1963 ford 4000

I have a 1963 ford 400--I think. numbers on the engine are 4201 and 37079. i believe i have a 172 CI GAS w/4speed and PTO built in late 1963. i hope someone can help me. 1. it ran a little low of oil and i heard a knocking. To say the least--it started smoking like crazy and cylinder closest to the steering wheel is like blowing or leaking oil now. i had to change/clean the plug in that cylinder cause it was covered with oil. what do i need to do? sound like rings or more? im pretty handy with a wrench but didn't want to tear it down till someone with more knowledge could tell me the best course of action. i still drive it--knocking is not there after i put more oil in it. seems that it still has good power as before it happened. 2. from my research i found that the original color of my tractor was blue and gray. it looks like red underneath the blue paint in several places. Im confused cause when i look at pics of the 1963 ford 4000, mine looks different. it has the old metal seat and it has the circle emblem on the hood with stars but no writing. i was told that it was a 4000 by the previous owner. I appreciate any help.

My bad--the numbers are 41201 and 37070. also it has the Conn-6015j

Sorry my bad again--the numbers are 41201 and 37079--i guess i should put on my glasses

41201 is a 4 cylinder 4000 general purpose ag chassis made from 1962-1964. 37079 is a late 1963 serial number. C0NN-6015J is the engine casting code used for the 172 ci engine from late 1960-1964.

If it has a round badge above the grill then the sheet metal is not from a 4000, it is from an earlier hundred or '01 series tractor. The numbers that you posted are stamped into the transmission, so at least some parts have been swapped around between different models over the years. That seems to have been a fairly common practice as there are a lot of tractors out there these days with mismatched parts. The reason that it's common is that most parts are interchangeable between the hundred, '01 and 4 cylinder thousand series, so there's really no issue except that certain parts did change over the years, like spline counts on input and output shafts and the like, so if you need those types of parts, make sure you know which you have so you order the correct ones.

thanks Sean. Your comments are helpful. I didn't realize the parts were so interchangeable. any thoughts on my excessive smoking and the cylinder that is blowing oil? I'm not sure it is ok to drive it or park it and take it apart. again thanks for your help. I'm thinking that the first 1/2 of the tractor is the 4000 and the back 1/2 of the tractor is an earlier model because the back half is where i found the red paint under the blue paint.

How low is "a little low?"

A pint?

A quart?

Not showing on dipstick?

How much oil was necessary to fill to full mark?

Dean

Dean --thanks for checking in. I would say it was a quart of less. i had heard the knocking before but it usually went away. this time it felt like it froze up a little --i put more oil in it--and it ran good but smokes like a steamship. Not sure what the best thing to do--i know the oil is getting on the one plug--the other plugs are fine--it is the cylinder closest to the steering wheel. now i can drive it --no knocking--but still smokes like a sailor---smokes so bad--i feel i need a respirator when i drive it

Operating your engine "a quart of [sic] less" of engine oil for a limited period of time will likely not cause serious damage, aside from other existing issues.

First things first: Have you serviced the air cleaner? If not, remove, disassemble and throughly clean both the mesh and the down tube. Post back regarding what you find. Results may well be important.

Using oil?

Using coolant?

Dean

dean thanks again. i have been running it without the breather cause it had lots of oil in it and i took the hood and front grill off cause i was getting ready to paint it. I've probably only used it about an hour to do some bush hogging since it started smoking so bad. it was using or blowing oil so i put it to rest and only use my other tractor now. lots of oil was on the spark plug that is nearest to the steering wheel. i cleaned it off and it ran better but still the smoking is just too much

Operating without the "breather...."

OK, I'm going to bow out here.

Perhaps others will provide useful advise.

Dean

You didn't put too much oil in it did you? I have a 600 that smokes and leaks oil like crazy. The guy i bought it from had stuffed a rag into the oil fill breather so it wouldn't show how bad it was. I actually hooked up a pcv valve to my valve cover breather and hosed it to the plug in the side of the intake maniflod so it would suck some blowby. It fouls plugs but I put a couple of non-foulers in it

'62-64 were the first 1000 series and Ford changed colors. I have a '63 2000 diesel 4 speed, tranny PTO and you can scrape paint down to the metal of
stabilizer arms and main tranny casting to name a couple of places and pick up red paint.....obviously left overs from the 600 and 8-900 series earlier
models.

I had a smoking JD 4020 diesel and put a garden hose on the breather pipe and plumbed it via ½" NPT-hose barb to the intake manifold....bye bye stink
and smoke. I have ½ NPT tapped into a Ford intake also but that was another tractor and another problem...long story.

Several auto mfgrs make oils for older cars. May help. Running a hotter plug will burn off contaminants. Switching to WW or Rotella T 15w-40 HD S and C
rated oil could help your knock and any oil burning. I have 3 Fords and all use that oil and hot-cold, idle-PTO rpm oil pressure stays betgween 40 and 60
PSI.

The Circle logo on the hood was the Jubilee, 1960 time line....100th anniversary as I recall. Ford 2000 was light grey and Ford (then) blue as was the
4000....just the 4000 had a grey hood and a chrome crest on the arc that is in the place where the circle sat on earlier models. Both had Lt. Grey wheels
and fenders.