Barely Made Power = hardly able to move. It was a SLUG! I was able to get the engine to run better by removing the large cap nut on the front of the exhaust manifold where it was placed for testing the back pressure. The FSM for the OM 603.960 shows how its done, with a special factory pressure gauge made to take the exhaust gas
One might wonder why would the factory show how to check the exhaust back pressure in the first place? Perhaps someone predicted the NTO could or would get plugged up! MB must have realized their mistake because they have spent several hundred thousand USD replacing the NTO and related exhaust components and in some cases they replaced the cylinder heads, maybe even a few complete engines under the Service Campaign.
There was a member who had a 300D up in Maine as I recall., It was really sluggish and they removed that cap plug as I described and the car would run better, so it was off to the mechanic to drop the NTO which made it an operable car. The owner had not been running the car very far, just a short drive and never really getting the car up to 4th gear, so the theory was raised out that the NTO matrix, which is a dense ceramic core with tiny passways coated with platinum I believe, never got hot enough to burn off or catalyze the carbon byproducts of a slow running diesel which can load up and cause restriction to the exhaust flow. In other words the engine chokes up and and it gets really sluggish.
In my case the car would hardly run! It wouldn't idle at all, I had to keep the pedal mashed or it would die.
Imagine the feeling after putting on a newly remanufactured cylinder head, new timing chain, new water pump, new cylinder rings and cleaning out the intake manifold that was half plugged up with crud, filling the crankcase with clean oil and finally starting it up only to find it would hardly get out of the garage even with the accelerator floored!
I recall the sinking feeling in my stomach after I had poured a bunch of money and labor into my car. then the realization set in that it would hardly even run!
Fortunately I had access to a lift at a garage where I used to work part time and the very generous owner let me use one of his lifts and his European trained mechanic helped me extensively. Re-ringing the pistons was a real experience!
Hopefully you will be able to get that car running enough to have the dealer replace the NTO and be on its way, the '87 turbo will really run well and handle like a sports car, well that is if you throw a few $$$ into a Sportline suspension it will take corners flat and surprise those big SUV drivers when you pass them on curves
DDH
Quote:
Originally Posted by DieselClan
Interesting! Can you clarify on the 'barely made power' part? Are you referring to extremely sluggish pickup? If so, this may explain why this car is EXTREMELY slow at first. Seriously, I think it took me 30-40 seconds just to get to 40MPH. After that though it drove fine, got it to 75 on the interstate perfect, not bad for a $600 car 
I will look into patching the current exhaust. I didn't locate all the holes when I first looked at it since it was 10* outside but did notice the muffler was rusted out and at least 2 more leaks in each the front pipe area and resonator area because I saw the exhaust leaking out while engine was running.
I was bummed to when I saw the 'NTO' (  ) still in place but figured if the recall was still redeemable I couldn't lose. I told the sellers about it and they didn't even know. |