I have read numerous studies about exhaust, mufflers, temps, etc. The general agreement is that you want to keep the gases as HOT as possible and not attempt to cool them off. Formula cars, Nascar, road racing, etc (except drag racing) usually wraps the header/pipes with that metalized tape. The idea is to hold the heat in the pipe as much as possible, as physics says hot gases flow better/easier than cold gases do. If you can keep the heat in the pipe longer, that alone will help the system flow. Years ago, an old genuis named Smokey Yunick experimented with that logic in the earlier years of Nascar. He kept it secret, for the always-wanted edge over the competition. The better he could keep the heat in, the faster he went. When the press and the other racers saw what he was doing, he said it was to keep the engine compartment cooler, saving stress on the other stuff. They bought the excuse but they also figured he was wasting his time. Little did they know he was on to something.
Diesels, especially ones with "hairdriers" (a slang term for a turbocharger I picked up while drag racing) are very particular in regards to back pressure. A gasoline engine will produce more torque with a certain amount of resistance/back-pressure, but will produce more out and out horsepower with a straight through system, BUT usually ONLY at wide open throttle and the very top end of the RPM band. Kids put loud mufflers on their cars, and since they SOUND faster, they think they GO faster. Rarely are they right. A diesel engine cannot operate as well if it has to overcome any back-pressure, in this case other than what the hairdrier provides. Putting a flow through muffler, usually called a "Cherry Bomb" inside the pipe of an existing system will work relatively good, until the inside of the engine decides its had all the fun it can stand, and start to self-destruct. In a hurry.
I own a multi-fuel 5 ton, and yeah, it's loud. I don't really drive except to shows, parades, etc, and wear substantial hearing protection, (earplugs AND earmuffs.) I never really desired to try to quiet it down. BUT if I was,
I would attempt to run a larger pipe down out off of the windshield area, and find a route underneath to simply re-route where the noise is going to come out.
That being said, there is a design of muffler for gas engines that does in fact quiet things down a bunch, yet provides hardly any back-pressure. Go to a muffler shop and ask to see a "Flow-Master" muffler. Most shops that carry those will also have a display cut-a-way model that shows how they place the baffles inside. The idea is that when one pulse of exhaust gas is "pushed" into the muffler, it has to go around the first baffle, but then as it goes by it, the second baffle causes a scavenging effect, clearing the way for the next pulse of gas. By the time you multiply that effect several times with a handful of baffles, you have quieted things down, but really haven't created the usual related back-pressure in doing so.
(The problem with Flow Master showing off how they make their mufflers makes it easy for someone to replicate it. I have built about 20 different similar mufflers for a whole bunch of different vehicles , ALL with positive results.However, I must say I have never tried to put one on a diesel.)