Buick-Powered Deere Garden Tractor

Pat Prom replaced the original engine on his Deere 300 garden tractor with a 350 cu. in. Buick engine, hooking it up to the 4-speed transmission off a Chevy 1-ton pickup and a Jeep rear end. He added a homemade wheelie bar on back, which was built using parts from the grille guard off an old truck. "The wheelie bar is mostly just for looks. The tractor's rear tires would probably start burning before the front end ever went up," says Prom. "All that's left of the original Deere garden tractor are the hood and fender deck."

The engine was too big to fit on the tractor’s original frame, so he used steel tubing to build a new frame. He also had to lengthen the hood by 7 in. The transmission bolts directly to the rear end, with no driveshaft. The Jeep rear end had an offset differential, so to make room for the transmission he shortened one side of the rear end by 11 in.

The drop axle from an old Model A car mounts on front. The radiator is off a Toro golf course riding mower. He also fitted thetractor with Harley Davidson mufflers on front. Prom also replaced the original engine on a Deere 420 garden tractor with a Buick V-8, 215 cu. in. carbureted engine. "It has about 210 hp so it'll really go," says Prom. "This is a special little engine and is quite rare. It took me 15 years to find it. The engine was made for Buick and Oldsmobile cars only from 1961 to 1963, and then the engine was sold to British Leyland and used on their Landrover for about 40 years. It's hard to find parts for this engine any more. I had A & B Auto Electric in Savage, Minn., build me a starter for it. I reversed the gears on the rear end to make the tractor go faster.

The engine ran in the opposite direction so I had to rework the hydrostatic transmission and rebuild the gearshift linkage, and also rotate the charge pump 1/2 turn. I also had to raise the hood and I installed a bigger radiator. The tractor is fitted with Harley Davidson mufflers on front, which really look nice."They’re loud because they're straight-through mufflers," says Prom.

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