How many hours does an N engine last?

If I had to guess?
Maybe 4K hours if you treated it right.
The bottom end on them was not real robust
- 3 mains in a 4 cyl, not real wide bearing
surfaces, etc.
But as Smoke suggests, that is a lot of
years for most of us.
 
When they were new, had one tractor, they had thin wall sleeves and you worked the snot out of it farming 80 or 120 acres you could expect to do and inframe every one or 2 years. Now if you don't over work it plowing and disking all day day after day they will last a very long time.
4,000 hours doesn't seem out of the question but I really don't know.
 
grandpas 8n got sleeves and pistons almost every year. He had 325 acres. Plowed 100 acres summer fallow every summer and some wheat stubble. Plus mowing,
raking hay and other farm jobs. His farm was not flat. Has a lot of rolling hills. Plowing was tough on the little 8n. They also pulled a MM two row corn picker
with the 8n. Dad said that was not very successful. Grandpa also had a 41 John Deere A. It did the planting with a two row Case lister and then cultivated every
thing twice with an arm strong lift front mounted cultivator.

The John Deere with pull type 3 bottom plow couldn't plow going up hill. Front end wouldn't stay on the ground. The 8n with 3pt plow could plow both ways so it
got more done. The 8n would get so it could plow up hill without shifting down to 1st. It would get new sleeves and pistons.

The John Deere had two or three overhauls but had to go to town to Shorty's repair. Grandpa did the 8n himself in the grainery.

Our renter has a JD 8000 something and he can go right the hill that would stop grandpa's A in it's tracks. Shows how things have changed.
 
I'd suppose that with modern motor oil, the longevity would certainly be longer than in a 1940s/'50s context. I remember my father telling stories about how cars in the '50s routinely needed engine/transmission rebuilds at 30,000-40,000 miles, & they'd be often be mechanically worn out by 80,000 miles or so--the lubricants just weren't all that advanced back then, not to mention filters not filtering well, etc.
 
2,000 - 2,500 hours with proper maintenance if it is being worked hard. Considerably longer if not being worked hard.

Dean
 
I dont know how many hours, Dad got our 49 8n in the fall of 66. It was a dilapidation trade in used at
a cotton gin. The Pontiac dealership where he worked as a mechanic also had the Ford Tractor
dealership. The 8n was completely rebuilt front to back over that winter. He brought it home in March of
67. We used the heck out of that tractor until 2003 when he passed away. I got the engine off the tractor
and have disassembled it over the last month. The tractor smoked quite a bit but always started easy
and ran smoothly. We always kept a close check on the oil and changed it regularly and added a can of
STP with each oil change.The engine had a lot of carbon in it. Oil had been getting into the coolant for years until it was a brown sludge, but that engine kept going. The pan was relatively clean with the
exception of just being stained black. Hardly any detectable ridge in the sleeves, all the bearings are
gray, no brass showing. From what I could see, it looked like the head gasket was leaking between
cylinders 3&4t those two guides were stuck with carbon and there is erosion/pitting around the valve seat areas on both
those cylinders. I hope to get the block, crank, and bearings to the machine shop next week. It has
rained constantly here for the month of July and I have made little progress on this overdue retirement
project.
 
HOURS is a term not fully understood when it comes to actual operation. They are not actual total real time hours of running every time you run the tractor so is a relative term. The Proofmeter would register hours your tractor worked based on average engine speed on 1515 RPM. Speeds below that accumulate hours more slowly than clock hours, and those above 1515 RPM register faster than clock hours. The guys have stated that most old Fords and other brands are not worked like they were when new nowadays. Farmers ran their tractors from dawn to dusk with breaks only for dinner and supper. Farming today is not like it was back then. The best road to long life on any machines Preventative Maintenance at scheduled intervals per your OEM Manual.


TPD
 
I did my 8N 25 years ago and she's strong as ever. Nowadays I just use her to load and unload my boat into the Duck River on Sundays Maybe an hour a month. Doubt this info helps you though but I used to work
her pretty hard with the plow, disk, rotary cutter, ect.
 

As others have stated , the work load is a big factor . I would take a wild guess and say you could increase the life span 10% or more than what your grandpa would have gotten just by using today's quality lubricants , anti freeze and 180 degree thermostat . And we all know 12 volts will double your horsepower :shock:
 

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