My D15 Series 1 Build

peterh wrote: awesome story, great tractor- love the advice on this site, but love stories like this even more

Thank you for your comments. the tractor means a lot to me. A lot of learning occurred on that seat and lots of good times with my grandpa and that tractor.

I think these forums are helpful for the advice as well but as you mention I enjoy the stories too. When I was looking for photos and details I was having a hard time finding a ton of D15 info so I figured I would take lots of pics and document everything I could so that others had a resource if they were new to these tractors as far as going through certain areas of them.

Well a little more progress.
I got all my Pistons out and rods swapped over to the new Pistons. Incredibly the engine is very clean and show little to no wear on any of the bearings.


So far I only have 2 of the liners out and they are a bastard to get out. I made my own pulled but without a Torrington bearings the all thread binds up and I am using a steel rod from the underside to strike my puller base under the liner to get them to pop free.


And I have been working on the dyno that I have accessible to me to get it setup for a run in of the new motor. It's a bit big at 800 horse so it should hold whatever I throw at it with the D15!

Make sure you set the ignition timing with a timing light and at full throttle to the FIRE mark or F or F-25 whatever the flywheel is marked at. I always use lighter oil for break-in, like a 5W-20 or 5W-30.

I know nothing about dyno's, but that is a cool looking unit!!
Great documentation! Like the picture of the ship in its work clothes too!
I agree that the status and progression pictures may just help another AC guy with a D15 project.
Lots of good resources on here too!
 Don (MO) should be in your cell phone!:)
Regards,
 Chris

Good info thanks! Ill do some reports on what she does when I get her together, tuned a bit and hooked up to the "Judge" as we call our dyno.

Joe,
Did you notice anything different in cranking speeds or load on the starter after you installed these pistons in your D14?

  
  Hey BigRed,,,NAW,,,the original 149 engine was tore down when I bought the tractor,,so I have no clue bout the difference if any. I bought an engine from Iowa and it is the one that has the pop-up pistons, and is in the tractor as we speak,,,,I would of thought with that much difference in squish area would of bounced the compression up more than just one point,,but I didn't run the numbers before I lashed it up after the overhaul.
   Fact is,,,you've got me to thinkin,,and I may run a compression test on it just for funs,,,,

  Hey Dan,,I hear what you're sayin,,,but don't make sense to fashion a piston with the pop-ups, obviously to bump the compression ratio but then again with the flat head the 149's use, you would have to be very meticulous in verifying the piston/valve clearance,,which I did on mine,,,but can't remember what the clearance was but seems like it was way more than I would have wanted if I had bought those pistons with the idea of lookin for more horse power,,,, I also intended to CC the total area of the combustion chamber for my curiousity,,and forgot that little tidbit,,,,,
  Maybe ole BigRed will do all these checks to clear up some questions for us,,,hint,,,hint,,,, 

   DANG,,,Big Red,,,,how many turbos did you strap on thet engine,,,,?????

looking good

Video of the second start after I adjusted valve lash. I am bumping the engine rpm up and down checking for hesitations. Prior to the build the throttle response was nowhere near this snappy.
https://youtu.be/uaKb7YodlL8


Edited by bigredisb - 27 Aug 2016 at 10:10pm

That's good info for sure. I am not going for all out power. Just dependable and clean running tune. I will admit today was timing day and I was a bit bewildered for a little bit as I couldn't find any f marks on the front pulley! I did find it in the bell housing hole so life is good. It was set about 6 or 7 degrees retarded. I turned the dizzy until "F25" at wot was clearly visible in the window. The engines tone is much deeper at this setting especially at idle and the exhaust flow seems much higher as the rain cap used to bang and clang up and down with the timing retarded. I ended up giving a little more fuel on the idle and fast speed mixture screws as well to smooth her out a bit. I put points in it a year ago but I am not certain I had it at tdc and rocking the dizzy to verify they were just opening so I may need to redo that. It starts great with no kicking and runs smooth all the way through the rpm range.

Yes I checked it at full throttle. That's what I meant with my acronym of "wot" or wide open throttle.
I also took the dizzy apart and cleaned and lubed the advance mechanism as well.
Just got done servicing the wheel bearings as well. They looked good but one was way out of adjustment (loose).
I also just ordered some decent copper plug wires from a guy that posts on here (bb electric or something like that).
Also got my bottomless toolbox off. All of the carriage bolts that pass through the tool box were spinning so I welded nuts to the heads to get them out as well as welded up some random holes in the sheet metal up front from what appears to have been wire routing for random lights.

Edited by bigredisb - 28 Aug 2016 at 8:12pm

Are you getting water in the oil? Almost sounds to me like a pump fighting water issues.

Also looking for some advice on what paint I need to be using.
Persian Orange 1 or 2 for a 61?

Found this great post but not sure what colors I should be using other than Crème:

Paint codes

Edited by bigredisb - 29 Aug 2016 at 10:16am