I have an old 1KW generator with a BS engine that I tried to quiet with more muffler. It helped a bit, but a lot of the noise is just the rotating machinery and not exhaust noise.
Another possible concern is that if you use this in some areas, national forests come to mind, you must have an approved spark arrester and your new muffler won't be "approved."
Ahhh the old cement mixer motors. I had 5 of these on a construction site once. There was not a week that went by where one of them was not in the shop for some thing....
Trying to silence small engines is pretty hard. As the other poster mentioned the mechanical noise is quite high.
Depending on your situation the best bet might be to construct a cover for the genny and let it absorb the noise. Watch the air flow,,, air cooled motor and generator.
I have a 20 year old Pincor generator that I tried to change the muffler. Then I got smart and took it to a small engine guy. They told me that they would not do the work because of the age and the distinct possibility that they would ruin the engine. What ever you do be sure to check out the back pressure on the muffler. Some engines need the back pressure to run correctly.
Have you checked with your local Tecumseh warranty place? They may tell you right off "for get about it"
I have a 5KW Generac with a 10hp Tecumseh engine. The engine noise is really bad, and I'm wondering if there is a way to improve the muffler (even if it takes up more space) without harming the engine or reducing its power significantly. It seems sort of reasonable that a muffler larger than a tuna-fish can (about the size of the muffler on it now) might do a better job of quieting the engine.
HM100 engine? I have one and what I did was attach a 3/4" pipe flange to the existing muffler and I bought a cylinder type muffler that was for a riding mower for $3 at Home depot and screwed it in. It is by no means quiet but it is somewhat quieter.
It runs fine but after about 45 minutes to an hour it will suddenly dump a little oil through the crankcase breather and into the carburator which looks a lot like a nuclear explosion. I am pretty sure that I overfilled the crankcase (as per Tecumseh's recommedation via telephone due to the fact the engine would only run for about 2 hours before needing oil) and that was probably the cause. Of course too much backpressure *might* be the culprit but I kinda doubt it and it has not done it again since the oil level dropped below the full mark on the dipstick. Meanwhile I disconnected the crankcase breather because I don't want any helicoptors or airplanes dropping fire retardant on my generator prematurely.
Interesting. I also have to generally overfill the crankcase, otherwise the low-oil-shutoff jumps right in and shuts it down early in a very disturbing fashion (it stumbles and staggers for a long time before dying, emulating some other kind of fault). On the whole I would prefer to monitor the oil myself, but....
I didn't know what the pot-growers do; that's interesting. Others have suggested making an enclosure to absorb noise, and it is clear that would work. My original thought had been to attach a small automotive muffler as one of the other posters suggested, but it would be a challenge given the necessary pipe flange, etc, and the fact that the engine vibrates like a bastard and would shake the hell out of any kind of attached muffler unless it had a flex connection. I may make the enclosure, or maybe just extend my cable that I use to attach to the house wiring. Then I could park the noismaker in an obscure location.
Also, do a search for Super-Trapp mufflers. they make performance muffs for just about every application and I have seen them for small engines. They are *not* cheap!
I put a small car muffler on an 18 HP B&S powered generator. Brings the exhaust down to a tolerable level, but the thing still makes noise. More than a central air unit, but not as loud as the same size engine in my garden tractor. May not look very pretty, but it works.
Lorence
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