Restrictive Diesel Exhaust Problem

I recently changed the muffler on my 3 cyl Ford diesel. Didn't run it much afterwards; just enough to see it was as loud as the one that had just fallen off. Parked tractor. Everything seemed ok.

Came time to bale hay a few days later. Cranked up the tractor and everything seemed normal; wasn't paying much attention. Hooked on to the square baler. This tractor has independent PTO and the lever is an ON OFF sort of thing, not a variable engagement like on Deere. Had checked the baler and knew it was ready, but this was the first running of the season.

Idled the tractor and engaged the PTO. The PTO snapped the baler into operation. Now for those that have never run a square baler, there is about a 500# flywheel on the crankshaft that drives the piston of the baler that crams the hay into the compression chute. Actually the tractor's job is to turn the flywheel and it drives the ram. So here I am trying to take that mass and get it going a couple hundred rpm's in a second..... not good on the equipment.

Well I didn't like this at all and wasn't sure that I didn't hurt something cause there were some "sounds" when it started running.

Don't remember everything too well, but the tractor was missing most of the time I was baling and blowing a bluish smoke. Stack had been clean a few days earlier and was running like a top.

Lost some sleep last night. Thought I might have bent a connecting rod or broke a piston ring on the tractor when the baler came to life.

Since we had been talking a lot about engine exhausts lately, and restrictive or not, I decided that when I got up this morning I was going to take the new muffler off and see what happened.

Did so, engine coughed and sputtered and within a few minutes was running clean as a whistle, no smoke, and no missing. HOT DIGGDY DOG!! Didn't hurt it.

Put the muffler back on and back to the coughing and smoking.

Took it off and looked inside and it had a baffle with a reduced diameter hole in it to make the exhaust go thru the muffle part. Apparently that was more restriction than the Ford wanted.

Knocked the baffle out and put it back on and worked fine. It's obvious that this little engine did not want back pressure.

The muffler wasn't Ford OEM. I went to TSC and found one that'd fit my exh pipe and had a lot of muffler area. Was for a MF. Guess MF can tolerate back pressure. Didn't have a Ford in stock and I was looking for a quieter muffler anyway.

So, live and learn.

Mark

Ever get that turbo or straight pipe?

Mark

On the heads, I had a response to my original post about a guy hauling grain to the silo and cracked 2 exhaust manifolds in the process due to a non OEM muffler.

Have heard that turbo's require a very large pipe to prevent overheating. I know on OTR trucks with turbo's they have huge pipes OEM and after market.