Small Setback. Big Progress. Model T Tractor Build!

[00:00:07]Hi everybody, welcome back. This will be part two of the Model T doodlebug project. 1926 engine, transmission, and frame. And then everything else is earlier. It's got an earlier front axle, earlier wheels, uh earlier rear axle with the small drums. Uh earlier wheels again. There's my sledgehammer I misplaced. And the numbers on the block on this one match the numbers on the frame. So that's kind of cool despite the fact that everything else is wrong for 1926. But it's a doodlebug, so there are no rules on this project, which is part of the fun for me. We don't have to adhere to the normal standard, you know, being in the correct year for things. In the last video, I got it running briefly. Of course, it doesn't have a cooling system on it right now, so we couldn't run it for very long. Anyway, the focus of this video is going to be to install a cooling system on this and then get it started again. See if we can get this tuned up a little bit more. See if we can get it dialed in to get the engine to run a little bit more smoothly and then uh we'll go from there. I've been anxious to get started on this part, get the cooling system installed.

[00:01:08]I ordered some parts to help me accomplish that and my normal part supplier, half the stuff was backorded.

[00:01:14]The other stuff they haven't even put in the mail yet. So, I'm not sure what's going on with them. But the good news is I do have a few extra Model T parts laying around here. The only problem is I don't have a bunch of 2627 stuff. So I'm going to have to change this. We're going to try to make an earlier fan bracket work. The first thing I want to do in this video is find where TDC is on number one because before I was just kind of guessing at it. And if you remember, you saw that backfire. So I probably had the Spark 2 advanced at that point and I just really wasn't sure where our baseline was, where TDC was.

[00:01:46]So, that'll only take a couple of minutes. So, let's go ahead and uh get the cap off so we can get an eye on where the rotor is on this particular distributor cap.

[00:01:58]Number one is right here. Okay. So, we got to keep that in mind.

[00:02:42]I got this little gizmo. Oh, quite a few years ago. And it helps you find top dead center. You don't need it, but it's kind of handy. So, figure might as well use it and show you how it works. This goes down into the combustion chamber and it's bent. So, this sits on the top of the piston. And then you can see the top go up and down. Okay. So, I'm going to stick it in the hole.

[00:03:08]And you know the orientation of the little foot by this little wing nut on top. You can see there's only half of a wing nut here. That needs to be pointing uh that way. And then that's the way you can tell. You can see it's up already.

[00:03:20]So, the piston is already up in the bore, but we need to rotate it around and make sure we're on the compression stroke. And this device also allows you to hear compression coming out the top.

[00:03:30]All right. Now, we're going to listen for the compression and watch for the thing to come up.

[00:03:41]There's compression. You probably couldn't hear it, but I could. Now, we're going to watch this thing to come up to the full height of its travel, which is right there.

[00:03:54]So, that's TDC on number one. Now, we come up to the front. So, you can see the rotor's pointing pretty much 12:00, maybe just a little bit to the left of it, but it's it's pretty close. So, I'm going to put a mark on the timing plate just so we'll know where number one actually is when we're trying to start it and get this dialed in. Right about there.

[00:04:19]Of course, this thing rotates just like a regular uh Model T timer, so you can't put your mark on the backing plate of this thing. And before I put the cap back on, I'm going to put a dab of dialectric grease on the cam lobe where the little foot rides for the contact points, you know, to open and close. You don't want that to be dry in there because a little foot could uh wear down more quickly.

[00:04:52]I looked on the inside of the distributor cap just to see where the actual terminal was for number one. And it's just a hair above the circle where it says number one right there. It's just right about there. Let's just put a little dot here because we can.

[00:05:10]So, if we line up this mark with a mark on the timing plate, you know, that's pretty much fully So, I think we're good to go ahead and move on. Now, this particular distributor conversion uh is such that it gets in the way of the fan belt right in here. So, you have to put a idler pulley on this to divert the fan belt around it. And I'll show you that right now. This is a little arm that I made for that last video because I didn't have one. And then I put a nut on there as a spacer because I'll show you why. You take the nut off.

[00:05:45]And this is the idler pulley. The width of the bracket here serves as the spacer for the the arm.

[00:05:56]All right, I think I've got the idler pulley installed correctly with the two arms that are holding the distributor onto the timing plate. And they have to be snug, but this thing has to be able to move, right? So, I think that's good enough. We're going to have to do this uh by hand because we don't have any steering column or linkage controls or anything like that. But that is fine.

[00:06:54]So, just for your information, this bracket here for the fan and this whole fan setup is for pre926.

[00:07:01]There's a little foot here on the bottom of this bracket. And on the earlier motors, there was a adjustment bolt. So you could run the bolt in which would tilt the fan this way or run the bolt out which would tilt the fan the other way. And then you would uh cinch it down with a lock nut and keep it in place. So your belt is tight. Because I'm using an earlier bracket on a 26 engine, it doesn't have anything to keep it in place. So the only thing I'm going to do is just cinch it down extra hard until we get our correct piece.

[00:07:32]So, now is the real test to see if our belt is the right length.

