You won’t always see stories about shiny, showroom-quality restorations in this column, and there are a couple of reasons for that. I prefer good, complete, original machines that are still in their “work clothes” and “knee deep in rubber,” but which still require some tinkering.

You can tell more about the true identity of the machines, what they’ve been through and learn something about the people that used them, when they are left in their original condition. Don’t get me wrong, I like a nice paint job, but you have to be so particular not to damage them in some way.

And remember, a quick pressure wash or steam off with a paint job over the grease that was missed by the pressure washer isn’t a restoration.

When you think about the sound of an ol’ antique tractor, what comes to mind? Is it the bouncing governor of a finely tuned Farmall tooling around the farm or the rhythmic pop-pop-pop of a two-cylinder John Deere? Maybe it’s the long stroke lull of a Minneapolis-Moline or the sweet sounding purr of an Allis-Chalmers.

Well, the first tractor that comes to mind for me would be one of my personal favorites, the Oliver 990 with its three-cylinder “Screaming Jimmy” diesel engine. The 990 is definitely a far cry from the smooth, six-cylinder Oliver engine running like a sewing machine with its occasional gulp-gulp sound.

In the mid- to late 1950s, Oliver began experimenting with engines from outside sources. They needed a higher horsepower engine to keep up with other manufacturers of that era.

After much planning and testing, they went with General Motors and the two-cycle, three-cylinder “3-71 Detroit” diesel engine. It was first used as the power plant of the Oliver Super 99, which preceded the 990 as the next wave of Oliver farm power debuted.

The Massey Ferguson 98 was built by Oliver and used the same engine. The Massey 98 was an Oliver 990 painted red and grey with a different grill configuration to more closely resemble the other Massey Fergusons of that period. There is actually Massey red paint showing through under the fading Oliver meadow green on the steering column and seat frame of my 990.

These engines were very versatile and were used in many different military and marine applications. Some of the engine components could even be used on opposite ends of the engine; the head can be reversed and I think I’ve heard the engine can even run backwards!

Weighing in at roughly 12,000 pounds (with heavy rear hubs and ballast) and delivering about 65 horsepower at the drawbar, the 990 was used mostly for heavy tillage and other drawbar work. They tested about 84 horsepower on the power take-off (PTO), but not all of them were equipped with PTO from the factory, like mine. Most did have hydraulics to raise and lower plows and other implements.

I’d say when farmers stepped up to a machine this powerful, they thought they really had it made (as long as they left the muffler on).

The 990 certainly seems to be a crowd pleaser at shows, parades and tractor pulls, or really anywhere. Sometimes I get questions when I’m fueling up on the way to an event. People come over to the truck to look at it and inevitably ask, “Is that a blower on the side of the engine?” Of course, the answer is yes – it’s a gear-driven supercharger. Then they want to hear it run and are amazed when it cranks with a deep rumble then revs to a scream when I open it up.

There is really nothing else that sounds like it, and it’s almost impossible to carry on a conversation standing next to it because it’s so loud. At tractor pulls, I would have to depend on someone to tell me when it was my turn because there was no way I could hear the announcer (and that was at idle).

After one pull, Dad said the announcer had shouted, “Y’all reckon we could chop corn with that thing?” as I was screaming down the track. I’m sure the neighbors where I grew up had some rude awakenings when I would take it out for a test drive after midnight.

I guess nobody ever said anything because they knew how much I enjoyed it or maybe they secretly liked it. People everywhere I go just love to hear this thing run.

There is really no comparison between the sound of a Detroit and a conventional tractor engine that we all may think of sometimes. The main reason for this is because it’s a two-cycle engine. Each stroke of the engine is a power stroke, meaning it is getting fuel and firing in each direction the piston moves and, therefore, the pistons must have rings on each end.

The engine block is a hollow air intake chamber and the sleeves have air ports in the middle, which allow the supercharger to blow air into the system. The engine’s need for plenty of air led to the tractor requiring dual air intake breathers and since the air is forced internally, the engine doesn’t have intake valves, only two exhaust valves per cylinder.

To make the 3-71 run more efficiently, the two-valve head is often upgraded to a four-valve-per-cylinder head. This seems to cure the fuel/oil “slobbering” issues that sometimes develop over time and also increases power. When we got this tractor, it had a cracked sleeve so we had to rebuild the engine. Going through all that gave me some good experience and education on how these things work.

I guess I could go on and on about this tractor and Oliver tractors in general. I could even talk about the Oliver 995 Lugmatic that has the same engine as the 990, but it has a torque convertor, which makes it even more collectible.

What I’m trying to say is that Oliver truly was “the finest in farm machinery,” and the engineers back in those days took an impressively innovative approach to the design and development of their machines.

We will look at this more in the future. But for now, if your curiosity has gotten the best of you and you’ve never heard a 3-71 Detroit run, type it into an online search and check it out. It may be in a tractor, generator or even just sitting in the floor of someone’s shop.

So go ahead and make sure your speakers are turned all the way up for full effect. Better yet, go out to a tractor show or pull, and support your local collector organizations and maybe you will hear one there. You’ll be glad you did.  

Introducing Lance Phillips

Lance and his father, David, have been collecting tractors, a few crawlers, various equipment and memorabilia for about 20 years, but Lance’s papaw had a Massey Ferguson 135 and an Allis-Chalmers WD that they used on the farm.

When Lance was about 14, he and his dad got their first old tractor, a Farmall M. They found it sitting in a vacant lot on a back street of a nearby town and that was it – they had a case of “classic tractor fever,” and it’s only gotten worse from there (or better depending on your point of view).

They enjoy all the major tractor brands but tend to lean more towards Oliver and IHC. They are members of the Old Glade Antique Tractor Association headquartered in Glade Spring, Virginia.

PHOTO: Phillips’ 1959 Oliver 990 with a GM diesel motor on display at the Food City Family Race Night event in Bristol, Tennessee. Photo provided by Lance Phillips.