https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPZieRTyIE8&feature=youtu.be
If you copy the above address and paste it into the Internet address window, you can see my 1930 Case L plowing for about 8 minutes.
I bought this tractor at an auction in Galva, Illinois in about 1985.
I suspect the cold manifold was not original equipment because it has two compartments in the fuel tank. I pulled the head and found the biggest bore Aluminum pistons and sleeves offered by M-W for the LA in great condition. I added some further modifications. The local tractor pull insisted on dynoing all tractors and the L had no PTO. An LA rear assembly fit the rear of the L and that gave me the PTO and a hyd system. You may notice the 4 bottom plow has hyd lift.
I added a propane head off an LA. The big pistons and propane head raised the compression ratio high enough that it takes some real muscle to crank it. The rear tires were not competitive at the local tractor pulls where serious tractors came and competed. The L spins out long before it powers out. When plowing, it can spin its land wheel in 2nd with relative ease.
All the parts that I removed were kept so they could be put back if I wanted to. The original head was kept dry in a small, rickety shed that I rented from an elderly widow in the neighborhood a mile away. She died. I did not know who took over the property. I intended to find out but I was too slow doing so.
You know the saying one man’s treasure is another man’s junk. One day, I came home from my work at Cat. During the day, a hole was dug in the ground, the shed pushed into the hole, and the area leveled. I never saw the digger in the morning or the evening. It was probably an industrial end loader. My treasures/junk got buried with the shed. OOPS.
As a kid growing up, the LA became my favorite big tractor. My neighborhood in eastern Kansas in the 40s and 50s never had any tractors bigger that the M Farmall or DC Case except for one G John Deere. At about age 10 in 1949, I hear this STRANGE engine sound coming up the road from behind the tree line where we farmed. It was a new LA!!!
There were very few new tractors in my neighborhood. This tractor was both new and big. A neighbor’s son had shipped it to his dad in eastern Kansas from western Kansas to tear up some sod. The big LA was popular in western Kansas for the large wheat fields. For me, the LA was love at first sight. In later years I wanted an L for a big antique toy. I eventually got one.
The 3 bottom Centennial plow has its own unique story