<it's there to reduce or eliminate intake "mooing" which was one of the things I objected to in my 300D.>>
<<<OK, this is crying for an explanation........>>> Mooing: Remember the noise heard when you remove the air cleaner housing from an American V-8 and you open the throttle wide? Moooooo. Jeez. It's an intake drone which my '78 300D produced from the air intake just behind the hood edge. I reduced it by rerouting the intake a bit, installing a GM diesel intake muffler (this would produce a 1500 word treatise by VanCleef) and moving the intake forward a bit to line up with the hood edge. The car was more peaceful at freeway speeds after this mod. Moving the intake completely outside the engine compartment in the 124 was even better. RLE/ Seattle/'01 C320 with no intake noise at all
