you don’t need to edit WordPress core files and don’t do this, when hooks are available to modify use the_excerpt_rss
and the_content_feed
filter to add thumbnails or your custom links in feed.
add_filter( 'the_excerpt_rss', 'insert_thumbnail_into_feed' );
add_filter( 'the_content_feed', 'insert_thumbnail_into_feed' );
function insert_thumbnail_into_feed() {
global $post;
if ( has_post_thumbnail( $post->ID ) ){
// replace thumbnail with yours
$content="<p>" .get_the_post_thumbnail( $post->ID, 'thumbnail' ) .'</p>';
}
// get post content and replace feed content with
// you can also limit/filter the content to exclude shortcodes and html code etc.
$content .= '<p>' .get_the_content() .'</p>';
return $content;
}
EDIT: place this code in your theme’s functions.php