Once apon a time

This leads me to a question. Would it make sense to build a high compression gas engine in a more modern style farm tractor to compete with operating a diesel cost wise? I'm thinking a 1650/1750/1850 Oliver or the like. By running E-85 you could boost the compression to well over 10 to 1 by using propane heads with domed pistons or even turbo charging or a combination of any of the three! As a side benefit running alcohol as a fuel will increase engine life substantially over running gas.

Oliver did just this in the late 50's with a four cylinder gas engine at 12 to 1 compression. It was powered by high octane gas and was said to give the economy of a diesel. They called it the XO-121. There is a picture of it in the Nebraska tets book. Anyone know any thing more about it?

One must also keep in mind that most gassers built in the 50's and 60's were designed to run on 70 octane gas for tractors. Rarely was compression over 7 to 1. At the same time however cars and trucks were all 9 to 1 minimum as they were designed to run on higher octane fuel.

I know first hand what a little more compression will do for a tractor. My Dad has a SMTA with a propane head built to a 450 bore. He also has a 450 (bought new by my Grandfather in '58). There is no comparision between the two. The SMTA is more responsive and a lot stronger. They don't even sound the same and they have the exact same muffler on each of them.

Any ideas or input?

Mark