Letters- Block Repair Gets the Job Done

Enlarge Image Image Gallery Alan Easley

I’ve enclosed a photo of a block repair that my son, Greg, and I did on my grandson Stephen’s Farmall C.

We cut a patch 2-1/2- by 12 inches out of 1/8-inch flat plate. We heated it and bent it to fit the curve of the block, then drilled 11-1/4-inch holes in the plate, and then marked the block and drilled holes in it the proper size to tap. The metal on these old water jackets is pretty thin, so you don’t want to apply too much pressure while drilling. If you pop some metal off the inside when the bit goes through, the remaining metal will be too thin for threads. Please don’t ask me how I know this, just take my word for it.

We then ground a V in the crack, and filled it with J-B Weld, then applied a liberal coat of high-temperature gasket cement to the block, and bolted the patch on with 1/4- by 3/4-inch stove bolts.

We patched this block in 2002. Stephen enters the tractor in 10 to 15 tractor pulls every year, plus I occasionally rake hay with the tractor and use it to sow clover seed each spring. So far the patch has not given any trouble. It doesn’t look pretty enough to use on a show tractor, but it works great for what we do with it.

Alan Easley, 8300 E. Turner Farm Rd., Columbia, MO 65201; (573) 442-0678.