Muffler or straight pipe?

Gentleman all; I have a quick question. On your gas Farmall do you have a muffler or just a straight pipe? This tractor is headed to the farm, so all day use is not out of the question.
Thanks for your response.
 
No question: Mufflers on all of mine!! In addition I always wear hearing protection (earplugs or radio-equipped earmuffs) when operating my tractors.

A straight pipe offers little if any improvement in power and fuel consumption. Even with good mufflers installed, long hours in the seat without hearing protection will gradually destroy your hearing.

FWIW both my wife's parents suffered from severely impaired hearing by their late 40's from many hours operating H's and M's, also Oliver 77's and 88's, all equipped WITH mufflers.
 
I get always get the tall or long muffler,[IH-10] but there was a you tube clip, were they tested a 450 gas and got 2 more horsepower with a straight pipe.
 
Most of the tractor I have I have straight pipes on. Either one work well but a straight pipe can and is hard on your ears. Back when I put what I have on it was what I had laying around so I was being cheap. Shoot the BA I built has a exhaust made form a piece of copper pipe I picked up some place
 

Why I'm asking is my 450 has a home made thing, using a big piece of 4" pipe with caps welded on both ends, then a 2" pipe welded on its ends. One with a rain flap, other went into manifold. It weighs a ton and is a mess. I want something durable but lighter.
 

Why I'm asking is my 450 has a home made thing, using a big piece of 4" pipe with caps welded on both ends, then a 2" pipe welded on its ends. One with a rain flap, other went into manifold. It weighs a ton and is a mess. I want something durable but lighter.
 
Muffler. No question about it if it may get used all day.

A straight pipe may sound cool for a 300 foot tractor pull, but running it all day will affect your hearing sooner than you would think.
 
I believe internal comb. engines are designed to have a certain amount of backpressure. I would not chance it, I'd sure use a muffler, with the baffles. Makes you as an old man not have to always say "HUH? Whatcha say?"
 
Most any farm and home store will have a good many mufflers to look at to find one that will work. If I remember right the 450 used a 2 inch pipe that if all is well will screw into the manifold then you can slip a muffler on that pipe and a rain cap on top.
The 450 in the picture is open I worked on a number of years ago for a friend. It sure did not look like that when I first started working on it. Note the muffler that is has on it I put that on it and he got it from the local farm and home store
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My 450 has the original IH muffler and it does have a baffle in it. I pull it at pulls and run a 3 1/2 stainless steel straight pipe and it is so loud that if you ran it all day your ears would ring for the next week. There have been test by guys with a dyno and you can get at the most 5HP.
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(quoted from post at 12:08:13 07/09/16) All the mufflers are straight thru no baffles so how did they get more HP sounds sort of fshy.

The muffler on my H. direct from the local Case-IH dealer, does have a baffle in it, and it is quieter than the straight thru muffler on my other H. The muffler with the baffle also has a longer barrell. Over-all length is the same.
 
I have the IH muffler with baffle on my 450 and it has a nice tone to it compared to the after market mufflers.
 
They dyno tested a Super M and the 450 with and with out the muffler, they both had 2 more HP with the straight pipe.I was surprised too. The trailer still shows up once in a while, Please look it up.
 
Neighbor and my uncle each had 450s. Neighbor had a straight pipe, uncle had a muffler. Neighbors tractor sounded like crap and was so loud I could hear it over the sound the tractor I was driving. Uncles tractor had a nice sound to it. Buy a muffler and buy a good one not a cheapy. The good one will outlast the cheap one by years.
 
Hearing loss is usually accumulative. Not many people survive exposure to a single event loud enough and close enough to cause deafness. Hearing lost after a day on a straight-pipe tractor may not be noticeable but sensitive testing would show it. What's gone is not coming back. The next day's exposure adds to it and so it goes.
 
(quoted from post at 17:50:50 07/09/16) Hearing loss is usually accumulative. Not many people survive exposure to a single event loud enough and close enough to cause deafness. Hearing lost after a day on a straight-pipe tractor may not be noticeable but sensitive testing would show it. What's gone is not coming back. The next day's exposure adds to it and so it goes.

Huh?? Come again? Lol...seriously, my best friend works in a factory and he can't hear thunder! I worked in the 80s on heavy earth moving equipment; 631s, 633 paddlewheels, D8 &9...almost all straight pipe. My hearing is marginal now. I'm gonna get a good muffler and go with it. The SM I ran as a kid had factory muffler and Dad's old model A had straight pipe, but tall and over our head. I didn't think it was too bad compared to a screaming D. Just wondered how many ran pipes on these 4 bangers.
Thanks all.
 
