Thanks Guys,
  Sold my 47 Farmall A and looking to replace it with something of similar sophistication but diesel powered w/3ph. The Chinese offerings are competitive price wise with the 20+ yr old Fords & Deeres I've been looking at. I'll do some more research.

  Anyone have any experience / info / opinions on Chinese compact tractors - NorTrac, Jinna, Farm Pro etc.   Interested primarily in reliability, cold starting, parts availability, servicability,etc.  Don't care much about bells & whistles or cosmetics.   Thanks,  Bill

mod sine (actually Square wave) going thru a transformer can / will do several things

   Mike, modified sine wave and square wave are two different animals. Square wave is an abrupt change peak to peak. Mod sine has a series of steps used to emulate the curve in a true sine wave. I've found very few appliances that won't run just fine on mod sine.

There's a lot to be said for a dirt floor, how about a 50/50 mix of sand and speedy dry and just shovel it out when it gets too bad

Jens,
  Just checked the clock and it's got 318 additional hrs. since I opened it at 125 hrs. Haven't touched it and it hasn't given me any reason to.  I can still hold the exhaust pipe (post heat ex) with my hand, my somewhat less than scientific method of determining that heat is being extracted, and the engine shows no signs of being "plugged up" or down on power. It seems that in my circumstances, annually maybe 500 hrs. battery charging during the short days, a once a year check will suffice. At some point I may install a better condensate trap which is currently collecting in a muffler I made from a propane bottle.
  The dang thing worked really well for a "run what yer brung" set up.  A friend stopped by a while ago and mentioned he'd never seen so much firewood in my shed this time of year.
  I've seen two varieties of shell and tube exchangers. In some of them the tubes are individually connected with "U" shaped pieces to reverse the flow. I didn't want that type as I'd have no idea how to clean it. The one I have has tubes swaged into plates at each end and the end caps have partitions that direct the flow. I simply made new end caps with no partitions
                      Bill

 Don't the twins have a 180 degree crank? If so, the fireing would be 1/2 revolution apart and it would coast for a revolution and a half. Still some potential for RPM fluctuation I'd think.     Bill

Bob,
  If the noise is heard on every other revolution, pull the big inspection cover and watch the cam, gov. assy,  and idler gear as you rotate the engine.  What I thought was a rod knock on mine was actually the idler gear hitting the side of the crankcase when the exhaust lobe overcentered.

[quote author =craig c]
Did You have antifreeze in cooling system when you refitted new head gasket ?? if so here is your problem , antifreeze particles are smaller than water particles , you should not put antifreeze in cooling system for 500 miles to 800 miles in a car , which gives the head gasket time to settle in and conform to head and block surfaces and seal conpletely , copper head gaskets are crap, use a composite gasket with stainless steel fire ring , how to you yanks get on in this world you know sweet f**k all , the amount of crap information you put on this forum and on this post , if you do not know what you are talking about do not say any think , instead of putting out misinformation , CraigC

  Not sure if that post was meant to be a joke or not, but in the absence of  , I'll assume it was serious.
 
 Utter nonsense in either case.     Bill