when you go to cut into the wood panel - or any panel that you want to protect...cover it first with wide 2" masking tape, then cut....it should protect from chips and nicks....
looks awesome!
jake

Unfortunately, on a non-turbo diesel, a vacuum gauge will not work. GAS engines utilize a throttle to govern air flow. The vacuum indication on the gauge of a gas engined-car is basically reading how much air is being allowed into the engine given the throttle position. Diesel engines do not use a throttle and are not limited to air intake, therefore a vacuum gauge plumbed into the intake of a non-turbo diesel will always read zero. In my turbo diesel car, the turbo gauge I currently have installed is really a gauge designed for a gas car...it never reads below zero boost. (See the picture of the turbo diesel boost gauge that HIDGolf posted...it starts at zero, and only goes up.)

J.G.

If you wanted to install a gauge in a NA car, how about a tranny fluid temp or rear diff temp? You could have one gauge and a rotory switch that would allow you to cycle through everything.

Or maybe an Engine Hours gauge so you know how many hours your engine has like a boat or semi's have.

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2002 VW Golf TDI-169,000 miles B20

Jay, nice work. What kind of boost numbers are you seeing in your E300?

You really should ditch that voltmeter for an egt gauge. Drill and tap the exhaust manifold just before the turbo, at the most central place possible. Michakaveli and Jay, you want your probe to be in the most central location possible toward the end of the headers - you want the average temp before the turbo, not just the temp of one closest cylinder.

Guys, I spent some time playing with the EGR on my car when everything was apart last week. I think the same method for bypassing the EGR on the non turbos will work just fine. Block the exit of the exhaust manifold with a metal plate and add a breather filter on the end of the corrugated pipe. Why did folks think this was going to be a problem? There's no way for boost to escape. Has anyone simply tried plugging the vaccum line that actuates the EGR?

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2004 Ram 2500 Cummins HO
2000 Jetta TDI
1999 E300 (sold)

Funny you should mention that! My friend just tried that with his 98 E300D today and well it kind of worked.

He plugged the exhuast with a plate and put a filter on the egr pipe. The filter actually sucks more air as the turbo spools up, no boost pressure is lost.

However after 5 minutes the check engine light still came on and the turbo stopped boosting.

He took it to autozone and they got an egr malfunction code, he put everything back to normal and cleared the code. So far everything is fine.

But we are not ready to rule out this method yet. We suspect his egr valve may be in the process of dieing. He will clean and test the egr valve then try this mod again before ruling that it won't work.

We are thinking his egr valve is pretty covered in tar and the hot exhuast gases melt the tar so the valve can move. When cool air is introduced the tar gets pretty thick and may be hampering the valves movements. Also his valve seems to be leaking this stuff underneath it.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

The goo on the E300 turbo's that builds up is brutal. I experienced it when we had the manifold off to replace the glow plugs.....

On my non-turbo I left all the vacuum lines connected as is. At least when I disconnected the one to the EGR once the engine ran totally differently and fired a CEL. I wouldn't be surprised if the turbo's act the same...

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#dieselFLEET
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'97 E300
'99 E300

Let me tell you with 99% certainty, after carefully studying the entire EGR system on my 98 E300, there is no way to defeate it as the computer monitors airflow and temperature in many locations.

If everything is not in spec, it will throw a CEL and cut the turbo boost.. and it is very very fickle!

I don't believe there is 'no way' to defeat it. It's possible that a epsi device may work, similar to those on tdi's. It tricks the ecu into thinking there is the proper amount of pressure drop when in fact the vacuum lines are plugged and the egr is gone..

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2004 Ram 2500 Cummins HO
2000 Jetta TDI
1999 E300 (sold)

I second that.

McCool300TD

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1988 190E Sold
1996 C230K Sport Sold
His: 98 E300TD Estate, 7 seater, Avantgarde, Silver, Black cloth, parameter steering, dipping rvm, folding mirrors, rain sensing wipers, pentagon tints, 17" Elegance wheels. 298K
Hers: 93 300TD, 7 seater, Grey MB Tex pearl blue metallic, 15" 8 hole alloys, OTG, Cruise, not much else 220K

Boost pressures surprised me...higher than I expected: at lower rpm's and high load off the line, boost will quickly build and peak momentarily at 19 to 20 PSI!! Slowly drops to 15 to 17 as rps's get high, then at transmission shift points, it drops momentarily to about 10 psi, then quickly builds back to about 15 to 18 PSI.