I have a Stanley on my MH44, it does not muffle enough, thinking about putting a short oval automotive muffler on it.

Tired of saying "what"
 
I run a straight pipe on the turbocharged M,
it's quiet and the slight whistle is
neat...everything else gets mufflers. 3 cyl
Perkins sounds stupid without the big oval
muffler, 656 gas is noisy either way and is
brutal without a muffler. I put a MF oval
muffler on my nueffield, it makes a nice note
and not loud at all.
 
Accept this as info, not flame: The back pressure idea is not true. Impulse pressure waves can affect a 2 stroke by keeping charge in the cylinder at closing, and having a partial vacuum at the port just as it opens. Mufflers are for hearing health. Jim
 
If you go to Steiner's tractor parts they sell a muffler for the 450 with a baffle like the original. This muffler is quitter than a Stanley after market.
 
All mine have mufflers with a baffle. They are hard to find. I got
several from the salvage yard. Poke a stick down, it goes about
halfway. You can sand them and paint with Rust-oleum high heat
2000 degree paint. They look new and the paint lasts.
 
Agree with concerns over hearing loss. When I picked up my Minneapolis Moline ZTN it had a straight pipe on it. My neighbors 1/4 mile away could hear it and about 10 minutes on the seat was all I could stand. Put a factory style muffler on it and of all the tractors owned, I think it has the best sound.
My Farmall 340 is a different deal altogether. It runs a straight 2" pipe and is not loud at all. In fact, a muffler makes little difference.
Finally, my 1947 Oliver 70 standard runs a straight pipe and is not loud enough to be bothersome. I don't use this tractor for much around the place..... the Farmall 340 and MM ZTN are used probably once a week.
So it really depends on the tractor.
 
Used mufflers with baffles are hard to come by. I have used the Rust-oleum but with poor results. I tried VHT ceramic header paint and Its been on 4 years and looks like the day I put it on. The only thing the VHT ceramic has to be baked on. As I stated below Stiener tractor has the cheap muffler and the restoration quality muffler. The restoration quality muffler comes in painted or stainless steel and these mufflers have the baffle in them. If you look around there are other places that also sell them.
 
Go with a muffler, and use some hearing protection. Those older tractors are not that quiet even with a muffler, but the tone is much more pleasant.

We just got hearing aids for mom. She only has 40 percent hearing loss, but she had a lot of trouble following normal conversations and understanding phone calls. The cheap ones start at a little over $2000 and the ones that worked OK for her were a little over $3000. The improvement for her is worth it.
 
Farming tractors all have mufflers on it. I don't mind running straight pipe on pullers.
I don't completely understand how a SM could gain 2hp from removing a straight through muffler. But I suppose that even that straight through muffler creates some kind of turbulence that affects the engine. Or maybe even the straight through creates some kind of back pressure...but I doubt that.
Either way the dyno doesn't lie.
 
Go to a muffler shop and have them make you an extension 2ft or so and you will like the sound have them expand it so it will slip fit so you can remove it for parking ect.
 
One summer while I was in college I worked for our neighbor in So Dak. After grain harvest we ran a Noble sweep plow through all the stubble fields to kill the weeds. He had a 9 foot Noble that was a load
for an 806 especially when it was dry. The 806 didn't have a cab, but had a radio on the fender. I would turn up the radio so I could hear it over the loud 806. When I would get home at night my ears were
ringing. I am sure that didn't improve my hearing as I can attest now that I am older. They said they could hear the radio at the farm and I was nearly a mile away. So, those tractors can be very loud even
with mufflers.
 

Ok, I buffed the inside of the manifold and all traces of threads are GONE. I don't see any point in trying to chase threads that aren't there. I'm guessing I'll have to heat the cast manifold, then try and weld a nipple onto it, then clamp a muffler to the nipple.

Does that sound about right? Should I try TIG, wire or stick weld?
 
(quoted from post at 23:16:06 07/09/16) They dyno tested a Super M and the 450 with and with out the muffler, they both had 2 more HP with the straight pipe.I was surprised too. The trailer still shows up once in a while, Please look it up.
So you give up your hearing for 2 more HP????
 
are you sure the threads are gone??? It's very common for those pipes to rust and break off right at the joint - that could easily give the
appearance of a hole with no threads.

Those threads are cut so deep that I can't imagine them being gone.

Try a good sharp chisel, and see if you can get part of it to peel off. If so, just keep going and fold the whole thing in on itself.
 
I have my granddad super M with fire crater
with a baffled muffler. I pull a 13ft
kilifer blade. It's all that tractor wants
and then some but it still handles it. I
can't imagine 2hp from straight pipe would
help anything other than not having to
listen to my wife.
 

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