Exhaust flex leaking??

[ash_on_mtb]

Got an 80 series 1HZ that is hurting for power. Yeah yeah, whats new.. Its the only one I've ever had, and only had it a few months so can't really compare it to anything, but driving home from the mountains today it was positively dangerous. Flattened to the floor for as long as the road would last in a straight line, GPS verified 108km/h. Now to me, that sounds a bit sick...

31" standard road tires on it, 2" lift, roof rack empty, 3 people on board with a weekend of ski gear (not a great deal, all inside) and a half fuel load. 108 is not a healthy figure is it? No more smoke than any other 80, cruise control had the accelerator pinned to the carpet to do 104, guages all read normal, 3.5" tube snorkel facing rearwards, and the only thing that seems slightly amiss is the flex join at the drivers front wheel on the exhaust.

I've never had a drama with these before, never paid them much mind, but at idle you can feel it blowing on your hand, so I assume it would be howling at full revs. Speaking of full rev's, short of butchering the engine, I couldn't get it past 3000rpm.

Would a leaking bit of flex, combined with the standard exhaust manifold and crimped exhaust, be enough to give me this problem??

cheers

[hammey]

depends what you mean by crimped exhaust.....

sounds like you've got a serious restriction there some where...

pull the flex off and take it for a burn

that will soon tell ya...

[ash_on_mtb]

where the exhaust climbs over the rear axle, the bends look more like they were done over the builders knee than in a factory. They aren't damaged, just not that flash, so agreed, they are restrictive.

Any tricks for taking out the flex, I kinda like that idea, but won't it drive like a sack of the proverbial with no back pressure??

[dumbdunce]

you have a fuel delivery problem, perhaps a pump problem or a restriction in the filter or something, a 1HZ will propel an 80 at 120+km/h without too much drama on a flat road, of course your roofrack might be a bit of a parachute, if it was empty, why did you leave it on??

give it a visit to a reputable diesel shop and have it checked out, might be something simple.

[nayto]

cant rev past 3000.....is that under load or no load? either way its not good, dumbdunce is onto it with fuel delivery problem i think. Of course the exhaust wouldnt be helping but fuel is definately the problem for restriction of revs

[dumbdunce]

something else to investigate, the muffler gets choked with soot after 200,000 odd km especially if injectors are not kept serviced, and this has a gradual effect on contricting the exhaust; excessive backpressure may be what split your flex joint?

open the exhaust at the front-most flange and wedge the flanges apart so the exhaust gas can freely escape, and take it for a drive - if it revs freer and makes noticably better power, then you have yourself a clogged exhaust. although it's theoretically possible to clean it out, just get a turbo and exhaust system instead