The 192 Ford engine: a great upgrade for tractors in the Ford hundred series

Jan 05, 2017

One of the most reliable power units money can buy

IN THE SHOP with Rachel

By Rachel Gingell
Farms.com

The 192 Ford engine is worth the price either as a stand-alone power unit or as an inexpensive upgrade to a Ford tractor.

The 192 Ford power unit gets its common name from the motor size – 192 cubic inches. This fantastic engine was sold as a stand-alone unit at Ford tractor dealerships across North America. It was never factory installed into a Ford tractor, although it was designed as an easy bolt-in upgrade for tractors in the Ford hundred series – 600, 700, 800 or 900.

As a stand-alone power unit, the 192 is phenomenal. It’s consistent, easy to start, gets a reasonable fuel economy and is relatively simple to work on. These power units were commonly used in industrial operations, but you’ll find them on farms as well. Plenty of parts are available – some even interchange with the 800 Ford.

The 192 power unit really gets fun, though, when you swap it out for an engine in one of the hundred-series Ford tractors. The 192 was designed for this, so it’s a simple switch. When done well, the only giveaway is the different location of the fuel pump.

On larger model tractors, this can be a good way to get more bang for your buck, upping the horsepower of a standard 800 or 900 Ford –even 2000 and 4000 Ford tractors with a four-cylinder gas engine. This was the original intention of the 192 - an economical upgrade for farmers who needed to get more horsepower without purchasing an entire new tractor. The 192 engine lives up to this intention and performs beautifully.

On smaller models, the 192 power unit turns the 600 or 700 Ford into a fabulous pulling tractor. The power offered by the 192 engine is a massive upgrade – so much that it would overpower the rear end if used for everyday farming. For occasional tractor pulling, though, the rear end will hold up just fine. A 600 Ford modified in this way could pull in the 3,250 lb farm class and could be quite competitive. It’s a cheap thrill that’s very manageable for intermediate mechanics.

Video: Western Canadian Agriculture: Hard Times Made the World's Best Farmers

Western Canadian agriculture produced the most advanced farmers in the world not through abundance but through adversity. The crow rate fell. The wheat price went nowhere. The brown envelopes stopped.

When the subsidies disappeared, the bad farmers left and the good ones stayed. And the ones who stayed could not just grow wheat anymore. They started growing lentils and canola and peas and flax and faba beans. They built crop rotation. They got serious about agronomy because there was no government backstop. That process produced the Western Canadian agriculture Dennis Bulani describes in this clip: the most advanced, most educated farming culture in the world.

His contrast with Iowa corn and soybean farmers is sharp. At a DeKalb farmer meeting in Okoboji, Iowa, he asked what crop rotation they ran. Beans on corn stubble, corn on bean stubble. How do you fertilize? The co-op agronomist handles it. Have you considered other crops? No need. We make so much money on corn and soybeans. Western Canadian agriculture was never allowed that comfort. And now those Iowa farmers are watching soybean markets lock up with China and corn prices slide, and they do not have the agronomy knowledge or the research base to pivot. Western Canadian farmers adapted on a dime because they had done it before.

Dennis also makes the case that Western Canadian agriculture keeps adapting in real time. Low commodity prices over the past year have pushed growers to look seriously at precision spot-spray technology. He knows a neighbor who bought a sprayer with the seeing-eye system and sprayed only 80 out of 320 acres. As a chemical retailer Dennis acknowledges that will affect his sales. He supports it anyway, because if it advances Canadian agriculture and makes farmers money, that is a good outcome.

The lesson Dennis draws from the tale of two farms: continuous improvement is the only durable strategy. When canola was $22 a bushel some growers went to Arizona instead of the Crop Production Show. When the price came down those same growers came back to the research and the discipline. Products do not go on Rack Petroleum's shelves unless they pass a replicated trial first. That is what Western Canadian agriculture built through hard times: farmers who do the work whether the times demand it or not.

Dennis Bulani is CEO of Rack Petroleum and Ultimate Yield in Biggar, Saskatchewan. Dan Aberhart hosts GTF Productions, Western Canadian Agriculture's foremost live briefing platform and its foremost AI training platform for ag operators