Hi folks,

As some of you may know my other interest besides Mopars is tractors and I am currently restoring one. The engine on the tractor has not run in 15 years or more and is going to need to get rebuilt; which I will attempt to do myself with my stepdads help as I never rebuilt a small engine and he has.

There is a tractor show the first weekend of May (or Mother's Day weekend) that you can drive your tractor around at, and I would like to possibly if I can to get the engine running so I can drive the tractor around as is.

I REALLY like and MUCH prefer NOS parts and would like to use some in my engine such as rubbery piston rings, gaskets etc BUT i also know that these parts are 50+ years old. My 2 questions to all you folks is....

1) do or did you use rubbery NOS parts in your engines, and

2) do you advise me to?? I'm pretty sure I could if I seal everything correctly and rebuild the engine the right way and not half ass, BUT my stepdad seems to think that 50+ year old NOS rubbery parts like piston rings, gaskets etc is NOT a good idea because technically it would be like starting at square one before I rebuilt the engine.

I would really like to know your thoughts, opinions, and advice

Thanks in advance!

Depends.

Is this an odd deal that the only parts available are NOS, as in old stuff? No newer parts available from the OE? Quality, new, up to date tech, premium brand parts would be preferable. Offshore cheap crap is everywhere for cars, trucks, whatever. Some stuff is hard to find that isn't. That would be last resort for me.

There has to be a big tractor part supply online place. See what they have. Ebay as well if you are careful. Plenty of trash on there as well.

A lot of NOS parts are junk after 50 years of sitting in a warehouse. I've thrown away tons of NOS parts over the past 10 years because the steel was covered in rust or the gaskets had turned to powder or the rubber had become hard as rock. Inspect everything, if you think the parts will work then use them. If the parts are junk then toss them. One thing you can do with NOS parts is to use them to confirm that aftermarket parts are built correctly. A lot of aftermarket parts are junk too but for a different reason. Aftermarket parts, especially stuff built offshore, is often built to the wrong dimensions.

I forgot to mention that the tractor engine is an HH60 6 horsepower horizontal shaft Tecumseh.

These are what I'm referring to.....

https://www.ebay.com/itm/144452648235?_trkparms=amclksrc%3DITM%26aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20180816085401%26meid%3D5dd33cc4096f4ac0abe54721814b0a68%26pid%3D100970%26rk%3D9%26rkt%3D15%26sd%3D233957068845%26itm%3D144452648235%26pmt%3D0%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D2380057%26brand%3DTecumseh&_trksid=p2380057.c100970.m5481&_trkparms=pageci%3Ac114a95f-afde-11ec-89f5-8e883158967a%7Cparentrq%3Ad900c16017f0a74475f55c24ffffbf46%7Ciid%3A1

Tecumseh hasn't built an engine in like 12 years.
LCT parts will work on many instances , since Lauson Cumbustion Technologies is what they morphed into.
New parts ? Chi-Com re-pops is it.
We re-power with Honda or Briggs and Stratton a lot of stuff , but getting new engines is a crap shoot too...........some of the Honda motors are 6 months to a year out.

A part like that would probably be ok , there is nothing rubber about a piston ring.

Old rubber parts will probably not be good. I myself have a bunch of gasket sets I bought over a decade ago that the rubber parts are probably not any good still.

It is a lawn tractor unfortunately not a farm tractor. This is the exact one here I'm restoring.....

It shouldn't be hard to find rings for that. Years ago I needed to rering a 1 hp portable Craftsman air compressor and I used a lawn mower engine ring, 3.5hp Tecumseh I think it was ...

On automotive engines, I do not like to use NOS parts. Because 50 years of advancement in technology now provides much better parts.
But for that old Tecumseh, I would guess new parts are probably from offshore and of dubious quality. Unless you can establish otherwise, I would put those NOS parts in it, as long as they are clean and undamaged.

contact Dave at : ottogasengines.com
he has rings for just about anything on the planet, and can custom make rings up to 89" in diameter !
that's right ! 89 INCHES in diameter !!!
i just purchased rings from him for a 1939 standard twin garden tractor. perfect fit, priced right, and shipped fast !