I usually try and paint my entire exhaust before assemby. Might last a few minutes longer. My neighbor (An air cooled nut) loves to powdercoat new exhaust components. I havent tried that yet, but he swears by it.

Either way, the light oil film on the raw steel is extremely temporary. Id clean it off before assembly and do a more permanent finish if you go with new parts.

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This post brought to you by Carl's Jr.

re: exhaust system rebuild.

Points no one mentioned (but everyone knows):

If you replace half the system instead of all of it, you are guaranteeing that you will be down under there again to do the other half. As my dear old dad told me before the Flood: If you buy one tire at a time you are always buying tires!

WHen you replace it all, it all fails at the same time, which makes it easier to deal with.

For some reason, diesel systems seem to be less prone to components rusting together, IMHO. Far easier to deal with than gasoline exhaust.

I cant imagine wanting a louder exhaust system than OEM, but then Im running a 190D... at 65 mph it sounds like an old Ferrari in hour 23 of LeMans.

I've been thinking about straight piping mine since just about the time I got it eight and a half years ago, but I can't bring myself to cut up a fully functional original exhaust system (at least on a Benz), and the stupid thing refuses to fail.

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Whoever said there's nothing more expensive than a cheap Mercedes never had a cheap Jaguar.

83 300D Turbo with manual conversion, early W126 vented front rotors and H4 headlights 401,xxx miles
08 Suzuki GSX-R600 M4 Slip-on 26,xxx miles
88 Jaguar XJS V12 94,xxx miles. Work in progress.
99 Mazda Miata 183,xxx miles.

thanx for the time valve link zach..i emailed them

If anyone is interested. I have a pretty good complete exhaust system from a 240 that I took of a junk car. It was supposed to go to someone but he disappeared.
ill let it go cheap but its in Chicago

Great advice. I did that on my signature car in 2005, and last year when I had to pull the axles, I removed the rear muffler with no problem at all, and it still looked like new. It also helped that I anti-seized the slip joints and didn't go crazy on the clamps. I would also recommend doing the whole system, they aren't that expensive.

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'83 300D, 126K miles.

Hey Z.,

It's incredibly easy. On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being EZ Peezy, this is a 1. I am assuming you have access to a lift. If no lift, I would say a 2 with jack stands and lying on your back. The only issue I had was cutting off a jacket from the old set up and grinding it smooth. That took a while. Overall, assuming you don't have to mess with any non-OEM or backyard repairs, I would say about 30 mintues max on this one. All the parts fit like a charm, slipped into their correct spot, and that was it. I am missing one clamp and new rubber hangers, and the repair kit for the bar-hanger deal off the transmission. I jumped the gun because I had the morning free for about 2 hours and the other parts are not showing up until Wednesday. Plus, the noise was horrible. I used rubber donuts to temporarily hang the muffler before I used the snow flake like deals. Other than that, no tricks or issues.

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talked to the Time Valve guys
complete stainless steel exahuast for a 300d shipped
$765.00 shipped

thought the was a pretty good deal
they were very repsosnive also..emailed me right back

Was that everything shipped for $765 ? That is, header pipe with flex section, all the way back ? If so, not a shabby price ...For the turbo set up, it will certainly last a lifetime!

Timevalve have a good rep. I have heard people talking about them since I joined my first Mercedes mailing list in 1995.

One guy from the online Benz community purchased a complete exhaust for a w108 gasser. They sent the wrong front pipe.

He called them expecting to get some song and dance. Instead he got put through to the guy in charge of fabrication who apologized and asked him to send pics of what they sent and what it was supposed to bolt up to. They shipped a correct replacement out in a few days, free.

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Mac
2002 e320 4matic estate│1985 300d│1980 300td
Previous: 1979 & 1982 & 1983 300sd │ 1982 240d

“Let's take a drive into the middle of nowhere with a packet of Marlboro lights and talk about our lives.” ― Joseph Heller, Catch-22

Does anyone know the SS used and it's thickness? I checked out some of the forums and folks said it's thin stuff which causes the exhaust to have a "throatier" sound.

Thanks, Greazzer. What do you mean by a jacket?

