The Fordson Tractor Pages Forum

Backstory of this County: My father purchased the tractor in 1998 with a seized engine, I was eight years old at the time. The story is that the previous owner had a large blade mounted to the tractor and hit an object with the blade. The cast sump cracked, the tractor ran dry of oil and seized. Dad found a 2715E engine from a New Holland 1400 combine at an auction in the year 2004. The engine was running as I remember following him back to my grandfather's where he removed the engine and sold the combine. I inherited the tractor in 2007 and unfortunately the tractor and engine sat basically untouched until the summer of 2022.

The purpose of this thread is to document this project:



One of the first images of the tractor after my father purchased.







Where the County sat untouched until 2016 when I moved to my temporary home.





The County arriving at my temporary home where it sat some more.





The County now arriving at my permanent home later in 2016.... where it will sit some more.







Officially starting the project in 2022.



Unfortunately, my now permanent home does not have a shop to work in, only a gravel floor pole shed where the County was stored. The attached garage will have to do.

Original post edited above.

Tractor split with engine removed.









Sump removed.

Evidence of the cracked oil sump. You can see where the previous tried to silicone it.









Crack confirmed.




Not really sure how the last owner 'ran' it dry of oil - as the crack is fairly high up on the sump.

Disassembling the old engine to see what the cause of the failure was and what parts could be salvaged:













Found the issue: #6 bearing.

Took the sump for repair to a specialty cast iron welding shop in the city. Overall, very impressed with the repair, mating surface is all within .003" which seems to be the tolerance across the whole surface.






Only had to do a few minor touch ups myself with hand files.

Clutch condition was extremely bad. Actually, rusted to itself and took some persuasion to disassemble. The specialty clutch shop in the city (I actually remember going to with my grandfather when he was a mechanic!) was able to machine and resurface.







Badly rusted.






Machined and resurfaced.

Doner engine 2715E from a New Holland 1400 combine.

Was really hoping this was going to be a simple engine swap. Unfortunately discovered a leaking rear main seal.




Leaking rear main.








Onto the engine stand it goes for further inspection.







Pulled the rear main cap off to replace the seal and noticed the wear on the bearing. Might as well install new main bearings while its apart.







And this is where I am at as of today: After inspecting the cylinder liners from below I noticed some slight rusting on the liners from the where the piston rings have been sitting in position for the last ~18 years. After alot of back and forth, I have decided to pull the head and remove the pistons for further inspection. Will probably (at minimum) install new piston rings and re-hone the liners.

Currently waiting on part availability confirmation. Difficult and expensive to get parts to Canada. Lots of these parts are readily available in the UK but shipping to Canada is expensive. Found a supplier in the USA, just waiting on confirmation. Alot of these engines are used in marine applications and seem to be readily available especially near the coastal regions.


Any comments are welcome, feedback is appreciated.

Wow you have been busy.
Need to ckeck if the oil scrapers, they might have done sime damage to the cilinder bore.
Are you going to refurbish the head also?
I m working on a simular engine now. And I m also doing the rear crank seal. It just seems to hold down the crank from spinning.

Cylinder bore looks fine from the bottom, once I pull the head and remove the pistons further inspection is required from the top.

Will see what kind of shape the head is in when its removed. I'll probably replace the valve 'umbrella' seals at minimum. Dont think anything major will be required as this engine was running fine before - hopefully.

Finally found a pair of lift arms at a local tractor wrecker completely by accident. Stepped on one in the snow and dug the other up a short distance away. They seem to fit the County! Just have to make sure they fit the knuckle assembly on the 3 point hitch arms next.






Seems to fit!


I also found a booster/assist cylinder from another tractor. Trying to figure out how to modify to fit the County. Brackets look simple to build - does anyone know how the hydraulic plumbing on these work?



Booster/assist cylinder.




County configuration.

Need to order a thermostat. Does anyone know what the correct opening temperature of the thermostat is?

That cab is quite something! Where's the door?

Cab was one of the first things to be scrapped after purchase - don't think it ever came with a door?