Cherry bomb muffler( I'm going to get flack for this)
 

Looking at my muffler last night my friend and I discovered it had holes in it. We also discovered that we could poke more holes in it just using our fingers. I decided that I was going to hack off the muffler and do a straight pipe.

I know I have advocated against this in the past but I went out and bought a cherry bomb muffler from shucks. My reasoning is as follows, it was just the right length, it didn't cost much more than a piece of pipe, and it has no more restriction than a piece of pipe would have. As an added bonus, in the laws eyes it is a muffler. It will muffle things untill it gets packed with soot at which point it becomes a straight pipe. Even packed with soot it is a muffler according to the law :D . Since I have a oxidation cat, a turbo, and a resonator still in the system the exhaust should be plenty muffled already so I don't think it will be a problem.

I have a lot of respect for the engineers at Mercedes Benz who designed the exhaust. Even with a rotted out muffler with holes in it the exhaust is quiet. Standing right behind the car and having my buddy floor it, it has almost no rumble. Its more of a whooshing noise and it nothing compared to the noise coming from the engine up front.

total cost so far is just $41 including a cheap hacksaw.

The 300TD in my 4Runner has a 2.5inch exhaust with a straight thru muffler and the damn thing is too quiet, my 2.4 toyota diesel had a much louder rumble, I cant believe its so quiet, more of a whistle actually

Well I threw the cherry bomb on last night. Its very nice. I was expecting a lot more noise. It doesn't growl, its more of a deep quiet grumble with a whooshing sound. You can hear the turbo whine if you listen carefully. I also threw a chrome tip on the back. This quieted things down a little more.

When you get on it you still hear most of the noise coming from under the hood only now you hear a little something from behind you as well. Boost builds a little quicker but not much quicker. Its too early to say if it upped my mileage. Initially its going to drop it because I can't keep my foot out of it :D .

I'll try and post pictures at lunch.

I had some Blue Streaks under my car for a while... i ended up having the vibration dampener section of the downpipe break off... i drove for like 3 months thinking it was the blue streaks that made my car so loud... but nope my exhaust was dumping into the engine compartment. so i said... screw that. and installed straight pipe. i like it. and it wasn't expencive because i did al the work myself... it is very ugly... but its under the car.. and i put chrom tips on it.. so it looks nice.

As promised Pics!

When duct tape won't do.... use plumber's tape . :D

http://img368.imageshack.us/img368/830/imag0005ra4.jpg

I hacked off the original muffler about 1 inch away from its body.

http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/3186/imag0001hs7.jpg

Oh, before I forget it only cost me about $50

The rest?
 

So, the rest of your exhaust system is okay? No holes or rust-through?

So let me get this straight, you elminated the resonators and muffler right? and just replaced them with the cherry bomb?

Also whats the size of the connection ends of the muffler? is it 3"

As far as I can tell there are no other holes in my exhaust. I kept the resonator and just replaced the stock muffler.

I used a 29" long cherry bomb muffler with 2 1/2" inlet and outlet. It was to big for the pipe we sawed off so we had to split the flange on that end so the muffler clamp would hold it tight. I think mabey 2 1/4" ends will work better . If your going to try it I suggest you measure the pipe after you saw it off.

Wow!...I didn't realize they still made "Cherry Bombs"!
The last ones I bought were in about 1973....I had put duals on my 1964 Chevy Nova. A sleeper granny car with a small block 283 V8 and a 4 barrel Hollie. What a rumble!!! It got 14 mpg which put a strain on my college budget so I sold it and bought a 65 VW bug that got 36mpg.
Cheers,:silly:

Well, first 170 mile road trip with the cherry bomb. I'm getting about 28 mpg. Strangley it seems boost is a tad lower:confused: . The only reason I can think of for this is the engine isn't working as hard so I'm burning less fuel hence the lower boost. There is no additional exhaust noise when cruising at 70mph. I can climb hills better as well.

After the road trip my oxidation cat was cleaned out. I can deffinitively tell you that boost builds quicker. Acceleration is up. The grin on my face is much bigger. :D

This was the best $50 I have spent on this car

I too had a cherry bomb for a while. I think it was on one of my 240d's. It really didn't sound bad at all. My 300TD doesn't sound all that loud with just a resonator. If I had the pipe handy I would have just had it dump under the bumper with no muffler. As it is I have a 300D NA muffler on it which has a smaller pipe than the turbo had from the factory. Some day I'll replace it with the right size pipe.

-Tad

I had a "different" style muffler system put on my 300SD a few weeks ago, it was done by Lentz, they did a straight pipe from where the resonators were, (they are gone now) back to the rear, where I had a "diesel truck muffler" (its huge) put on, and then a short piece of pipe and a chrome tip that points down at the street sticking out from under the bumper. My boost is lower also, on the freeway at 75 I only run about 7psi, used to be 10/maxed out at that speed. I also have more pickup from 70-110mph, it really moves!! And from a sitting start the car is way faster too. My mileage went up a couple mpg's. I've been getting very high milegae now that I have been taking a 55mph non freeway route for my commute. I haven't filled up yet, but I've gone 229 miles and the gauge is still touching 3/4 full!!! At 55-60mph on flat ground I run 2psi of boost or less. I can't wait till later this week when I need to fill it and I can find out my mileage! I am guessing 30-32! I've filled it from the 3/4 tank to the filler neck before, and it took about 7ish gallons, if that holds true right now, it'd mean I'm getting almost 32mpg. Quite an improvement from 23-24 at 75mph!:D

You know, I think I have two cherry bomb mufflers hanging around somewhere...I think they are in the shed. Too bad everything is working fine right now. I seem to remember them having some kind of flange on them.

Maybe I'll dig the out...just to take a look. Really.

-Jim

I am thinking of different mufflers too but for a different reason.... If I put a 300D turbo motor in an old T-bird or an SL or a hot rod it would be nice if it sounded like a gas engine.:rolleyes:

What about this :

http://cgi.ebay.com/EURO-EXHAUST-MUFFLER-MERCEDES-CLK320-SLK-SL500-C320-CLK_W0QQitemZ190036762324QQihZ009QQcategoryZ33636QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem