My 87 300 sdl badly needed some new plumbing to get all that smoke rear of the passenger cabin so I decided to "save" some money and try doing this on my own. What I have now is the factory exhaust from the turbo to the cat. everything rear needs replaced. Ive ordered the following. 1 flowmaster series 50 muffler (flowmaster part #842551) and the flowmaster universal talpipe kit (15901) which includes 12 ft of mandrel bent tubing to custom route.

My questions are this:
1. Should I mount the one muffler in the center in place of the resinator or in the rear muffler well. This muffler fits well in both locations.
2. The cat. I need to find a transition from the 3 bolt flange to my 2.5 in system. I belive that the flange attached to the back of the cat is 2.25 in? does anyone know of such a beast or should I wack off the whole thing and limit my much improved driving to off road only?

And to answer the commonly asked questions:

yes the recall for the ox trap has been completed just reciently and no the dealer didnt replace the turbo Im going to tackle that also even though it only uses 1 qt of oil in 2000 mi.

no the head hasnt given out on me.... yet.

no I dont plan on building a fire-breathing propane 24 lb boost tire eating machine, just looking for ways to have fun, get dirty and not lay out too much cash... even though it is mercedes.

many thanks for you imput.

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sold
1987 300 SDL 318K
126.125 (OM603.961) (722.321 trans) (head#14)
Born on date 11/07/1986
2.5" Flowmaster Exhaust
flex-a-lite dual electric cooling fan conversion

now have a 1985 toyota diesel pickup

If you don't have inspections i would take out the cat and throw it away. If you do try to hollow it out or make it just a straight-through unit and bolt it back in. At least have the appearance of compliance. I would mount the muffler in the rear. Less likely to get hung up on stuff, resonate in the cabin, and easier to replace in future. For the adaptor try a local independent muffler shop that does custom hotrod type work. They are used to making stuff. RT

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When all else fails, vote from the rooftops!
84' Mercedes Benz 300D Anthracite/black, 171K
03' Volkswagen Jetta TDI blue/black, 93K
93' Chevrolet C2500HD ExCab 6.5TD, Two-tone blue, 252K

wow.
I went into this project thinking it would be horrible but...
with the parts listed above a exhaust turndown 6 clamps and three generic hangers i now have a great sounding exhaust that took only 6 lazy hours and cost about $200.

I made only two cuts. no bends as everything prettymuch snaped intoplace as if it was made for this vehicle. having the ehaust routed under the axle made it so much easier.
The series 50 delta flow muffler fits just perfect where the resinator was. and the final exhaust tip is a mandrel bent turndown from jegs. I hit it with some gloss black like the stock tips and im happy with the inconspicus look.

performance wise... Ill see. its been raining for a day and a half and it is driving just fine but hitting puddles at 80 mph (3rd gear) are louder than the exhaust feed back

now i have to look at my lifters as the tack tack tick tack at idle is now the loudest noise emminating from the vehicle.

over all. this was my first attempt at automotive exhaust repair and im pretty happy with the results. Im also happy to have this board as many of the repairs ive made have got their motivation with reading others sucess and tips.
many thanks folks.

__________________
sold
1987 300 SDL 318K
126.125 (OM603.961) (722.321 trans) (head#14)
Born on date 11/07/1986
2.5" Flowmaster Exhaust
flex-a-lite dual electric cooling fan conversion

now have a 1985 toyota diesel pickup

Good deal! It's about time for me to install a new exhaust system, as mine is beginning to leak between the turbo and the center muffler. I may just go with a straight-pipe from the turbo back and see how obnoxious it is.

veedub,
hope the leak is at or behind the down pipe where it is held by the transmission brace. I think fabricating the section from the turbo to the cat would be the biggest headache. I did see one other member who put a 3" system on. he had tailpipe tips that were upswept and he complained about soot collecton on the rear. I went with downturn pipes to force the sound down instead of up.

as far as strait pipes all the way back... I dont see why not. I have just heard plenty of people complain about the 2000 rpm resonation that hits just under the back seat floor and has been said to rattle your teeth. cant be that bad.
I did have a conversation with a tech at flowmaster who said in their custom shop they can pinpoint in a exhaust system where resonation is comming from by using a remote temprature reading gun. they just find the hotspot where the exhaust waves are tripping over eachother and put in a resenatior.

now what is bad is I was driving around for a couple of weeks with only the cat. nothing in back of it. that was LOUD. My local arm of the revenue collection agency stopped us to ask what was the matter with the vehicle. I got a laugh out of that because the girfriend was driving it and was quite embarrased. so I ordered the parts that night. the cop didnt like my explination of. "OH... well, it's a diesel, they just run louder"

__________________
sold
1987 300 SDL 318K
126.125 (OM603.961) (722.321 trans) (head#14)
Born on date 11/07/1986
2.5" Flowmaster Exhaust
flex-a-lite dual electric cooling fan conversion

now have a 1985 toyota diesel pickup

Quote:
Originally Posted by OhioSDL
.... i wanted larger mandrel bent exhaustand a less restrictive muffler.
....put 2.5 inch flowmaster exhaust system all the way back...




I need to do the exhaust on the SDL sometime soon. Some questions:

1) I presume that you keep the factory downpipe with the flex coupling built in.

2) What tubing did you use to go from the downpipe to the muffler? Was this commercially available? Who bent it properly?

3) I presume that you eliminated the center muffler, just forward of the rear axle and just to the driver's side of the vehicle.

4) What are the details of the flowmaster muffler? What is the expected life of this component?

5) What's the cost for the system from the back end of the downpipe to the end of the system?

6) You mention a cat on the system. I cannot seem to find any evidence of a cat on this one. That is, unless I am calling the cat the center muffler. It is awful small for a muffler and awful big for a cat. As mentioned above, it lives just forward of the rear axle on the driver's side.

I'm weighing a complete stainless steel system from Timevalve for $650. or so. But, this is a bit pricey and I was looking for alternatives.

Thanks.
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Brian Carlton
1984 300SD
1986 300SDL

__________________
sold
1987 300 SDL 318K
126.125 (OM603.961) (722.321 trans) (head#14)
Born on date 11/07/1986
2.5" Flowmaster Exhaust
flex-a-lite dual electric cooling fan conversion

now have a 1985 toyota diesel pickup