When I was 12 years old I was allowed to drive for the very first time. That was in 1955. What I drove was my cousin's Ford N tractor. I am fairly certain it was an 8N since I recall it had a 4 speed transmission but it also had a 6 cylinder engine. I am sure of that because that is why my uncle bought it. He felt the additional power of the 6 would make the tractor more useful and my cousin who was a year older than me was the one most often allowed to drive this tractor as his own. Does anyone have any information on this conversion? Or was it a Ford option? My cousin was sad to learn that his dad had sold the tractor. It was housed near Girard, IL and I would love to try and track it down but I don't have the VIN number - only the place that it was last used in my uncles Farm operation near Nilwood IL. The color scheme of the tractor was red/grey and I am thus fairly certain it was an 8N.

Wow guys that is EXACTLY what I wanted to know. Seeing the brochure makes it ALL come to life for me. I have not seen that tractor for over 60 years yet there it is in the picture. I am into Model T Fords mostly but I like most anything old ha ha. I recently built a toy box (pole barn) on a small farm I bought just because it was on my bucket list. I make some electrical parts (Voltage regulators mainly) for Model T, A, V8 and 9N/2N tractors. I decided now that I have a barn and a farm I want to eventually get an N tractor for it but have a little bit of time since my grandson is only 4 years old right now. The main tract of the farm is leased out to a man who farms it but I have a corner spot that I can farm too if I want to. I always wanted to know what that 6 cylinder tractor was so decided it was time to try and figure that out but I never expected to find just about every detail in a few minutes in a single evening. You guys are really a treasure. Unfortunately now I probably have to see if I can find out where the thing went. Kind of a cold trail at this point since my cousin doesn't have a clue who bought his tractor since his dad sold it to persons unknown. Many of us in the old vehicle hobby know that pain of wanting to know what happened to an old vehicle that was once in the family. Any idea how many of these FUNK conversions were sold or what ratio to surviving Model 8N's? I fear they are pretty rare but I probably am now condemned to chasing them around ha ha. I am addicted to research anyway :)

My thanks to you guys and to this forum.

• Fun Projects Inc.

Hi John. Here's a couple Funk 8N's:

The Funk Aircraft Company is long-gone, but a company called R. L. Stauffer, Inc. sells conversion kits so you can swap in newer engines:

More info and pics are at their website. Click here to check it out.

Hi John. It was most likely a Funk conversion, which was not a factory option but was purchased through dealers or maybe directly from Funk. Here is an original ad for their conversion kit:

That was a Funk conversion. You may want to repost this in the N Board forum - it gets far more traffic than the history forum and far more people with greater knowledge visit over there far more often. Wish I had a funk but would then desire the 4WD kit or the aarps track kit. See you on the other side. "N Board".