are different. I think you need to figure out what year your motor is, and what it came out of. Bern is the expert on 401's.

I wouldn't call myself an expert, but I've worked on my share of them. Having said that, here's what I know for sure:

Pistons and rods are the primary differences between a turboed and non-turboed engine (e.g. 9000 vs 8000). The turboed piston has a shorter pin height for a lower compression ratio. The rods are cast and center drilled for pressure lubing of the pin, as well as piston cooling. The rod bearings are different as well to allow for the oil to get into the rod.

I'm all but certain that the cranks are the same. Piston rings are keystone on the turboed engines.

Because of the increased oil system demand (rods plus turbo), the oil pump is larger. The engine will also use an oil cooler, whereas the original 8000 likely did not.

Valve angles are different between the two, but I wouldn't fret about that. Turboed engines used no seals on the intake valves.

Of course, the fuel pump is set for a higher delivery on the turboed engine, and I'm almost certain the injectors have larger holes as well.

401s did not become intercooled until the TW30 came out in 1979. Unless you plan to make more than stock HP, I would not worry about an intercooler.

That's about it as far as I can recall. It's been a few years since I've worked on one, so I'm going off of memory here.

What 401???? I'm not trying to be smart when I ask that either. The original 401 was released in '68 as a N/A engine in the 8000 and a turbo engine in the 9000. The basic differences are pressurized lubrication to the wrist pins and bottom cooling for the piston head, 3 angle valve job with I believe harder or improved quality valves, different pistons with a lower compression ratio, about 10 deg less fuel advance as well as a hardened/nitride crank to withstand the extra stress.
Generational changes in the tractor engines included moving from a central driven oil pump (cam gear) to a front gear train driven pump I think in 1978-80 time period (I forget the exact date). In addition to that generational change there was the addition of external block webbing in 1983.
Then we have the truck engines..... these were Brazilian assembled 401 (6.6L and 7.8L) engines that were considerably modified versions of the Basildon tractor engine but used in light/medium trucks. The had different bolt arrangements on the crank, different heads and most noticeably... the change to Bosch fuel systems from the tractor's C.A.V. Minimec/Simms pumps.
After all of these changes.... then you had the Genesis redevelopment in 1991-92 which saw the 401 revamped to Genesis specs with shorter water jacket, change to accessory drives, oil filter arrangement, etc. Those were in active assembly until late 1997 IIRC... So you have a span of nearly 30 years and 3-4 major revisions of the tractor engine plus a truck engine that is not entirely compatible to the cause.
For more technical info, Bern would be the guy to ask... and he frequents this forum. If he doesn't respond to this just give a shout in a new thread with his name in the subject.

Rod

It's in an 8000 I purchased and it now has an aftermarket turbo on it. It has water in the oil, most likely from not changing the coolant. I want to rebuild it to accommodate the turbo, if that is possible.

If I may, the 8000 does have an oil cooler. I have a '68 & a '72. Both have hard lines near the front of the block that run forward to it where it sits in front of the radiator. I learned this when I was a kid, disking with our old 8000 and didn't turn at the end of the field soon enough, and a branch on a fallen tree hit the line on the left side and broke it off. Oil shot everywhere and I thought I destroyed the tractor. Grandad got a good laugh at my distress as it turned out to be an easy fix.

You most certainly can make it into a turbo engine. It all depends on how much money you want to spend. Simply bolting on a turbo and cranking up the fuel likely won't make for a long-term proposition.

Having said that, M&W company made a turbo kit for the 5000 many years ago. These kits were largely successful because the HP increase was very mild. This allowed them to get away with using stock components on the inside. Any 5000s turned up to 7600 power levels will not last, however.