Fordson Muffler

[JC]

My wife said that I needed to paint the muffler on my Super Major, which is strange because she usually has no interest in my tractors. She likes this Super, for some reason. The muffler was a little rusty, but I thought it looked okay for a muffler. Since she likes the tractor, I figured that I would go ahead and paint it. When I was prepping it for paint, I found this.


I didn't think that anything had the EnFo stamp on it after 1964. If that's the case, this is the best looking 55 year old muffler I've ever seen.

[Old Hywel]

What colour are you planning to use? Could be a source of debate.

[Mervyn Spencer]

Let your wife decide on the colour since she suggested it be painted. As sure as eggs you will choose the wrong colour.

[mathias1]

Could also be aftermarket. Agriline selks rear wings with the enfo logo

[JC]

I didn't paint the muffler orange. I found some high-temp silver/grey.
I didn't know that there were after market parts with the EnFo logo. I'll bet this muffler is only a few years old.

[oehrick]

But it should be painted Blooooooooo like the front grilles

[liam]

It is an exhaust made by Burgess, It is stamped just across from the ENFO logo .I believe they supplied the exhausts when the tractors were new. And it should be painted blue. Liam

[JC]

But it should be painted Blooooooooo like the front grilles

Rick, I can't find any high-temp Empire Blue muffler paint over here, for some reason! And my grilles are blue, but they're off of a Mk. I Major. I'll fix that eventually.

[JC]

It is an exhaust made by Burgess, It is stamped just across from the ENFO logo .I believe they supplied the exhausts when the tractors were new. And it should be painted blue. Liam

I thought the Fordson mufflers were made by Burgess. This one could be original, but its in better shape than a 55 year old muffler should be. I know that most Major mufflers were painted blue at Dagenham, but the blue paint burns off, so I painted it with high temp paint.

[shepp]

Nelson Burgess made all the exhaust silencers for the Fordson Major tractors probably from the time of the E27N. When Ford changed their casting markings to FoMoCo on the later production Super Majors there would have been no requirement or need for Burgess to do likewise, so their silencers would still bear the Enfo marking. Early silencers had the full name on them of "Nelson Burgess". Later silencers just had "Burgess", and I have seen some with just the letter "B" embossed into the steel. Burgess also made the silencers for the new 6X and 6Y "1000" series tractors and on into the "600" series i.e. 6600, 3600 etc., and also on into the "10" series. I am not sure at which point they ceased to supply Ford.

All Major and Dexta silencers were painted blue at the factory, there were just a few silver painted downswept silencers shown on early Dexta pre-launch advertising material but all production tractors had blue exhausts.

All (ALL!) E1A Majors had blue painted grills ex factory, the Power Major and the blue/orange Super Major had silver grills, and the New Performance Super Major had tractor grey grills.

All (ALL!) Dexta tractors up until November 1960 had orange grills ex factory. The "Super Look" Dexta from November 1960 with headlights in the grills had silver grills. The blue/orange Super Dexta launched in April 1962 had silver grills. The blue/grey Dexta and the New Performance Super Dexta both launched in May 1963 had tractor grey grills.

Some distributors in other countries may have re-finished grills in different colours when the new tractors arrived in their stock - for example after the launch of the Power Major in July 1958 with silver grills, distributors in Denmark took to re-painting the grills of new Dexta tractors from the original orange that they arrived in to silver before they were sold - presumably they thought silver looked better or more up to date??

[oehrick]

But it should be painted Blooooooooo like the front grilles

Rick, I can't find any high-temp Empire Blue muffler paint over here, for some reason! And my grilles are blue, but they're off of a Mk. I Major. I'll fix that eventually.

Oh they didn't stay Bloooo for long JC, probably started to burn off during their first morning in collar

Shepp's info on the differences between Major & Dexta grille colours is interesting, I still wonder if some UK dealers kept a jam (Mason) jar of orange paint and a brush on their trucks as to my eye (ours arrived in 1966 with and has had orange / rust grilles for the last 54 years of its life so it either came from the dealer or it's first owner did it) it looks 'right', otherwise there seems to be too much blue, different colour starter, generator and exhaust also breaks up the blue nicely..... and to go a stage further, for some reason I prefer the later blue / grey livery. Colour perception and preference is a strange thing.

[JC]

The first time that I ever saw our '55 Major was also in 1966 ,IIRC. It was Empire Blue with white wheels and grilles. When I get around to re-doing it, it will have white wheels and grilles again. I know that's not the correct color, but it seems like the right color for that tractor. My Super Major was sold as a Ford 5000, so it was originally blue and grey. I like that color scheme a lot, so it will be repainted in those colors.

[JC]

When Ford changed their casting markings to FoMoCo on the later production Super Majors there would have been no requirement or need for Burgess to do likewise, so their silencers would still bear the Enfo marking.

That's interesting, Shepp. I wonder how long they made mufflers with the EnFo marking?