[00:07:40]So, I'm glad these parts are going to work for us. But the way that it's set up now with the pre-26 arm and the stock length belt, the fan is going to be in the lower part of the radiator and actually a little bit off to the left as well compared to what it would be with a 26 27 fan hub mount. You know, we're talking a good 2 or 3 in higher. We could mitigate this to some degree with a longer fan belt. We could move this arm up, set it in a more vertical position. that would move the fan to the right a little bit and also would raise it up. So, I will be looking for a longer fan belt and the correct 2627 fan hub setup. So, everything's raised up a little bit and centered. But, for the time being, I'm happy that this is going to work with just the parts that we had here around the shop. The fact that the fan is a little bit low in the radiator and just a little bit off center to the left should not affect the cooling system by any significant degree. So, I think we're good to go ahead and use what we got set up here for the time being. Looks like the idler pulley has to come out this way a little bit.

[00:08:46]Besides that, I think this is going to work actually. So, this is this is good.

[00:08:50]Uh, let me get this pulled out a little bit so it's more in the center of the belt and I'll bring you right back. All right, I've got it pretty good. Keep your eye on the belt there as I spin it around and the idler pulley. [snorts] I think that's good enough. [sighs] Now for the belt tension. This is kind of the the only question at this point.

[00:09:14]We're going to see if this is going to stay in place for us.

[00:09:19]Don't want to smoke it down too tight and risk breaking something.

[00:09:25]But uh I think that's pretty good.

[00:10:07]All right, the radiator's on there and secure. Even had some new hardware in my drawer for the uh mounting bolts there.

[00:10:15]Use the uh lower radiator assembly from the TT, just like the radiator itself is from the 26T.

[00:10:22]I didn't go to a lot of trouble with the gaskets. I didn't put sealant on anything. We're just going to go with it as is. And uh we'll see if it leaks or not. On this side, I even hooked up the choke rod, so that'll be more convenient for us when we're actually trying to start it. I think now we can go ahead and put some water in this and see if it will hold the water.

[00:10:54]Ah, forgot to close the drain on the bottom of the radiator. That'll get you every time.

[00:11:10]Well, this is no good. We've got a major leak coming out of the side of the block.

[00:11:20]Luckily, this is just a freeze plug leak. You can see the freeze plugs there. Maybe is the size of a nickel.

[00:11:27]And um yeah, she's rotted out. Something fierce. I can make the hole even larger with the screwdriver.

[00:11:35]So, that's too bad. That's going to be a little bit of a setback for me. Um but for you, it'll only be a couple more seconds. I'll get a freeze plug ordered.

[00:11:44]We'll get that installed and then we'll keep moving forward.

[00:11:58]And just like that, we've got our new freeze plug. It's a 13/16 diameter. I couldn't find any that were the right depth because it's pretty shallow in here. There's an internal ring in there that the thing seats against. It's not very far inside the block. So, I got the 13/16 uh freeze plugs and I trimmed them down as far as the length or the depth of them. So, let's hope this is going to work.

[00:12:42]I get them driven in there. And then I go around the perimeter uh with light taps to make sure it's seated all the way. And then you hit the center a little bit harder and the thing expands out like this. And that's how it supposedly makes a seal. So I think I got this one. Uh let's go ahead and put some water in it and see if it holds water now.

[00:13:17]>> [snorts] >> All right, guys. The system is full and that freeze plug is 100% dry. So, that's really good. The system is full of water. And by the way, it's the middle of summer here. It's 100°. And when I'm dealing with unknown coolant systems, I'm not going to be pouring in antifreeze that cost 20 bucks a gallon, right? I'm going to start with a$125 distilled water, see if the system holds liquid, and then if it does, then we have the option of uh putting antifreeze in it after that. But I do not want to put expensive antifreeze in the first time without knowing anything about the system because I would have lost $40 worth of antifreeze with that freeze plug failure. And with the water, I only lost like two and a half bucks. So, if the system continues to hold water, then that's great. We can just leave 100% water in there until the fall. And then I'll drain half the water and fill the top half off with uh antifreeze. The only other thing I'm going to do before we try to start this up is replace the spark plug wires. I won't make you guys watch me do that. That's boring stuff.

[00:14:17]But a couple of these have been spliced.

[00:14:19]They're old. So, I just want to remove these. Start with all new wires and then we'll be good to go. All right. We've got the new spark plug wires installed.

[00:14:28]Got the fuel hooked up. Got the battery hooked up. And made myself a temporary spark control rod so we can and advance the timing from out here by the wheel so I don't have to stick my hand in there where the fan is. The system is holding water so far. So fingers crossed on that. And then if I get it started, we'll be able to keep it running. Now we'll try to tune the engine a little bit.

[00:14:52]So, we're going to remove the ignition system just for a minute. I'm going to crank it over with the choke on maybe four or five times. Then I'll hook the battery back up to it and we'll try to start it.

[00:15:18]Okay. Here we go.

[00:16:14]Heat. Heat.

[00:16:41]Heat.

[00:16:47]Heat.

[00:16:54]Heat.

[00:17:09]Heat.

[00:17:16]Heat. Heat.

