In addition to the trio above, there’s the somewhat notorious, four-cylinder, 2,258cc Standard-built 23C diesel engine. All three of these engines are referred to as the ‘87mm engine’ in MF parts books (the bore size). A 2,186.5cc spark-ignition engine was offered with the three fuelling options of straight petrol, petrol/TVO and lamp oil. There were two basic engines available for the FE 35.
#Massey ferguson to 35 engine types driver
While the standard model offered little in the way of driver comfort and controls, the more popular De Luxe version delivered additional benefits of ownership, such as a cushion seat (over the standard’s TE-20-style metal pan), a tractormeter, a dual clutch (over the standard’s single-plate affair) and a luxury footrest assembly.Īnother one of Mike’s tractors at the Coldridge Collection, this time it’s a well-restored FE 35 Industrial. The FE 35 was offered in both ‘standard’ and ‘De Luxe’ variants. For this reason alone, this buyers’ guide will be based on the FE 35 produced from its initial launch in 1956, to the point in November 1959, when the three-cylinder Perkins engine replaced the Standard Motor Company’s four-cylinder 23C unit. It’s unclear when Massey Ferguson ceased to call the 35 the FE 35, but research has led me to believe it was soon after the change to the three-cylinder Perkins diesel engine, as product information from the time introduced the 3-A-152-engined model as the ‘FE 35 Tractor with New Engine’.
#Massey ferguson to 35 engine types full
After just one full year of production, the FE 35 would be given the MF re-branding treatment to become the more common red and grey farm tractor. Initially sold with a blend of Ferguson grey tinwork and a striking gold skid unit this tractor is, unsurprisingly, now better known to us all as the ‘Grey & Gold’, or ‘Copper Belly’ for those living to the west of the Irish Sea. The engineers would need to come up with a new machine that retained the same vital statistics in terms of wheelbase and link arm geometry provided on the previous TE-20 models, which would render the TE-20’s implements ‘backwardly compatible’ yet innovate in other areas to ensure Ferguson’s market dominance continued. Times were changing, the TE-20 was getting on in years but customers were sold on – indeed, embedded in – the entire Ferguson system. The problem that faced Ferguson’s design engineers must have been extremely daunting. With a wide range of implements to complement these hugely capable tractors, Harry Ferguson had skilfully created an entire system of mechanised farming. By 1956, the TE-20 had been produced for some 10 years or so and had, quite literally, revolutionised farming throughout the developed world. Initially available from October 1956, the Ferguson 35 was launched into a market full of customers with almost impossibly high expectations. What I’m trying to say is that, before the FE 35, Ferguson’s only previous model range was the TE-20. In evolutionary terms, it’s fair to say that the FE 35 (Ferguson, England, 35hp), was launched in the equivalent period where tractors had just begun to walk upright, but were still scraping their hairy knuckles along the ground!
Every classic Massey Ferguson model can be traced backwards through its ‘DNA’. I usually start my buyers’ guides with a bit of a history lesson. Buyer’s guide: Ferguson 35: A fine example of a diesel-powered Ferguson 35, owned by Bob Newton.