1941 John Deere HN - Investigating Cylinder Head and Engine Block Issues Part 2 of 2

Two days ago is where I left off on the previous blog. Yesterday I ground out the engine block crack. I used a carbide burr on an ancient dremel-type drill motor.

1941 John Deere HN - Investigating Cylinder Head and Engine Block Issues Part 1 of 2

As was shown in the previous blog, the engine block has a serious crack in it. The previous owner advertised that the head was cracked, and when I got the tractor going in the last blog, the right cylinder was also not firing so there are at least a couple things going on with this tractor. My current job is to see if the head is serviceable, and just make a general assessment of the engine.

Getting the head off is fairly straightforward, but a bit time-consuming. The carb has to come off, and the exhaust pipe needs to be disconnected. Then the valve cover and breather are next.

1941 John Deere HN Tractor - New Acquisition

I recently sold two tractors, a 1949 Ferguson TO-20 and a 1950 John Deere BN. So what do I do? Why, I surf the net for tractors, of course. My eye came across several potential candidates, an Allis Chalmers B and WD, and a Case VAI (industrial). I went on vacation for a couple weeks so I couldn't act on anything. While on vacation (floating around Norway on a cruise ship), an ad popped up on FB Marketplace for a John Deere. The ad said, "John Deere H tractor has cracked head." Here's the one and only photo from the ad.