[00:17:54]Heat. Heat.

[00:18:18]Heat. Heat.

[00:18:54]Heat. Heat. Heat.

[00:19:46]Sometimes when it's really hot outside and a Model T has gotten hot after you shut it off, you can hear the water boiling in the radiator.

[00:19:54]And this is not a pressurized system, so there's not as much danger of removing the radiator cap when it's hot because there's no pressure to blow out at you.

[00:20:04]Still want to be careful, of course.

[00:20:05]Notice that I'm standing off to the side.

[00:20:10]Yeah, it's still full.

[00:20:12]So, the cooling system is working. The only leaks we got from the cooling system was out the overflow tube because uh when I filled it up, it was a little bit over full. Then, when the water gets hot inside the radiator, it rises up and goes out the overflow tube. So, that's perfectly normal. But, yeah, the cooling system is working. The motor did not overheat. It took me a while to get this thing dialed in before I got a good idle out of it. You know, we just have no idea what's going on internally. We don't know if the valves are any good or if the rings are any good, but it runs pretty much like a model's heat. And then after a while, I was happy with the way it was idling. It sounded pretty good, you know, because it's got no exhaust whatsoever. No muffler, no pipe, no nothing. It's extra loud and it's extra smoky. Yeah. And you have to remember this thing was not run, I think the story goes it was run briefly about 10 years ago and then the guy that owned it for that had it for 20 years and may or may not have run it at all. So, it's been sitting around for a long time uh without being run and that is just not good for engines. So, the best thing is is to run this again and again and let it get to operating temperature and then let it cool down. Let it go through a few heat cycles and then after that then you can really evaluate the way it's running. Um I do want to put some sort of an exhaust pipe on there. I don't know if we need a muffler per se, but I would like an exhaust pipe that goes all the way to the back. We know the ignition system is good. We know the distributor we installed is good. And now that we know where full is, we have a, you know, a better idea of where to start. We don't seem to have any exhaust leaks around the manifold, which is pretty common for these old engines. So, that's good. We don't seem to have any head gasket leaks, so that's really good. For a Model T, it really doesn't leak all that much oil. Just maybe four or five drops here and there.

[00:21:57]I was messing around with the air fuel mix quite a bit, and I think I finally got it set in a place I'm happy with.

[00:22:03]So, I'm happy with the idle. sounds more or less like a Model T should. The advance is another story. Once I advance it and increase the throttle a little bit, then it kind of starts to lope a little bit. I did check all four cylinders with a screwdriver and I could tell that all four were firing.

[00:22:20]So, it's the next day now, and just to satisfy my own curiosity regarding the compression, we're going to do a compression test on this. Granted, we don't have a starter, so I'm going to have to crank it by hand, which is not a very good way to do a compression test, but it's better than nothing. And that'll give me some idea what's going on with the compression between each cylinder. I just want to make sure that they're all, you know, pretty much the same, and we don't have one that's significantly low. Anyway, this will be an easy thing to do real quick, and that'll give me some idea of what's going on. All right, I've got all the spark plugs removed. Got the compression gauge installed in number one. Throttle is wide open. Choke is off. So, uh, let's crank this over and see what we get.

[00:23:20]My compression tester always reads just a little bit low. So, we're going to call that 30 on number one. And uh let's check the rest.

[00:23:39]Number two is about the same at about 30.

[00:23:52]We're going to call number three about 35.

[00:24:06]So, what did that impression test tell us? Well, number one, it told us all four cylinders are about the same.

[00:24:12]you know, 30 to 35 on my gauge. The way I was doing it with a hand crank, I honestly think that um if you had a starter and you could crank the engine faster, those numbers would have been higher. So, in this case, I'm not really paying too much attention to the numbers themselves, just the fact that they're all pretty equal to each other, which is good news. That means we don't have anything really bad going on, like a hole in the top of the piston or really bad rings or, you know, a few really bad valves or something like that.

[00:24:41]Everything seems to be about the same, which is good. So, like I said before, I think the engine is running okay. Uh, it sounds really good at idle, but when I advance the spark, then it doesn't run quite as smoothly. And that was just one of the reasons we did that compression test, just to make sure that all cylinders had compression. Now, there is another thing going on here that some of you may have picked up on and some of you may not have. Now, remember, we don't have an exhaust at all. We've got this homemade cobbled thing that is doing absolutely nothing because it's so loose right up there. So, in effect, we're just running an open header here, which is not terribly good for an engine to run it that way. So, as it is right now, we have zero back pressure. And you might not think that that could affect the way the engine runs, but it can.

[00:25:28]Now, I may be right or wrong on this theory, but I bet you that once we get an exhaust system and or a muffler hooked up to this engine, the engine is going to run differently.

[00:25:40]And that's one of the things I'm going to try in the next video. We're going to install an exhaust system. Might even try to source a drive shaft in a steering column. So, if everything else is okay, maybe we can sit on the frame and get this thing to drive a little bit. I don't know about that, but I do know this is going to be a fun project.

[00:25:57]So, subscribe if you haven't already so you don't miss the videos coming up.

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