I lost the center muffler on a gasser--really it was just a resonator. I thought I would be a hot shot and fabricate my own and save myself the $160 for the part.

By the time I had wasted one day, a spool of mig, and bought an aftermarket resonator,replaced a 12 cutoff wheel, grinder blade, and a half a tank of MIG gas and gas for trips back and forth to a tubing shop I think I saved a total of $1.

The next time--heed my advice--buy the part on Mercedes Shop. Its half the cost of what the dealer wants and it takes 15 minutes to bolt in..Right now I am exhausted and feeling foolish!!!!!

Yeah, but don't you have a real feeling of ACCOMPLISHMENT having made it yourself?

Just curious, why did you replace it instead of installing a piece of straight pipe in its place? The rig still had a muffler on it, didn't it? Does the resonator add that much to the exhaust tone to be worth $160 OR a whole day's work?

Or is it about keeping it all original?

__________________
1984 300 Coupe TurboDiesel
Silver blue paint over navy blue interior
2nd owner & 2nd engine in an otherwise
99% original unmolested car
~210k miles on the clock

1986 Ford F250 4x4 Supercab
Charcoal & blue two tone paint over burgundy interior
Banks turbo, DRW, ZF-5 & SMF conversion
152k on the clock - actual mileage unknown

I can attest to the fact that the resonator has a big effect on the sound at certain frequencies. I put a new exhaust on my CD about 2 months ago initially with a straight pipe in place of the center resonator. It had a loud drone at mid-range RPM's without it. After a couple of weeks of putting up with this I bought a universal resonator and patched it in. Problem solved.

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'81 300CD - 180K, cannot be killed by any conventional means
'99 Ford Escort - good MPG

Good to know.

Hey, since you had yours off, I thought I would ask you a couple of questions if you don't mind. The resonator is a straight-through piece, right? No restriction? What about the muffler? It doesn't look as if there is any offset between the inlet and outlet pipes, but I thought you might know for sure.

BTW, your screen-name, is that taken from Animal House?

"Mr. Dorfman.... fat, drunk, and stupid, is no way to go through life!"

__________________
1984 300 Coupe TurboDiesel
Silver blue paint over navy blue interior
2nd owner & 2nd engine in an otherwise
99% original unmolested car
~210k miles on the clock

1986 Ford F250 4x4 Supercab
Charcoal & blue two tone paint over burgundy interior
Banks turbo, DRW, ZF-5 & SMF conversion
152k on the clock - actual mileage unknown

Yes my screen name is from Animal House. I still like that movie!

Right, the resonator is just a hollow "can", which works to break up (or dampen?) the sound waves...........somehow. So you're right it's straight through, no baffles or anything inside.

I didn't cut my old muffler apart but I have a feeling it must have baffling like every other muffler I've ever seen.

By the way, my car is a non-turbo. I've heard the turbos aren't as loud if missing the resonator or muffler even, because the turbo takes a lot of energy from the exhaust to make it spin.

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'81 300CD - 180K, cannot be killed by any conventional means
'99 Ford Escort - good MPG

very heavy but straight through. It has a heavy blanket of foam wrapped around the baffles...