Finally getting the C-153 motor back together so I can put it back in the 504 utility tractor that I want to use on my KK 72" tiller.
Had to clean a few of the parts up again since they did get a little rust on them but did clean nice, so no problem there.
Starting with a BARE block that went thru a machine shop. So far I have the crankshaft in, Changed the pistons, new ones went on, had to get 1 different rod,(long story on how the rod got bent), new rings on pistons and everything stuck back in the holes! Crank had to be re-ground .010 on mains and .020 on the rods to bring it back to specs. Cam and lifters in timing marks lined up on crank and cam gear. Governor in and timing marks lined up on it cause the dist. is driven by the governor shaft!--- anyway all of the dots are in register on the front of the motor.
Next up will be the oil pump then the pan can go on.
Not sure if I will just set short block in first or go ahead and put the head on along with the rocker arms/push rods.
Tractor rear half is outside by the shed door waiting for its motor.
A few pix. of the motor.

nice to see someone working to rebuild and rework rather than bash and trash like many others...good work Sonny..pace yourself,a little progress every day..tough to do I know.
keep us posted

Kinda strange how I remember how everything goes after all that time its been apart. The new used dist came in the mail today, so gittin there!

steel coffee cans, masking tape and ziplock bags with a sharpie pen are the only way I can organize and hold items on a rebuild project..they get moved around too much in spite of space to work in..the tape comes in handy for marking which big bolts go where, the ziplock bags for smaller bolts allows you to group what came from where-sharpie marking right on the bag or tape lets you know four months later what that bolt went to and where

Ya when I took the tractor apart 10 years ago I kinda had the parts/bolts/nuts somewhat in the right place. Thieves struck the shed and threw stuff all over and took what they wanted. Lucky to have saved the 504 parts.
Most of the parts seam to be present and accounted for. Did have a few parts from a blown up 2444 motor, same 153 motor and I did sub. a couple parts and a few bolts from it.
Rain here all day so no outside work!

Got a nice problem now!!! Dont guess it will hurt the bellhousing since I dont plan on mounting anything on the tractor. NEVER saw one broke like this before.
It had been filled in with bondo!!! Saw a crack and tried to weld it and couldnt strike an arc! ---- Ya body filler is kinda hard to weld! lol!

oh my....to try to weld that up would probably introduce more stresses into the casting than it's worth..and the results? that looks like some pretty old iron Sonny

YA! dont think I should try to patch anything in there either---end up doing more damage to the housing.
From what I can tell,---- The yellow/orange paint under the red is the state of Illinois color back when this tractor was new and I remember the state having a fleet of them with side mount sickle mowers hangin on them, so probably a driver hit one of the concrete head walls along the road and ripped the mower off! ----- just a guess from looking at the damage and remembering seeing the tractors when they were new.
I dont think it will hurt anything for my use, ---- big tiller on the back, possibly a bush hog part time and the rake. I will never put a loader on any tractor!-- pretty useless I have found---- thats why I have skidloaders! and crawler loaders! THEN there is MOOSE! lol!