Oliver 1850

How can I make an Oliver 1850 Perkins Diesel into a pulling tractor? Any hints. Don't want to have to sell the farm to accomplish this.
 
To be competitive ya need Horse power and horse power cost money , to win it takes BIG HORSE POWER and that cost BIG MONEY , and with a perkins you are limited on how far you can go and how much you can get out of it and yep you may not have to sell the farm but take out a fifty year note on it .
 
What class are you thinking? Non turbo classes they are pretty competitive with just some cleaning of the ports and such. Turbo classes take money, sometimes a lot depending on your competition.
 
Thanks for the reply, I'll be competing against 1066 type machines. Describe what cleaning of the ports is? I was hoping to be able to turn up the pump and
get larger injectors for the 354.
 
Thanks for the response, but you're not very encouraging. I was hoping the 354 Perkins could get me the needed horse power to be some what competitive. If not at lease make a lot of smoke.
 
(quoted from post at 00:10:33 10/06/19) Thanks for the response, but you're not very encouraging. I was hoping the 354 Perkins could get me the needed horse power to be some what competitive. If not at lease make a lot of smoke.
Unfortunately, all motorsports start out with a little money and a lotta fun and evolve into cubic money and bragging rights. I got my kids into junior drag racing when $2500 was enough to field a competitive car with everything you'd need. Now that won't buy you a clutch.
 
Sorry , i tell it like it is , you will be knocking heads with bigger Cubic inch engines and there is no subtatute for cubic inches , Now how much bigger ya can take it i am not sure as i have never looked into building one . Yea ya can tweak the pump ya can play with turbos . Now back in the day before the 400 sirese binders and the 404 Deeres ya you could go play against them . playen even at your local pulls unless it is a dead weight pull your behind the HP CURVE . Knew a guy that pulled a 2050 and he worked at the Hercules engine plant , He had the Cubic inches over most but the I H's blew him away so did the deeres . Couple guys ran a Case with the 504 here again lost of CU.In made lots of smoke ran decent but the binders and deeres cleaned his clock . Makes for a long season when you are last place at the pulls . Years back my accountant and i built a old tractor for the antique classes and it was a nightmare for every one and made for a LONG two years of pulling for the crowd , we built it to run all four classes and had four different drivers one for each class , it won every class and was points champ in all four classes . Some say we were cheating Noope the rules stated STOCk Block and Head did not say anything about what was inside . Now we did not have much money it it and started with a Junk tractor with junk blocks and we built it with basicly junk parts from this and that Junk liners out of a scrap bin used pistons used connecting rods used valves used valve springs . The only NEw parts were rings bearing gskt.and a new Carb off a WWII air compressor plus the plugs points cap rotor and wires.
 
What is your goal? To win trophies or to have fun? I used to pull my stock 1930 Case "L" Just to hear the old girl baller was fun enough for me. And the adrenaline rush each time you back up to the sled is neat. If you're doing it for fun it costs you nothing. Just get the weights right which you will get better at each time you pull.
 
For natural asperated engines air flow is critical to hp. So clean smooth ports help. Matching the manifolds to the heads so there are no edges and cleaning up the ports so they are smooth can get quite a few hp in most engines.

You will have your hands full trying to compete with a 1066. They can easily and cheaply get quite a bit of extra ho from those. And there are so many modifications available they are cheaper than most others. You will need a turbo at least to come close.
 
You won't be able to run with 1066's at 10-12000 lbs with a 354.They will be running DT466's with big pumps and big chargers.I have a 1650 with a 354 12 mm Ppump,S 300 charger,1006 head and lots of other work that will run.road gear at 5500-6000 lbs.Wouldn't dream of running heavier than that.
 
At least tell us where you are. Some places a stock tractor is just that. Others it is similar to stock car races. Need to know what you are pulling against to tell you if it worth it. DT466 and Deere are easy because you can drop the $$$ money at them and buy go fast parts. Other brands you need to build your own. Naturally aspirated the 354 is limited, it can do better with a turbo if allowed.

Also depends on the sled and if there are speed limits. Slower speeds and a non drop pan sled, traction is usually the limiting factor and horsepower is not as much of a factor.
 

Two years ago at one of the pulls the announcer made a joke. He said that a Farmall dipstick was found on the scale. Everybody laughed because everybody knows that all of the Farmalls have Cummins diesels. 460s are powered with DT466s.
 
Thank you all for the comments about making the 1850 Oliver into a puller. It's sounds a little discouraging, is there any other Oliver model that I can
get more bang for my buck? Appreciate any help.
 
That depends on what the rules are where you pull and what weight class. In some classes and under some rules Oliver's are very competitive. Especially in the non turbo classes. I used to pull in the 7-9,000 lb non turbo class with my 930 case and the 1850 Oliver's were tough competition. A lot of 4010/20s in that class as well as several models of IH. Was a fun class and always the largest in my area and not expensive because of the no turbo rule. To help more we would need to know what the rules where you pull are because they very a huge amount from one area to another.
 
If you have the N/A classes that Jon F mentioned that would help even things up a good bit.You could then just pull the turbo off and run as both the Na and turbo 354 are 13:1 compression.As to other things to do what will help the most is a.1006 Perkins head.It is a cross flow head that will flow much much more air.Another thing is you can tune the.CAV pump up with a roosa master .380 or .450 hyd head,some .093 lines and 5X18 injectors.4 1/8" DT 361 pistons will get you to I believe around 410 ci.Yes this all costs money and I don't know how much you want to invest,but these are some of the easiest and less costly things to hot rod a 354.
 
Thank you for your comments on the Oliver 1850. Sounds a little discouraging. Are there any other Olivers I can get more bang for my buck.
 

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