1942 John Deere H "Parts" Tractor - Cylinder Head and Cylinder Block Replacements

With my HN engine's freeze crack repairs not working, I did quite a bit of searching to find a good used cylinder head and block for the HN. I put out feelers to some guys in the tractor club, put a plea out to a Facebook JD H forum, and searched online.

One online seller of JD parts had both but they were on the expensive side. They wanted $325 for the bare block and $450 for the head with valves. And this was before shipping fees. I didn't even ask how much that would be. Then someone on the FB H forum contacted me and said they had both parts. I asked how much for the parts including shipping and he came back with $150 for shipping. So I had to ask again, how much for the parts. $350. I told him that I'd take it if he would accept $450 for the parts including shipping. He agreed. I sent the money via Venmo and here's where it got a little muddy. He asked if there were any Fastenal locations near me. I didn't know so had to look it up. Yes there was one maybe 30 miles away. A few days went by and long story short, he couldn't find anyone to ship for $150, so he sent me back the money. At least I didn't lose out on $450.

Maybe a week later I found an H for sale on FB Marketplace (photo above). It is in rough shape but looks fairly complete, and the engine was not stuck. He was asking $900 for the tractor, three good rear wheels, and three good front wheels (no good tires). I said I didn't need all the wheels so how much for just the tractor? $350. Ok, I could do that. He would need one rear wheel that was on the tractor though so he could have two good rear wheels to sell to someone else. There's no way I could load the tractor with only one rear wheel, so I asked how low he would go for the whole mess. $700. Long sigh... Ok, I'd take it for that.

So we hooked up the trailer and drove the 120 miles to his place. When I got there, the first thing I looked at was the cylinder block. I immediately spotted a welded-up crack in the block (ironically, same exact place as the crack in my block). I showed him the weld repair and he said he didn't know about it. Another long sigh... I also looked for cracks in the head but couldn't see any, and hopefully there aren't any. So now with a cracked block I obviously wouldn't pay $700, so I said I was willing to pay $500 for everything. After a long pause, he said how about $550? I agreed and the deal was made. Whew, long story.

Here are more photos from the ad. As I said, it's pretty rough.

The tractor does have live hydraulics, which not all H's had. The pump is in the lower part of the photo below.

Probably the thing that swayed me most to pursue this tractor is the hydraulic cylinder hanging on the rear axle housing that I spotted in the photo below. They are very difficult to come by, and is probably worth a good bit of what I paid for the tractor, assuming it isn't junk, but that's the risk of buying stuff like this.

It's unfortunate there aren't any usable tires on this thing. Oh, and there is no carburetor or magneto. Funny thing though, when I bought my HN, the guy threw in a spare carburetor and magneto. Wasn't that a nice thing.

This tractor has electric start, so if I do end up parting the tractor out (hopefully not), the starter is worth something, along with the hydraulic system (I'm keeping the hydraulic cylinder of course).

I got three front grilles, none of which are in very good condition.

These front wheels are cast iron with no visible repairs so are probably worth $100 or more apiece. There is also one good cast front wheel on the tractor.

I don't have any intention of parting this tractor out. My goal is to take the good head and block off this tractor and put them on my HN, then put the cracked parts on this tractor. I will also put on my spare carburetor and magneto and try to get this tractor's engine running, then sell this tractor to someone else that might want to buy a project. Hopefully I can get my money out of it.