Rebuilt Older Model Dozer

Rebuilt Older Model Dozer TRACTORS Antiques 21-1-11 When brothers Ron, Royce and J.D. Crawley went looking for a dozer to use in their farm operation, they couldn't justify the cost of a new or used unit in operational condition. Instead, they bought a junked-out 1953 Oliver cleat-track dozer and put it back into operation. "It had been sitting around unused for 20 years," says J.D. Crawley, who also runs a custom machine shop. "Water and rust had ruined the engine beyond repair. It would have cost $10,000 to replace the original engine, if you could have found one. However, everything else was in excellent condition so we repowered it using a 307 V-8 Chevy engine which we rebuilt using a high torque low rpm cam-shaft (to reduce fuel consumption and get maximum horsepower at low rpm) and oversize pistons. "We installed a fiber, four finger non-slip clutch and left the original 4-speed truck transmission that came with the engine, which was taken from a 1978 GMC. "The original engine governed out at 1,300 rpm's. The 307 engine speed was 2,200 to 2,400 rpm's but by using the 4-speed transmission between the 307 engine and the dozer transmission input shaft, we can select the speeds we need. We still have the 4-speed dozer transmission to select work speeds. "We installed a constant speed governor and an extra water pump stacked on top of the original to keep the engine running at approximately 180? under full load. We built a brush protector cab and painted it all safety yellow. Fuel consumption is approximately 3 gal. per hour. "We've used this dozer for brush grubbing and road building on our farms for a year with no problems. Total out-of-pocket cost of the rebuilt rig was just $3,000. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Crawley's Auto & Machine Shop, 4858 Bohon Rd., Harrodsburg, Kent. 40330 (ph 606 865-4578 or 606 366-5272).

To read the rest of this story, download this issue below or click here to register with your account number.