Guru,

I just got a book from www.**************.com called Performance tuning and repair for 1965 to 1985 200d through 300sd diesels. As some one who has worked on mechanics for nearly 50 years I found the book very clear and concise, aside from a few misspellings and no reference to the pictures. He lists a number of very simple steps that you can take to not only improve your preformance (he left out the part about sticking a rocket up the exhaust pipe) but also how to maintain it.

I have heard on this site that other books offered by these people are not so good and that sometimes their product service is lacking, but I would recommend this book.

I for one am glad to hear this. Because just today I got a cardboard box in the mail with the Performance Tuning and Repair and the two vacuum troubleshooting books from them. And they included a pair of blue gloves too

The ************** site (and books, etc) are mostly pretty good. They're handy if you're a newbie, and/or you don't want to waste hours searching forums like this for answers to your questions. I was disappointed to see them selling (on eBay) new EGR valves for MB diesels with a whole sales pitch behind that (c'mon, the proper solution is to disable or remove that silly thing); and also hawking those 5-watt blue 'Xenon' dash bulbs which are a COMPLETE gimmick and waste of money. OK, off soapbox now, the vacuum & tuning manuals should be helpful.

BTW - if you're doing vacuum troubleshooting, you'll want to get a MityVac Silverline 4050 kit - trust me. Here's a link:

http://www.thetoolwarehouse.net/shop/MIT-4050.html

__________________
Dave
Boise, ID
Check out my website photos, documents, and movies!

Webwench,
Maybe they read of your oil pan exploits!
Keep up yanking KV's chain---you do well.

(corrected link) This is what I ordered Tuesday, which looks to be a less-deluxe model. It has not shown up here at the house yet In your opinion, will it do the job?

Ahhh, nice to know there are others that help keep Harbor Frieght in business. Your link didn't work, but I'm assuming you got the plastic Mityvac. Leathermang, I believe, recommended the plastic as having served him well for years, so I found one at HF. I've yet to use it, but from all reports it will do the job. The other one is obviously nicer, and more rugged, but how rugged is checking vacuum anyway.
Let us know how you like it.
Jimmy.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=39522

__________________
Jimmy L.
'05 Acura TL 6MT
2001 ML430 My Spare

Gone:
'95 E300 188K "Batmobile" Texas Unfriendly Black
'85 300TD 235K "The Wagon" Texas Friendly White
'80 240D 154K "China" Scar engine installed
'81 300TD 240K "Smash"
'80 240D 230K "The Squash"
'81 240D 293K"Scar" Rear ended harder than Elton John

That'll teach me to test my links, won't it? Here's a working link: http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=2068

My pump looks to be metal, but has fewer accessories.

That's a nice set. I have the exact same one, only it's snap-on/mighty branded and I paid a more years back. It's capable of any vaccum testing you may need to do.

For vacuum diagnosis - yup, it will work great. But it doesn't do pressure. The kit I linked to, the 4050, not only has other accessories (most of which I never use) but it has the "dual action" valve, which allows you to build pressure as well. That is handy to test ALDAs for leakdown, and for testing the overboost switch operation, for example. For boost testing (while driving the car), I run a hose from the ALDA into the passenger compartment to the MityVac and use the built-in gauge as my boost gauge! Overall a handy tool, especially if you have a turbo diesel. (If you don't have a turbo, there is much less need for the pressure testing capability.)