Half-Breed Oil Field Engine Powers Allis WC Tractor

Half-Breed Oil Field Engine Powers Allis WC Tractor AG WORLD 29-1-23 You won't find another tractor anywhere like the one put together by Jim Hunter of Carey, Ohio, who mounted a Thomas "half-breed" oil field engine on a stretched-out 1936 Allis-Chalmers WC tractor. The engine runs on liquid propane. The tractor has a big 4-ft. dia. flywheel on one side and a water cylinder fitted with two big tubes on front. The seat was replaced with a metal deck on which the driver stands. "I take it to shows and county fairs, where it draws a lot of attention," says Hunter. "It has a big 4-in. dia. exhaust stack on front so whenever I start it up it really barks." The story begins 20 years ago when Hunter got the engine from a family relative in West Virginia. He didn't have a trailer to set the engine on, but he did have the Allis Chalmers tractor with a blown engine. So he removed the engine, lengthened the frame by 40 in., and set the oil field engine in there. Then he shoved the tractor back in the corner of a barn where it sat until 1 1/2 years ago when they started working on it. The "half breed" engine was made by Oil City Boiler Works and was designed so it can be powered by either steam or liquid propane gas via a conversion kit. Hunter's uncle found the engine in West Virginia, where it was originally equipped with a boiler and used as a steam engine and used to drive an oil drilling rig. Once they got the first well drilled and producing natural gas, they converted it to run on natural gas, which of course was free. The engine's big flywheel, originally used to belt-drive an oil drilling rig, now is used to belt-drive the tractor's original belt pulley. A 5 hp Briggs & Stratton engine, mounted on the deck, is used to start the engine. The engine belt-drives a hydraulic pump, which drives a hydraulic motor which chain-drives the tractor's original transmission to spin the tractor pulley which in turn turns the engine over to start it. (Both the pump and the motor came off an old combine). Once the engine is started, Hunter shuts off the Briggs and Stratton engine and uses the oil field engine to belt-drive the tractor using the same belt. The oil field engine is water-cooled. Hot water comes out the top of the cylinder on front of the tractor and gets cooled as it runs up under the hood through two long copper tubes with fins. From there the water goes into the tractor's original gas tank. The tractor has a hot tube ignition system. A 3/4-in. dia. nickel-plated tube on the end of the water cylinder is welded shut at the top. A torch heats part of the tube red hot. Every time the piston goes forward it shoves the fuel mix up into the tube, and when the fuel mix hits the hot spot on the tube, the engine fires. Hunter also set up a system for spark plug ignition as an alternative to hot tube ignition. It makes use of a Ford Model T spark plug and buzz box ignition. "The tractor runs a lot smoother on hot tube ignition, which is why usually use that, but it's cheaper to run on spark plug ignition because you're not burning propane just to keep the tube red hot. "I spent a lot of long evenings trying to figure everything out," says Hunter. "I push a lever to tighten the belt in order to start the oil field engine, and I stand on another lever to engage the belt which makes the tractor go forward. The tractor moves too slow to run it in parades." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Jim Hunter, 204 Zanetta Lane, Carey, Ohio 43316 (ph 419 396-6445).

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