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Old 09-17-2010, 12:26 PM
CdnVWJunkie CdnVWJunkie is offline
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Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Bright's Grove, ON, Canada
Posts: 152
'87 Wagon TD Engine Swap

Good day everyone. Some of you might remember my wagon that I posted in the FS section. White on blue MB tex project car. I opted to keep the car.

Several months ago I bought a supposed good head from a MB mechanic in MA. As a preventative measure I took it to my machanist to have him leak test it, low and behold it was severely cracked inside the water jackets. Bummer. Not as advertised but caveat emptor I suppose. My car was exhibiting classic #14 cracked head syndrome hence why I picked up the spare CH. I pulled the head off the car yesterday and there are several cracks in between the valves and pre-cups. Also, cylinder number 5 has some pitting in the walls not severe but present and noteworthy.

Last week there was a relatively local 300SDL advertised. The seller told me it ran but the starter was buggered so I couldn't hear it run. I'm a bit of a gambler and tend to trust people (see a trend here ;-) The price was cheap, like slightly above scrap value so I took a leap. I threw the starter from my 124 on it this AM and the SDL bumped over and fired within 3-4 sec. It idles unevenly, kinda like it has a "big" cam in it but it smoked very little, if any, on start up. The fuel tank is low and I have no idea the age of the fuel nor the filter. I took it for a short rip up and down our road and it smooths out at speed. It got up to temperature and it maintained it. No oil residue in the coolant overflow nor coolant in the engine oil. The upper rad hose is firm but not rigid when running and at operating temp- this is normal, correct? The CH on the SDL is also a #14, I had hoped otherwise. Also, noteworthy is that it's quite a bit slower then the 124 but bigger car and maybe a maladjusted ALDA? 482 TKM/301K miles on the car.

I'm looking for a little advice please. At this point I think I'll swap in the complete engine from the SDL into the 124. The SLS system and the motor mounts must stay with the 124. Is there anything else I've overlooked? I'm one for preventative maintenance but I don't want to dump a fortune into the engine until I determine all the cars systems are reliable- don't read that as cheap but more frugal ! lol. So with the engine out I plan a thorough cleaning/degreasing, filters, fluids- what should I be attending to while the engine is completely accessible? It's super oily like it's never seen a bath and it's hard to determine which seal/gasket is the culprit.

This is a rather long post and if you've hung in thus far- thank you.


Rob
__________________
- 2006 T1N 10 Passenger 2500 Sprinter- Family Hauler
- 1987 W124 TD Variant. Project.
- Plus several in "the works".
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