2015 - Volume #39, Issue #2, Page #03
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Deere 4020 Power Boosted By EFI Conversion
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“It made the engine come alive and results in about 10 percent more horsepower and a 20 percent savings in fuel. And it has no problems with ethanol,” says Kepner. “I can go out in 10 below zero weather and the tractor will start right up, without smoking at all. It’s beautiful. It’s all about using today’s technology to improve an already great tractor.
“Changing the fuel delivery system on old time gas tractors is a good way to get them to start and run better. My 4020 gas tractor now starts and runs better than a 4020 diesel, which I think was the best tractor ever built. The 4020 gas models were never as fuel efficient as the diesel models, but when you put modern EFI technology on them it makes a real difference.”
Kepner is a retired 74-year-old Deere mechanic who says he still does a little farming with his 4020. “I came up with the idea because I wanted it to run as well as my pickup. I started looking around for anyone who makes an EFI kit for farm tractors. I couldn’t find any, but I did find a company in Memphis, Tenn., that supplies EFI kits for classic cars and pickups and adapted one of their kits (www.fuelairspark.com; ph 901 260-3278). I made changes to the tractor’s intake manifold and to the throttle body that controls the air system.”
He replaced the tractor’s rusty steel fuel tank with a polyurethane tank. “These tractors are almost 50 years old and many of them haven’t been used for years, so their fuel tanks are often contaminated,” he notes.
An air intake hose leads from the air cleaner to the throttle body, which controls the air flow when you accelerate the tractor. “You want to maintain a 14:1 air-to-fuel ratio, so that when the tractor slows down it doesn’t suck as much air in,” says Kepner.
A fuel rail leads from the pump at the bottom of the tank, and then to a fuel pressure-regulating valve that regulates the fuel pressure to the injectors.
“Ethanol doesn’t evaporate like gas does. You can take a can of gas and pour it into a pan and 8 hrs. later all of it will have evaporated. But if you put an inch of alcohol in the same pan and come back 4 weeks later, it’ll still be there. Carburetors work on evaporation so gas is mixed in the manifold going to the engine, whereas with EFI the air and fuel are controlled so fuel is delivered right at the intake valve.
“When 4020’s were first made in the 1960’s, all our tractors were using 100 percent gas. Then gas with 10 percent ethanol came on the market, and that takes a whole different delivery system to run right. That’s one reason you don’t find carburetors on cars and trucks any more.”
After he equipped his 4020 with EFI, it didn’t take long for neighbors to start asking Kepner if he would convert their tractors. He plans to do that for about a half dozen local farmers. “When people ask me about the cost, I tell them it’s less than what it would cost to have a body shop paint their tractor. It’ll cost at least $3,500 but not more than $5,000. I tell them I’m so confident in EFI that if they don’t like how their tractor runs when I’m done with it, I’ll buy the tractor from them.”
Kepner says he plans to make a kit available some day.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, David J. Kepner, 27724 Wyanet-Walnut Rd., Walnut, Ill. 61376 (ph 815 303-5660).
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