Straight pipe exhaust gasket
 

Hello, getting ready to put a straight stack on my 102.(K241) Does anyone have a suggestion as to what type of gasket to use. I found a Kohler 24 041 49 at a local mower shop but it’s just wrong enough to not work. It’s the metal type. Any suggestions are appreciated, thank you.

The normal exhaust design was a 1 inch pipe that threaded into the block. There was NO gasket.

Thanks for the reply. I should have waited until I had more time to make the original post. What I’m wanting to do is remove the existing muffler and threaded pipe and install a straight stack. The set up came with the tractor and I hadn’t looked at it close enough until tonight. I think the gasket is right but the flange for the stack is wrong. I won’t know for sure until I get the muffler and pipe out. By looking at the flange I can see the holes are too close to the pipe to allow for the bolt head.

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Well that is prolly why the factory used a threaded pipe, not enough room for
even Allen head bolts.
I used to like loud exhausts and loud music, now my hearing is shot, and i can hear little conversation in a populated area.
But that is not your question but something to think about for sure.
Do know a longer pipe does need a brace or will crack either the pipe of damage the block because of vibration. :bigthink:

To get that exhaust pipe to fit, machining will be required.

They are your ears, Bud
But.....everyone else also has 2 of 'em
Handle w/care as they are irreplaceable.
Ask me how I know this.....

I’m really hoping to get to it this weekend. Using the gasket as a guide, it looks like the flange would work if I slotted the holes out each way. Ol’George has me a little nervous though. The last thing I want to do is cause damage to the block. I have heard that a brace is necessary but I’ll have to do some looking in to it as far as placement and all that. I know the stack is unnecessary, just something I wanted to try. May not even keep it that way. BTW, thanks for the replies. I’m learning as I go on a lot of this.

if you go with an unmuffled stack, do yourself a favor and wear earplugs or other hearing protection and do not expose your children to the noise.
It is annoying having to ask people to repeat themselves during conversation.
This has come to the forefront during the covid mask wearing requirements.
I didn't realize how much lip reading I was doing, and upon discussing it with others, I found out others are having the same problem with conversation when wearing masks.
In my early days nobody really mentioned "hearing protection" :bigthink:

I agree. I’m in the habit of wearing ear plugs. I always have a pair handy. The more I think about it the more I think I’ll keep the standard muffler on for normal operations. I just have to atleast. hear the straight stack once and get some pictures though. I didn’t end up getting time to work on it this weekend but I did find out that the threaded pipe will come out easy and I talked to the PO. He used Allen head cap screws for the flange and has had it on before.

When I rebuilt my K341 I had the machine shop drill and thread a couple holes for me. I bought manifold flanges and gaskets made for those old VW bugs that fit great, and I used a muffler made for an old Ferguson or Ford tractor. It is much better than the old muffler I made for it years ago, and looks great, but I still use earplugs because it's borderline too loud. I went that direction because it was much cheaper than a factory muffler replacement.

The "Stack" that is often seen is a buggered up block waiting to happen. These Kohler thumpers vibrate a lot, and the top of that stack is a lever multiplying the vibration transferred to the junction between the block and the pipe. It's a poor idea without some way of supporting the "stack".

That’s interesting. Did you use a brace of some kind?

Thanks for the reply… and the warning. I really don’t want to mess up the block. I told the PO that I would take good care of it.

Sorry it's been a week. I cut the factory support off the rusted out factory muffler and welded it to the side of the Ford/Ferguson muffler. The new muffler sits entirely under the hood just like the factory one did. I do have a little stack that comes up on the other side of the machine for fun, but otherwise it's fairly hidden. My stack clamps on to the muffler outlet, so if it got bumped it could at least rotate out of the way if I was lucky. I don't have any low branches, so damage to it would have to be my fault in the garage... My reason for the VW part conversion was because I couldn't find a muffler to use where the exhaust entered from the side, so I settled on re-routing it to use a muffler that would fit under the hood. I had hoped to spin the factory elbow, but it was so rusted in that none of my tricks got it out, and I eventually cracked it on accident and had to chisel it out and start from scratch.

Looks good - Fancy! How's it sound? Normal muffled or loud?

To be honest, I never heard it run with an original muffler. I picked it up with the side of the factory muffler rusted out, and made my own muffler because I couldn't afford the factory one. After the connecting rod blew out when my dad was running it a few years later, I decided to rebuild the engine and find a better muffler. This one is a fair bit quieter than my homemade one, but still louder than the pepperpot muffler on my Original when standing on the loud side of the machine. The 169 is loud from any side... I can tolerate it without earplugs, but usually wear some on principle now unless I'm just moving it around for a minute. It's much louder than the same muffler on the Ferguson TO-35 sadly.

The key to not stripping the E tube is not to F!@K with it. As the rusty man said ,plenty on eBay.