Bet this never happened to you

jon f mn

Well-known Member
Couldn't figure out why my combine engine didn't run right. It is a Chrysler 318 v-8. It just sounded off. I checked everything, carb, electrical, but it just didn't run right. Then I noticed that one muffler had nothing coming out, and I mean nothing at all. So I even pulled the valve cover to check if the valves were stuck, but they were moving fine. That's w hen it hit me that the exhaust could be plugged, so I pulled that muffler. Seems the squirrels or mice had decided to use that one for storage. The entire muffler was packed full of corn, now turned black and oily from the engine. It was so tight that nothing could get out so one half the engine didn't fire. It started right up and ran on just 4, even had decent power. Lol. Well it has more power now tho. Just knocked all the corn out and put it back together and it runs on all 8 now.
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Not surprising, Jon. Over the years I've had odd smells and smoke from car, pickup and tractor tailpipes from acorns and hickory nuts. Once on a car I found the air filter housing filled with dog food nuggets. They rolled down the hot air tube to the exhaust manifold and toasted.
 
I guess you won't be putting that in the bin! Both my daughter's car and my Chevy Colorado truck have had mice get into the air filter housing. Daughter's car , no problem, my air filter had two pleats with holes 3/8" or so long!! Luckily they hadn't been there long, sealed the holes with some silicone gasket maker got a filter the next day. The beans around our house aren't picked yet, but when they do get picked, the mice'll head to our house!!
 
I had them put corn in the muffler on my mule. Started it up and kept hearing a rattling sound. After checking I found corn shooting out of the muffler. I bet if the mouse was in there he got a hot foot
 
Drove the C-60 truck to town one day. By the time I got back home smelled something burning. Raised hood and motor was covered with range cubes. Went over and raised the hood on the C-70 and you could not get a range cube to lay anywhere else. The sack was laying on a pellet unopened. Sack was about half empty and you could not tell it by looking at it.
 
Had a snowmobile muffler clear full of corn. I fought that thing for two days trying to get it to run. I had good spark and fuel but it would not run. I was taking the motor off to tear it down. I had the muffler loose and needed to get to a set screw on the clutch. I turned the motor over with the rewind rope just a little bit and it took off running. Checked the muffler and it was packed full. I cut the side out of it and got a gallon bucket full of corn out of it.

I have had two lawn mowers with mufflers full of hickory nuts. They would run but not rev up. The nut would allow some air flow.
 
My Dad had a 70 John Deere diesel stored in a shed for about 15 years. Finally decided to get it running. Took the oil bath air cleaner off and it was plum full of soy beans. Got it started and had quite a few soy beans come out the exhaust pipe too.
 
Many years ago I was on a service call at a privat school. One of their convection ovens wouldn't run. Just wouldn't get hot. I take a couple of screws out of the bottom cover and place it on the floor. Turn around and I am looking at the great wall of china. The mice had transported maybe 200 pretzel nuggets from the store room to the bottom of this oven. It was absolutely jam packed solid with pretzel nuggets. Janitor brought down a shop vac.
 
Yes It happened to me just yesterday I got the snow blower out to ready it it for winter pulled the rope and a couple of acorns flew out so I went and got the shop vac and sucked out a bunch more. Worse than that though I saw black splatter marks on the engine that looked like dirty crank case oil but it made no sense because I have no old oil anywhere near there plus it was real thick and sticky and it just smeared when I tried to wipe it off. I finally found a mouse nest on a shelf just above the snow blower with 2 dead mice in it so it was pee and body fluid. Simple Green to the rescue.
 
I forgot about this one This is what we found at the camp this summer. Funny how they filled just 1 slot Several yrs ago we couldn't get the toaster to stay down and and work, we found the bottom was full of d-con pellets and wouldn't allow the slots to lower enough to lock down probably lucky it wouldn't toast.
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I once had a minister friend of mine ask me if I could use my knowledge of piano repair to take a look at the piano at a small country church, some of the keys would not work when you press them. I took a look at it, and after removing a 5 gallon bucket full of mouse nest and vacuuming it out it worked fine.
 
I found out something like that from a small engine mechanic. On two cycle engines like string trimmers and such,when they won't run more than an idle. The sweet two cycle oil attracts mud dobbers and they build nests in the mufflers.
 
About 20 years ago we had a Super 92 MF combine . The exost pipe rotted off jut behind the rad air cleaner . Didnt bother fixing it as we were harvesting. We parked it one night and the next morning I went to start it .It was a 6 to 12 volt conversion so it allays cranked over very fast . It fired up with a big roar but had a noticeable miss to it . I got down off the platform and walked around to the motor side only to hear a very loud metallic clatter over the open exost . Long story short we had to pull that motor only to find when I took the head off that number 6 cylinder didnt have a piston ,, just a con rod and a wrist pin at the top rattling back and forth -- which cut deep trenches in the sides of the cylinders. The piston was down in the oil pan in many pieces.Turning the head over the #6 combustion cylinder had what was a cake of very compressed wheat . Mice had filled that cylinder with wheat in the time over night. If you have a plugged muffler because of mice be damm glad that was as far as they got .
 
Before I read the caption, but looked at the picture, I thought a deer had dumped in your hand while you were sleeping on your stand and took off.....
 
(quoted from post at 12:17:29 11/19/17) I found out something like that from a small engine mechanic. On two cycle engines like string trimmers and such,when they won't run more than an idle. The sweet two cycle oil attracts mud dobbers and they build nests in the mufflers.
Any small hole attracts mud daubers, I had them fill both ends of a roll of 1/4" copper tubing one time. They are also why I keep my torch tips that aren't being used in Ziplocks. But they are not necessary to plug the exhaust on string trimmers, chainsaws, etc. Most of these come with "spark arrestors", fine screens that the Forest Service requires. I just rip 'em out. Older 2-strokers will often build up carbon deposits right in the exhaust port, to the point there's only a pinhole between the piston and the muffler. A little experience and you can tell by the sound what the problem is.
 

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