Lawn Ornament

Well this is a first post to this site so here goes. My son and I are taking what my wife has deemed the Farmall H that has been sitting in the turnaround as the Lawn Ornament, the tractor has had little things like a small hole in the manifold and some slow hydro leaks and lack of interest from all parties to get this tractor in great shape
So over the last week Collin my youngest boy age 15 and I have put it to test that we take it from a faded out lawn ornament to a bright shinny red tractor. Well that is the hopes anyway, to get there we have a lot to do and with that Collin and I are asking a few questions First of these is that the manifold is shot by this it is in two pieces and has a quarter inch hole in it time to find a replacement used if poss. The second is that after setting two years with the hole in the manifold moister found it's way in to the number 1&4 piston 2&3 look great these are in the up position no rust no pitting 1 & 4 there is some rust enough that the motor is froze. We have taken it to this point, the fluids are drained and saved, steering is disconnected / pulled, head has been removed as well as the rockers So now I am looking at what will be the best route to get the pistons in motion so that it can at least have a chance to make it to the spray booth. Any suggestion that you might have places to visit Etc. will be of help Collin and Jerry

Sorry to say but you might be better off to find another H and use what you have for parts. That said where are you?? Hs are a dime a dozen so to speak because they where one of the tractor that they made way to many of. I know since I have 4 of them. E-mail is open if you want to talk and yes the ones I have are for sale and 3 of the 4 run

I agree with Old that Hs are a dime a dozen, but on the other hand, I see the greater value of the guy and his son tackling the project. The tractor may have some sentimental value in the family, and it might be better to rebuild what he has versus replacing. There was no mention if there was any other issues with the tractor. How long had it been sitting before you took the head off?

You might look through the archives here under the heading "Removing Stuck Pistons", and giving a try to one of the many methods you'll find there.

One bit of advice would be for you to follow Lanse's footsteps. Take pictures / video and post them here to show your progress, and let the gurus guide you along the way.

Poor desiel in the stuck cyliders let them set for a while an then tap on the piston with something thats not like to cuase any real damage