Farnal H dipstick

I bought a used engine for a old H I have setting here. I purchased it over the phone and had it dropped at the Badger dock and floated to Ludington. When I picked it up I saw it had a dip stick. I don't remember ever seeing a dip stick before on a H. Did I get an H engine, or maybe a 300. How do you tell the difference? Al

Al, i always figured that was a combine engine,with the dipstick's, but that maybe not true either, cause i got a 47 with a dipstick, and according to the engine number, it's the original block, maybe you could order them that way !

janicholson had a photo of the shifter

The dipstick was aftermarket and required drilling the boss on the RH side. A picture or two of the OP's engine would let us know what he has for sure.

On my 1950 H there's a raised boss two inches below the NO. 1 spark plug, and stamped in there is "FBH339655". That corresponds to the aluminum data plate on the other side. The FBH designation means it is a model H, and number is the serial number of the engine block. I don't know about Model 300's. BTW, I drilled the boss down below, near the oil filter, and installed a dip stick on my H. Glad I did too, I can really acutally check the oil level now. Had to drill through about 2 inches of cast iron, and avoid the spinning crank, and remove the oil pan to remove all the shavings, but man that was a good idea.

Above where the oil filter would go on block a farmall H engine will have casting number 6695D and another letter that changed from time to time over the years made. No dipstick used when built. If the block has a different 4 numbers it could be equipped with a dipstick or not. 300 blocks with 6 casting numbers followed by R2 where equipped and all 350 blocks with the same casting number also did. 300 blocks ending in R1 didn't have a stick when built. Aftermarket, farmer engineered and even IH offered parts after the 300 tractors were being built.

There was always provision for fitting a dipstick on a Farmall H engine. I have seen instructions somewhere for fitting a dipstick. There is a small flat boss near the bottom of the block which could be drilled to fit a dipstick. My W-4 had a crudely adapted aftermarket dipstick fitted there but I had the hole plugged as it would not have kept out dirt.

Its a feature I would love to have, and a very nice jig there, but I would worry forevermore about damaging metal swarf being entrapped in the oil side of the engine, if done "in frame", even with the oil pan off.

I'd encourage you to go for it. Easy. You get several different diameter drill bits, starting with about 1/8". Figure out the correct angle, to avoid the crank rotating, and drill down about an inch. Stop, so you don't snap off the bit. Select the next bigger bit, drill down the same inch, then select the next bigger bit, drill down the same inch. THEN go back to the 1/8" bit, and drill another further inch down. Repeat, so you get all the sway through the cast iron, without snapping off bits. You'll finally drill thru. Then get a dipstick from the farm-n-home store, about 1/4" wide, and get a small 1/8" or so pipe nipple that the dipstick will slide on down through. Open up the hole so the pipe nipple will thread in, take a pair of channel-locks and hill-billy it on down in, so it threads in tight. You may have to cut off the top of the nipple, farmer-ize this thing, but eventually you'll get the dipstick in, and down. Clean out the oil pan, claen-out the remaining shavings hung up in the engine block, and quit worrying; metal shavings are heavier than oil, they'll sink to the bottom, quit worrying. Reinstall the oil pan, fill with oil til the top petcock runs over, remove dipstick and mark where the oil level is. and admire it the rest of the morning til the wife asks what ARE you doing out there all day?????