soupin up the Super M

Hi,
i have a 53 Farmall Super M but i would like to build it up but i am not sheer were to start. I want to pull with it but i dont think it has the balls i need. if you could help me out that would be great!

You could do like this guy. 427 Chevy.

yes that is true, but i would like to beef up the motor thats in it.

Contact Lemmons Tractor Service Rushville Indiana. Your only limitation will be is how thick your billfold is.
Tell them what weight class you wish to pull & how many horses you want, they will take it from there.

For starters get the weight down to where you can enter the 4,000 lb. class. I was at a three day pull this weekend where there were a bunch of Ms in 4,000 class. My buddie's 14 year old son won KOH at 4250 on another friend's M.

well, im 16 so thanks for the tip. id like to grind the head down and but a bear carb on it. at least thats what id like to do anyway.

well, im 16 so thanks for the tip. id like to grind the head down and but a bear carb on it. at least thats what id like to do anyway.

(quoted from post at 18:19:11 09/27/15) well, im 16 so thanks for the tip. id like to grind the head down and but a bear carb on it. at least thats what id like to do anyway.

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A bigger carburetor won't make any difference unless you first increase the cubic inch displacement of the engine. If your pockets are deep enough, you can build the engine to produce over 90 horsepower, but then you will be competing against pullers that have even deeper pockets.

At this point, just bring the tractor as it is to the next pull and have fun. Get acquainted with the other pullers. Most of those guys are more than willing to help a guy do the best he can with what he has.

(quoted from post at 18:20:16 09/27/15) well, im 16 so thanks for the tip. id like to grind the head down and but a bear carb on it. at least thats what id like to do anyway.

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The common trap with carbureted engines is the bigger carb thing. An engine takes in only a certain amount of air and can expel only a certain amount of gasses. That's why porting and polishing heads to improve flow, bigger valves to let more in or out and radical cams get used a lot. Another add on to help is the turbo. All expensive but mandatory to get the full benefits of a larger carb. Most often the manufacturers matched carbs up pretty good to an engine. Sure it could be tweaked a little but not much. So the other option is to increase compression. The engine may have to be fed a high octane diet, maybe even aviation gas to prevent ignition knock. Combining increased flow and compression both makes the most HP.

So if you are looking for a cheap way to increase HP on an old gas engine like that it's isn't going to be cheap. Add in the factor that most performance enhancing parts are far cheaper for common applications, not for farm tractors.

So now is the time to do some research. One poster gave you a place to check. See what they say is possible. Then see how much you have to spend. If you are like most 16 year olds it may be out of reach. If you are lucky and have play money more power to you (pun intended). Money is going to be the biggest limiting factor. But don't waste money slapping a bigger carb on without doing something about flow. A very good source of info on this is hot rod mags.

The standard Farmall carb can be adjusted to produce black exhaust meaning that it's getting more gas than it can burn. Shaving the head will increase the compression ratio but I have no idea to what extent on a Farmall engine or how much you can take off safely. Porting the head may increase flow enough to set the carb up for a little extra HP. Keep in mind that the promised HP increases may not meet what you expect. For example the alleged HP gains claimed by the maker of the electronic ignition I added to one of my Ford N tractors was AS MUCH AS a 10 percent increase in HP. Gee that's a whole lot on a 300 HP engine but not really noticeable on a 23 HP engine. And that's if you get the full 10% (note the AS MUCH AS). I installed it because I hate getting that darned front mount dizzy off an on to do a tune up.

Good luck!

Rick

If the tractor has enough power to spin out in first gear. The first three factors to work on is traction, drawbar adjustment and for/aft weight balance.
Better to spin out 3/4 of the way down the track with a stock engine instead of spinning out 1/2 way down the track with a souped engine.
Best part of pulling in stock class. is when your obviously stock tractor out pulls half of the souped tractors that have been snuck into the class.

How much $$$ do you have to spend? Lots of modification to make HP on those engines but many are pretty pricey.Knew of one that the owner spent around 25K in the engine but it had a whole lot of horses.

Well it boils down to this , I don't care how deep your pockets are there is always SOMEONE that can beat you that did not spend 20-35 GRAND on and engine plus what he put into the rest of the tractor. And what really makes them deep pocket boys mad is when you built it from going DUMPSTER DIVING . Yes we did this and it made for two long years of pulling for the other guys . One of them had spent 30 grand on having his engine built by so and so the great guru of engine building . The only NEW parts we bought was rings bearing and custom made gskt. Used sleeves out of the scrap dumpster a set of used rods that were well seasoned a junk water frozen block that was busted on the inside a scrap crank oh and a new mil surplus carb in a dusty old plain brown cardboard box . We had less the 3700 bucks in everything including the tires . That tractor pulled from 4500 -7500 with a different driver for each class and was the points leader in all four classes for two years straight . Ya want to go pull with a S/M and your pockets are not as deep as some old fart but ya want to get close and maybe even knock his socks in the creek sometimes . Now i do not know where to find them anymore due to Clyde Burkshire retiring but IF you can find a set of 8500 ft. high alt. pistons in 4 1/8 a Std. 450 gas head a real 450 cam (not one of them China imports as they are JUNK. a stock 450 manifold your old carb can be tweaked to do the job and a little dist work on the curve by some old fart that knows how to tweak a dist. and we are getting fewer by the day . And the nice thing about this is that you do not have to buy racing fuel to run it on just hightest . Oh and ya need to balance the rotating members and this will put you into the mid ninty hp. range and it will run well and have good low end torque.

Start out stock, learn the ropes, then go from there, you can put $$$$$$$ in this.

That is almost my exact story from when I did my 930 case. I had anout 3500 total in it and except for gaskets and machining it was all used parts too. A good friend with a 966 and a guy (not freindly) with a 4010 spent huge $ and never bested me.

now that's a good looking conversion

A lot depends on the rules if its a certain MPH then if you can pull thru at that MPH you're good to go but I can tell you having been to and pulled in hundreds of pulls that
the tractor with the higher HP will win 19 out of 20 pulls IF the person having the tractor knows how to put it to use.The story of the old farmer bringing in his old stock tractor and beating the built up ones is pretty much a myth.I've taken tractors to different pulls out of state that looked like regular old stock tractors but were anything but stock never pays to show ones hand.

(quoted from post at 04:44:44 09/29/15) A lot depends on the rules if its a certain MPH then if you can pull thru at that MPH you're good to go but I can tell you having been to and pulled in hundreds of pulls that
the tractor with the higher HP will win 19 out of 20 pulls IF the person having the tractor knows how to put it to use.The story of the old farmer bringing in his old stock tractor and beating the built up ones is pretty much a myth.I've taken tractors to different pulls out of state that looked like regular old stock tractors but were anything but stock never pays to show ones hand.

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It is not a myth. When pulling MPH if the track is soft, which is admitedly unusual, a lower powered tractor can go further because the higher powered tractors will overpower their traction. I watched a local guy come in with his Ford 7000 a few years ago and win against plenty of competition on a soft track.