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The Oliver 1450 was based on the Fiat 615. It was imported and sold from 1967-1969. It's 55 PTO hp came from a 4 cylinder, 268 cu in engine with a bore and stroke of 4.25 x 4.75 inches. Compression ratio was 15.5 to 1, and governed speed was 1900 RPM. The transmission had 7 speeds forward, and two reverse. The odd shifting pattern was '1, 2, 3, 7' in low range, and '4, 5, 6, 7' in high range. An optional--and rare--'Ampli-Couple' two speed power shift brought the speed selections up to 14 forward, 4 reverse, and allowed a 33% reduction in speed, and a corresponding 37% increase in drawbar pull when the going got tough. Apparently this was not a very robust unit, because advertising of the period quoted it as being for "intermittent, emergency use", which certainly didn't appear to illustrate much company confidence in the design. As power shift devices were abandonned for the rest of the Fiat tractors, this unit must have been unreliable at best, and a total engineering failure at worst. The chassis design was exceedingly heavy and sturdy for a utility-type tractor, and well-suited to the adaptation of loaders, of which the Oliver 1410 loader was the intended, and perfect match. Many 1450's were sold new with optional power steering and 1410 loaders. 1450 engines have an extremely strong tendency to develop seriously leaky head gaskets, which leads to their much greater problem of having the head studs twist off within the block when changing the head gasket. Sometimes the broken-off stud may be successfully retrieved, but often the drilling out of the extra-hard studs causes the drill bit to drift... into and through the very thin water jacket; this has sent many, many 1450's on a one-way trip to the wrecking yard. When buying a 1450, always, always check for a leaky head gasket. If the gasket has been leaking for a while, there'll be an obvious staining, and/or removal of paint down to bare metal, on the block underneath the leaky area, which can be anywhere, but especially the left rear corner, or right front corner of the block. Suspect even a tractor with all factory paint intact; if the owner won't allow you to run the engine until it warms up, walk away, because he's trying to cover up the fact that coolant pours out of the head gasket--1450's almost never develop minor head gasket leaks--once the engine warms up. A 1450 that starts well and runs nice is still no indication that it has a good engine under the hood; the only way to know is to run it until full operating temperature is reached. Auction sales are absolutely not the place to purchase a 1450, as it won't be run long enough to expose the problem. Repair parts for the 1450 are especially hard to find, and tend to be very expensive if you do find them.
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