Repowered IH Crawler

Repowered IH Crawler REPOWERED EQUIPMENT Repowered Equipment 28-5-38 When the diesel engine wore out on his 1956 IH crawler tractor, Kevin Cohrs, Glencoe, Minn., found a low-cost way to repower it with a diesel engine out of an IH 4386 4-WD tractor. The original engine was equipped with a torque converter and 8-speed manual shift transmission. He removed the engine and torque converter but kept the transmission and installed the 4-WD tractor's DT466 engine. Then he made a short driveshaft and coupled the crawler's 8-speed transmission to a 5-speed Spicer manual transmission, which he got out of a truck. "It was a perfect swap," says Cohrs, who uses the crawler to pull his 5-ft. laser-controlled tile plow. "I got the replacement engine from a friend who does mechanical work. "The IH crawler is a great machine but its engine was never very good and parts for it are hard to find and very expensive. On the other hand, the IH 4-WD tractor's DT466 engine has a great reputation and is widely used in the company's tractors and trucks. I also used the tractor's muffler, air intake, fan, shroud, and tachometer. "The crawler's original engine had 1,000 cu. in. and 230 hp. The new engine has 466 cu. in. and 225 hp, which is about the same horsepower. However, the new engine is much smaller, which made it easy to install and also makes it easy to work on. And because the crawler now has two transmissions, I can go as slow as 1/3 mph with the engine only at half throttle. At that speed the tractor goes so slow I can hardly see it move. The slow speed works great for plowing tile because the laser has more time to control the plow." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Kevin Cohrs, 6468 90th St., Glencoe, Minn. 55336 (ph 320 864-5780; email: Cohrsfarms @hotmail.com).

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