Engine in JD 105 conbine

[wjkrostek]

I need a combine next year to combine about  20 acres of oats and have found a JD 105 I can use if I replace the engine.  The owner says he has worked on the one in there now some years ago and he couldn't fix the leak in the engine so the coolant runs into the oil.  So if I want to use  it  he wants me to replace it.  Does anyone have any ideas on what type of car or pick up engine I can find in a junk yard to replace it. One that is an easy replacement for the jd gas engine thats in there now.  I think  this engine might be the same engine that was in the JD 95 combine also but I don't  know for sure. Any ideas would be helpful.  Thanks

[centralillinois]

Contact a neighbor and offer to haul in  for a couple days if he'll combine twenty acres of oats.  Or buy a 105 for a thousand bucks at a sale.  What you'll spend on another engine and your labor is worth far more than combining twenty acres of oats.  Unless you've got the proper equipment, replacing a combine motor can be dangerous.

[kraft-t]

Just hire it done. You can get a good machine and a good operator. There is no repair bill or flat tires and it's all tax deductible. Even at $50 per acre custom hire you would be money ahead.

[wjkrostek]

Where I live in Alaska it's not possible to get a machine or hire it done.  There is only one man with a combine that I pay 100/ AC but he may not want to do it any more.    He has a JD4420 which should be an upgrade from the 105. How can you do corn if you can't do oats?

He thinks he is ruining his machine on my oats and he is from what I seen, it's hard on the machine. So I may have to  stop growing or fix this other combine. I would rather fix the machine than quit growing the oats. He says my oats are too tall and can't go through his combine without having problems. He tried to do only the tops and it still plugged up. 

I don't know how to run a combine so I can't help him with the machine problem but I think it may be a machine problem more that a crop problem.  This is the 6 year he has done this and every year it seems to get harder.  The straw raps around the beater.  They are damp and tuff but the weather up here is not made for growing grain.  The grain can be dry <16% and the straw wet. > 30%

This year I had to cut the straw with the oats on because he just couldn't get it done in time.  He had his own barley to do and he needed to move the machine some miles away.  So I cut it just before the snow came.   My oats are tall because the real market is in the straw for dog musher's.   Most horse people up here don't know what to do with grain they just buy  complete feed from feed stores but I do get it sold a few bags at a time. Everyone up here seems to think they have $20,000 horses that need special stuff.

[James22]

You certainly aren't in an enviable situation.  However no way would I purchase a replacement engine and do the labor and not have at least some % ownership.  I've cut a little wheat with damp straw using a walker machine and it certainly is tough going.   Would it be possible to buy and transport a small/medium sized combine from one of the local Canadian provinces or Washington state without breaking the bank?  Perhaps might be able to get some custom harvesting to sweeten the investment.

[wjkrostek]

James thanks for your response. You talked about a walker machine and I understand (I think ) the straw walker. Is there a different type? I know nothing about combining but I'm ready to learn. I saw an add for a JD 6600 in MT. for $2500 but I don't know anything about these machines but the price seems OK.  Looks well taken care of for such an old machine but it's 3000 miles from me. Getting stuff in Canada is not as easy as it used to be because of our import duties and a host of other problems.  It will cost more than twice that to get it here (I'll bet).  It's not the cost so much as it will never pay for it's self.  I might work it out some how.  I do want to continue to farm the oats and produce the weed free straw for the musher's. They love it and I like doing it.  I'm sure all the combines  are over 8.5 Ft wide so trucking it up here would be a problem for me and extra costly. Cheapest would be shipping on a barge out of Seattle WA. and that isn't cheap.

Seems to me if there is a used replacement engine sitting in a junk yard, that would be the most cost effective way to handle the problem.  No shipping just the work.  I might be wrong but it doesn't look like an impossible task to change it out. It would be nice if someone knew what engine fit it because they did that already. Got any ideas or do you know someone?    I'm sure the JD 105 will still have the same problems as the JD 4420.  But then it would be my problem to work with and I wouldn't need to go somewhere else while I fight the weather.  There will be no one else for custom work, that is  until his combine breaks then I'll see if he will pay me $100/ AC but I'll bet he wouldn't .

Any ideas are welcome and thanks for your time.

Bill

[siloguy]

The engine appears to be a 362 gas JD engine or a 404 diesel in the 105 or the same engine as a 4020 tractor. Like most combine engines, it probably has different outside features such as oil pan, manifolds and plumbing It was rated at 105hp and the 95 combine engine was rated at 90 hp. (but may work and fit OK. ) I wouldn't try to swap in a different brand engine where I live, but Alaska is a different ball game and I would probably try it if I owned the thing had a long winter in a heated shop  and a suitable JD engine wasn't available.  Ialso  think the coolant leak could be fixed by a decent mechanic and it likely to be a sleeve or gasket problem. The 292 gas Chevy engine was used in lots of combines, pickups and even school buses, is about 100 hp. and parts are cheap, so that would be a possibility.