Unfortunately, no hoist. So I am seriously considering putting on a complete and just taking off the current front pipe and throwing it in the shed. We'll see.

Way this has evolved (to tell the whole story) I had a price from a local exhaust shop to do 2.5" straight pipe deal for $225 from the front pipe back, $50 more with a resonator installed. Sounded good.

Until I rolled up and as soon as it was on the hoist: $340. Nothing had changed (except I was there with money).

That was Friday morning. I was hopping mad. Especially as the system on there now is disintegrating completely now, going really fast so I have to fix NOW.

Here is where everyone says "Hey, you can get a complete system for $300."

Well okay, in the USA yes, though I have not found one that comes in under $330 with the install kit factored in. However, if I buy the same parts here in Canada, ~$500 shipped.

I can buy stateside and have the stuff shipped about an hour south of me to upper NY state. BUT. Unfortunately, only two of the major online vendors will allow a transaction with a Cdn billing address and a US delivery address (the only ones that do, do so when you use PayPal).

The first one has no w123 muffler parts. The other one has the center and rear at great prices... then wants almost $70 more than everyone else for the front pipe. Confused? Welcome to my weekend.... .

Are we having fun yet?

Thanks everyone for the advice and info.

I will probably buy the center and rear pipes from the house in AZ and cross my fingers that my front pipe doesn't crap out in a month....

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Mac
2002 e320 4matic estate│1985 300d│1980 300td
Previous: 1979 & 1982 & 1983 300sd │ 1982 240d

“Let's take a drive into the middle of nowhere with a packet of Marlboro lights and talk about our lives.” ― Joseph Heller, Catch-22

Jacket ... My "original" system was pieced together. So, to make it fit, there were sections of tubing which joined two pieces together. So, it was a jacket or a coupler if that makes sense. And, BTW ... a certain parts house in AZ sold me everthing from down pipe back, center pipe with resonator, muffler and pipe, 2 MB brackets, 4 of the "good" hangers, and the complete repair kit (all the items which go on the metal bar off the tranny to the downpipe) and that's shipped for under $300.00.

I can tell you that with just the header pipe off the manifold, my car was incredibly obnoxiously loud. My system broke into 2 major pieces while doing the diff swap, and there was no way to fix it ... So, I know how it feels to be in a bind to get it fixed. Do you have any old school muffler places in your neck of the woods ? In my area, they sell the 2 1/2" or 3" sticks of pipe and custom bend it for X amount of dollars per bend. If you want straight pipe, I doubt that would cost over $100. Just an option but that assumes you have one of these old timer places in town. We only got 2 left ... the Midas of the world are wiping out the old timers ...

** Disclaimer: I am talking about another supplier here because PP does not currently list any exhaust parts for w123 5-cyl. **

No Greazzer, all chains for exhaust work now here. What few independents there were, got bought out and converted to chains years ago.

Can you do me a fav and send me the part number for the front pipe you got? I am also looking at the House in AZ but they tell me $190 for a front pipe. Hell I can get it for less here. I have an '85, maybe it's different -- what year is yours? Or maybe their catalog isn't working right. (I had to find the P/N for the install kit on another site, then enter it into their search, to see it displayed.)

The place I went, where I got the runaround, is part of a regional chain but that franchise used to be run by two brothers who did all kinds of custom work. You would often see rods and customs out front. They did a custom system for me on an antique Volvo years ago, when some of the OE components had gone NLA. Nice work and fair pricing.

Unfortunately, when I went back apparently the brothers cashed out and moved away. This was the new owner and his crew that I was dealing with.

I will make some calls on Monday but I don't have much time if I want to ship the stuff to NY State for next weekend. I am probably already too late for the free ground shipping. My system isn't far from your old one now in noise, it has four holes in the middle pipe so it won't be long before it lets go.

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Mac
2002 e320 4matic estate│1985 300d│1980 300td
Previous: 1979 & 1982 & 1983 300sd │ 1982 240d

“Let's take a drive into the middle of nowhere with a packet of Marlboro lights and talk about our lives.” ― Joseph Heller, Catch-22