[Vwdiesel] Caddy Exhaust

[William J Toensing]

I think I raised this question before but I don't recall all the answers. Has anyone tried putting a straight pipe on a VW turbodiesel & if so, what were the results? Any MPG improvement? Was it to noisy? I have heard that a turbo quiets the exhaust enough to make it legal. I had an Argosy Airstream motorhome powered by an Isuzu 6 cylinder turbodiesel. It had a Chevy motorhome chassis, Turbohydromatic 400 transmission, also a Gear Vendors 2 speed over/under drive. The prior owner had installed a straight pipe. With that 26 foot Argosy I got as high as 17 MPG!  Wish I still had it. My Mercedes 300SD is only averaging around 25 MPG. Around 17 years ago I had a Peugeot 604 turbodiesel with an automatic which was a real underpowered slug but otherwise was a nice luxury car. Its top speed was around 60 MPH & only got around 20 MPG. I never tried it but have wondered whether a partially plugged muffler could have caused the poor performance? I had a Peugeot 505 TD with automatic, same engine which would top out around 80 MPH & averaged around 23 MPG in LA traffic, as I recall.
If you go the straight pipe route you could use a copper straight pipe from a hardware store if you don't have to do any bending. Should last forever.

Bill Toensing, Nevada City, CA