does the exhaust plug up wuth soot?
 

82 300sd

Had the exhaust down to do my hanger bearing. Noticed it starting to get a bit soft in places, but still weighed a ton. Bang the mufflers with a hammer and leaves enormous soot clouds for a while. Any benefit to straight piping the exhaust? Still has the factory 3 muffler set up (two in parallel, one inline)

Straight pipe has the advantages of being lighter and sounding better. Overall power input won't be affected, but your turbo might spool a little faster.

My advice, done on the SD, is to remove the dual resonators and keep the rear muffler.

The SD only has two mounting points for this system and it has functioned perfectly fine for 50K miles.

Of course, if the aft mount fails, the entire system falls to the pavement and cracks the downpipe so maintenance of the rubber hangers on the muffler is critical.

The SL`s use a muffler hanger that has a chain in the center.

Part# 107 492 00 44

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/268031-exhaust-hangers.html


Several members have removed the center mufflers and had the muffler shop make some long rods that go off each side to where the hangers mount.

Been searching for a thread that has a picture.

found this you tube of straight pipes, but if you don`t live in Texas, you might be out of place and look weard.:rolleyes:

Mercedes Benz Rat Rod S500 My Dad's Custom Redneck Dream Pipes Stacks & Bull horns - YouTube


Charlie

I had the muffler shop fab up a hanger rod to utilize the stock mounting points and hangers.

If you have the stock merc muffler, it's already straight though (similar to a glasspack). If you have a generic off the shelf muffler, it's probably restrictive(this was the case on my beater)

I think it was Forcedinduction that pealed open both mufflers from a W123, and they are straight through flow.


Charlie

maybe it is plugged thus your problem climbing hills.?

In my (admittedly limited) experience, factory mufflers on diesels usually use a straight-through design to limit soot build-up. I've seen cases where someone installed a muffler intended for a gasoline engine, instead, and it plugged up with soot. Soot is like drifting snow, if you put an obstacle (like a muffler baffle) in its path, the soot will build up around it.

Dual resonators are no longer on my car. Started it up with the exhaust cut off and immediatly decided the mufler will stay. The exhaust note is quite a bit deeper and louder. Seat of the pants o meter indicates there may have been some minor performance gain. Happy with the overall results.