450B Transmission and Engine Swap

[AfrazWoodworks]

I was given a 450B Crawler that fell victim to sabotage someone pulled the transmission drain plug and poured sugar in the gas tank. Not sure if it might be worth trying to rebuild the transmission? Engine has hole through the block. Thinking the most straightforward route would be to find a working engine and transmission and just swap them out.

How can I tell what engines and transmissions are interchangeable with the 450B?

Not sure as it's a smaller model but I was able to find a 350BE transmission, any ideas if this may fit?

[Stan Disbrow]

Hi,

Nothing I know of is interchangeable between the 350 and 450 series. 3-cyl engine v 4-cyl. Different transmission designs. Different final drive units. Different track systems. Etc,

Stan

[Al Swearengen]

How do you know the trans is bad? As for the block, my friend restores pre-war Rolls-Royce autos and swears by stitching -

https://www.metalockengineering.com/en/ ... -stitching

[Jim B]

You posted sugar was put in the gas tank. Does it have a gas engine? A 450B should have a 4-cylinder 219 CID diesel engine. If it is diesel the 4219 engine was used in a lot of JDs, not just crawlers around that time frame. Some air compressors and generators also used the 4219. You should be able to find a good used running engine (or block if you want to do a rebuild). (And to avoid confusion, if it is a diesel engine you have a fuel tank, not a gas tank.) If it is a gas engine further checking needs to be done as the straight 450 was the last to use a gas engine I believe.

As Al asked How do you know the transmission is bad? What do you have for info that says the steering and final drives are ok?

[AfrazWoodworks]

Thanks for the replies! Sorry I couldn't get on here sooner. I definitely have to explore the machine more before buying parts and attempting to fix. My mix up about the fuel tank, it's a diesel engine. I am thinking the transmission is bad based on the quote the owner had to fix the machine 14 years ago after the damage occured. Being that long ago and word of mouth is there any way I can get an idea of transmission visually before swapping engine? They had just spent 15k on all around maintenance before the incident so that gives me hope that its not in too bad of shape besides from sitting

I was able to find a transmission and engine for it if I do decide to repair.

The other dilemma I am having is that it has the blade arm with manual side to side. Is there any way to convert it to a loader attachment, say if I found a parts machine and had the whole setup available. Looks like it may not be an easy swap though.

I guess this might be the biggest issue for me, I'm not afraid of some fabrication to make this happen. But want to be sensible.

If I can't make it into a loader I'm thinking it wouldn't be worth the work to get it running and then hope to sell or trade for other equipment. So in that case I would just have to sell for parts/fix up

[AfrazWoodworks]

I've done a lot of googling and couldn't find any mention of someone trying to add a loader to a 450B that did not have one previously.i realize there would be a lot of work involved, does anyone have any thoughts on the feasibility of this idea?

Also would need to do a better overall check on the machine myself as it has been sitting for a good 14 years and relying on the owner's words that everything else should be functioning well isn't a good start.

[B Town]

Everyone is different. Here is the path for me. Keep this crawler, find a crawler with loader (same build/model). Use the free crawler as a donor, not if needed but when needed for breakdowns on the track loader which you want. Getting harder and harder to find parts and some are made out of unobtainium.

My 2 cents, Bruce

[Jim B]

I agree with Bruce. find a loader crawler and keep this one for parts. To me it does not have a great value as it sets. The biggest plus would be if that 15,000 they spent on repairs included a complete new undercarriage, a few hours before it got damaged and parked.