Severity of exhaust leak

[mikeGatch]

My 82 diesel westy vanagon has an exhaust leak on where the pipe comes into the muffler on the drivers side. It also will barely hold an idle once warmed up and not at all after it starts. I have replaced glow plugs and injectors and gone through the timing procedures. It smokes white quite a bit at idle and when giving it gas when stationary, but seems to smoke less, much less when under load. The only thing I have not done is time the IP with the meter, because we do not have one. So My question I guess is can the exhaust leak be causing the engine to run for crap? or is this more an IP timing issue?

[burn_your_money]

Exhaust won't affect the running, it will only affect the noise. 

Unless it's restricted, but that's not your problem. Time to get a gauge I think

[jtanguay]

the only problem is when a piece of rusted exhaust gets caught up in the muffler or some place, and causes a restriction as stated above.  unlike gassers where they do require exhaust pressure to create the vacuum 

[Rabbit TD]

the only problem is when a piece of rusted exhaust gets caught up in the muffler or some place, and causes a restriction as stated above.  unlike gassers where they do require exhaust pressure to create the vacuum 

Did you ever see any of those pictures of how some of the GM exhaust pipes, "in the early 80's I think it was", actualy delaminated on the inside and almost completely blocked the exhaust flow.  I  bet that drove mechanics crazy until they discovered the problem.