Combines That Can t be Good

For the money you will have to spend to get an engine, and put it in that old combine you can probably go find yourself a decent used 4400 or 6600 diesel. Even if you can find an engine and fix it, it is still going to be an old gas guzzler I don't know where you are located but around here you can buy decent 4400s all day long for $2500. If you get a 4400 or 6600 and decide to rent some more land you already have the capacity. Just make sure if you get a 4400 or 6600 make sure it is a diesel. Those old flat screen gas burners are a fire waiting to happen. If all else fails just borrow Pop's 1680. that might be your best option anyway if you only have 30 acres.

i will probably end up using pops 1680, even so i will keep my eyes open for deals, i already have the other equipment from 4-h projects and Ag-classes gone by. What i would really like is an 815 diesel hydro, i ran my neighbors once and for an old combine it did a nice job. I do plan on renting more ground next year on my own after i get some crops in but not till then, after i get out of college i will probably buy the 30 acres and put some kind of house on it, it already has building space so not a problem there. Thanks, YoungFeller

Don't feel bad fellar........You are NOT the first to put a load into a piece of equipment and then find something major that's went to he11 and is going to cost so much you'd be better off almost to scrap it. Welcome to the wonderful world of iron.....you just passed initiation and are now a card carrying member. Hate to see you junk it after all the work you said you've done. Can you find another good used engine for the price of a song or danceIJ Worse case scenario you can nickel weld it but be sure to get educated by someone local about the technique....you need to heat the area well and then keep heat to it and let it cool very very very slowly after you finish welding. Sounds like more work than it's worth to me but perhaps you can find an old coger that knows his stuff to help you. Best of luck......Been there in your shoes....it sucks!

I think we have all been in that situation at some point. Several years ago a college buddy of mine bought a really nice 8430 at an auction in another part of the state. It had 1500 hrs on it, had been shed kept, and looked brand new, except that the tires were about shot from running on the highway. My buddy took it home, and put 8 new radials on it. When he put it in the field that spring breaking up land, she didn't last but a couple of hours before the crankshaft broke, and the engine self destructed. My buddy's wife said he sat there in the cab and cried, because he knew that a new engine would cost about as much the tractor was worth. What we later found out from one of the previous owner's neighbors was that It seems that the guy who kept the tractor in an enclosed shed, and waxed it to the max, had not bothered to change the oil in it since it was new in 1978. No wonder everthing at that sale went cheap, all the locals probably knew the guy was a half a$$, and were not fooled by all the shiny green paint like us out of towners. I bought a 4230 at that same auction, but fortunately the MORON had already blown the engine up in the tractor I got while pulling it, so it had only been 500 hrs since the engine was rebuilt. (also the last time the oil was changed) I have put 2500 hrs on it so far with no problems. It just goes to show that when you buy used equipment, you never can be 100% sure of what you are getting even if it looks well maintained.

Even if you weld the crack, it still might not work, because the block could be cracked internally. We have an old 1955 Massy 44 diesel that some of my uncle's help put plain water in during the summer of 69, forgot about it, and that winter the block froze. My uncle was going to junk it. Dad was just getting started farming, and needed a tractor, but had no money so he asked if he could have it on the off chance that he could get running. He fixed the block crack by running a piece of all thread through an oil gallery, and pulling the crack together. It still seeped a little bit, so he put a can of block sealer in it. he re routed the oil that went through the oil gallery through a hose that goes around the back of the block. That was over 30 years ago, and that old thing has been running ever since with no sign of water getting into the oil. In fact I used the old Massey today to run the grain auger. So a cracked block does not always mean an engine is not fixable. You just might have to get creative

I just cut up a 45 roundback that the block cracked in 1976. My dad ground the crack out and sanded the block and used a form of JB weld and fiberglass to fix the crack. When I cut this machine up the repair was still good. The resin he used could withstand up to 800 degrees. You could do this cheaply and see if the inside of the block is still good. You could probably get some kind of resin at an autoparts store

Just another note. Cutting a combine up for scrap really sucks