Fire risk?

Ford 2000; 3 cyl. gas; 4/1 trans....In order to cover my tractor, I take the muffler off and lay it on a foot pad, put a soup can over the exhaust stack and then pull a tarp over the tractor. I have no barn no shelter for the tractor so the tarp has to do. Uncovered the tractor yesterday and when putting the muffler back on the stack saw that a mouse or rat had made a nest in the muffler. Was able to shake some nest stuff out of the muffler but not all. I cranked the tractor and stuck the muffler on the stack to see how completely it was plugged. Tractor blew out a snowstorm of nest debris but there is still nesting stuff in the muffler. How likely is that stuff to catch fire over an extended use of the tractor and how much of a danger is a fire in the muffler? Anybody ever had a muffler fire because of a varmint nest? Thanks.

I would get it burned out before running the tractor. I would also check the manifold and cylinders before cranking. I once had a mouse nest in a cylinder after leaving the manifold off for two days.

I've had them fill the muffler with hickory nuts. You have a vertical exhaust? Should burn out OK, just be cautious.

To answer the question, you won't have a fire problem. Since we're telling stories, I learned a good lesson this winter. Had a couple tractors in the barn that hadn't run or moved in a couple of years. Sometime during those years I stole the vertical muffler from one and drained the radiators on both. Thought I ought to get them in running order again lest they deteriorate to junk. I should mention that my combine is in the same barn. First, draining suspect coolant is a good idea, leaving the radiator cap off is not! Mice filled the radiator with beans. Remove, flush backwards, reinstall. Vertical exhaust, keep covered. The other tractor, mice dropped beans down the exhaust. Exhaust valve on #2 was open, beans in the cylinder, then mashed between valve and valve seat. All in all, quite an adventure; lesson(s) learned the hard way.
CC

I would think it's a low risk, what concerns me with fire hazards on these 3 cylinder general purpose tractors are the positive cables and the hood panel arms that cross over them, they can rub the cables and short. I put a shoe sole cushion across my cable on my 4630, and I used a section of rubber garden hose on the 3600 to make sure the cables did not get abraded on either tractor.

Thanks for your responses regarding the nest in the muffler. The tractor cranked and ran just fine so there seems to be plenty of room for exhaust to exit the engine. There was a brief snowstorm of nesting material - leaves, straw, etc. - that got blown out but clearly not all of it.

Regarding the battery....I have a side terminal battery on my gas tractor so contacting the battery terminals is less of a problem. There's precious little clearance between the hood wing and the battery for sure.

Never had a problem with the cables but what scares me is how the starter relay is so close to the sediment bowl.

You can try blowing it out with air and see what else comes
out. After that I would run it, carry some heavy gloves so you
can pull the muffler off if you are worried about fire.

(quoted from post at 07:03:30 02/20/20) To answer the question, you won't have a fire problem. Since we're telling stories, I learned a good lesson this winter. Had a couple tractors in the barn that hadn't run or moved in a couple of years. Sometime during those years I stole the vertical muffler from one and drained the radiators on both. Thought I ought to get them in running order again lest they deteriorate to junk. I should mention that my combine is in the same barn. First, draining suspect coolant is a good idea, leaving the radiator cap off is not! Mice filled the radiator with beans. Remove, flush backwards, reinstall. Vertical exhaust, keep covered. The other tractor, mice dropped beans down the exhaust. Exhaust valve on #2 was open, beans in the cylinder, then mashed between valve and valve seat. All in all, quite an adventure; lesson(s) learned the hard way.
CC

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Curt, I don't think that you should be so fast there. Old exhaust pipes are not like modern ones. If one never runs a tractor under sustained load after dark one would never see their pipe glowing red at the top. Granted marcus is not likely to do that, and granted most likely it would get cleared out long before the tractor gets put under a heavy sustained load, but I would not tell marcus that there is NO chance of a fire. You don't know that he isn't planning on going out right away and shredding ten acres with an eight foot mower.

That is a good thing, I agree if that relay were to get hot, close to a fuel source. On both the tractors mentioned, you can see the imprint left in the cable insulation, not a good design at all on this small part of what are both great tractors.

On my old D7, some kind of mouse nest, made of cotton strand material like under matting and interior parts in a vehicle, some how, some of it got in through the intake, I cannot recall the details of it now. Some was blown out during the starting process, but after the diesel fired up, there were pieces of strand that had embers glowing. Was not the whole nest, no issue for the motor thankfully, but that would be enough to start dry tinder in many dry outdoor conditions, much easier than say sparks from steel tracks, a bit of carbon from a muffler without a spark arrestor which I think were offered for these way back when.

When I was a kid, we had a new Ford 8000 at the farm from the dealership, I think to demonstrate it. We would make use of some of the used 3 cylinder GP models out of stock at times, but never anything new. I remember riding on the fender of this brand new tractor at dusk and seeing sparks come out the stack. We drove through our largest barn which was the type you could drive through or park 4 hay wagons in the middle of, sparks would not be good there, of course it was not throttled up while going through, will never forget that because of the hazard.

You're right. I was just anxious to tell my "stupid" story. I was going to mention that it might be a good idea not to run the machine for the first time in a freshly threshed wheat field. I did have some flaming beans come out the exhaust on the tractor I referred to. I found it entertaining but yes, it could have been hazardous
CC

I'd liked to have seen those flaming beans coming out of the exhaust. Cheap fireworks unless you set something on fire, I guess.