I NOW understand why this car has the BALLS it does!! I'd really love to know the boost pressures in the new CDI'S!!!

J.G.

Boost doesn't typically translate to power, it cleans up the smoke and egt's, allowing more fueling. I'm surprised the boost is that high as well. Can you guys hear your turbos spooling? Mine is silent - yet my mom's e300 you can hear it spool , like most turbo cars. My cummins sounds like a semi whining nonstop on the highway..

Where/how did you tap into boost pressure?

PS if you think this car has balls you've been driving a diesel too long.

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2004 Ram 2500 Cummins HO
2000 Jetta TDI
1999 E300 (sold)

I've been chasing down intake system leaks and I think I have the system perfect now.. I can hear the car spool up slightly from inside the car, but with the windows rolled down, it sounds like a Peterbuilt spooling up

You're kidding! I can't heear any turbo whine, even with the windows down. I've always wondered why, but several 98-99 e300 owners on this forum also confirmed they don't hear the turbo spool. I wonder if that's why mine is so smoky. Oh yeah that chip might have something to do with it


Where did you tap into for boost?

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2004 Ram 2500 Cummins HO
2000 Jetta TDI
1999 E300 (sold)

I don't have any "turbo whine" in my car at all. I think turbo cars generally make more of a whine as the turbo bearings wear. If you have smoke in your exhaust, this would be one confirmation of a bearing/ bearing seal problem. As the bearings wear, there is more axial play on the turbine shaft, and oil will often leak from the turbine shaft bearing gallery past the seal and directly into the exhaust flow, which then burns up giving you smoke.

For the boost gauge source, I tapped into the vaccuum hose that runs from the intake manifold to the boost pressure controller. Cut the hose, and put in a 3-way plastic "T" fitting. Check out the picture I posted for this.

And for a DIESEL, this car DOES have balls...I've surprised more than a few people off the line at stoplights. The best 0-60 I've had (on a cold day) was 7.8 seconds. Up until the CDI arrived, and other than the MBZ C111 prototype turbo diesel race car, the W210 E300TD was the fastest diesel on the planet.

Yeah...and FYI, I've been happily snorting diesel fumes since 1979!

J.G.

Fastest diesel on the planet get real! My 04 7200 lb Cummins STOCK will beat the E300, let alone with the mods I"ve done and that are available. I run daily with around 420hp at the wheels on a dyno and about 850lbs torque, and that is MILD compared to what's available. That is unless you mean 'fastest' in terms of top speed, which is pretty useless.

Thanks for the tip on the boost location.

Nice theory Jay but not the case in my car - the turbo is not worn (55k and has smoked since new) and it's certainly not burned oil smoke, it's very easy to tell the difference between burned oil smoke, partially burnt fuel smoke and unburnt fuel smoke... I personally think I'm not making as much boost as others, which would explain a lot of the smoke.

As I mentioned, when the car was stock it didn't smoke at all aside from WOT, and only if I hadn't really gotten on it in a while. Now with the additional fueling of the chiptuning etc, I'm hurting for boost. I just wondered based on the fact that some cars have audible turbo whine if I was the odd one out or others had 'silent' turbos. I may have to install a gauge temporarily (borrow the boost gauge out of my cummins) to measure what kind of boost I'm making. I know I have one of those vacuum line T's laying around somewhere. I just wish I had EGT in the benz..or there was as more attractive way to have gauges. No offense but I like the clean look of the dash, and don't want to cut my panels. Maybe a bezel behind the panels where the woodgrain door could shut and cover them would be doable.

Do you other E300 owners realize that since the original poster has located the oil feed location under the filter that we can all now install oil bypass systems? I think he's the first , at least the first I"ve seen, to point out a useable oil feed port. Now all that needs to be done is to feed from there to the bypass filter, and then either tap the valve cover for the return or use one of amsoil's (or other brand) tapped valve cover caps.. This may be my next E300 project, as soon as the pile of cummins parts sitting here starts to dwindle

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2004 Ram 2500 Cummins HO
2000 Jetta TDI
1999 E300 (sold)