I saw someone had made a gauge panel like this where the ash tray goes so I thought I'd make one for a boost gauge & 2 12V outlets. It turned out pretty good other than I should've used red oak stain instead of cherry. Also I think the outlets would've been better centered down lower, but all in all I like it! I picked up the gauge from JC Whitney for $12!! It matches the stock gauge cluster almost perfectly. It's showing me that my boost pressure is low, only 7lbs between 3K & 5K, I'm thinking it's the wastgate, but I need to do some searching first.

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Michael Roth

1982 300TDT Wagon
1982 240D Euro!, 4spd manual-Parts car now, dead engine
88 Jeep Grand Wagoneer-fixing up for offroading
1989 Ford F150 (rust bucket) For Sale!
1953 Dodge B-4F, 1 1/2 ton Stake Bed (new restoration project)

Check out the banjo fitting on the passenger side, back of the intake manifold first. They get clogged up on turbo 617's.

It would be interesting to install a power inverter and instead of two 12v sockets, one 12v and one 120v plug. It would be fairly easy and not cost that much to do, maybe $40 tops. Overall looks pretty good.

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Adam Lumsden
(83) 300D
Vice-President of the MBCA International Stars Section

Turbodiesel, I already checked that banjo fitting a while ago, it was nice & clear. Thanks though!

RG, that's not a bad idea at all! Might just have to do that one of these days.

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Michael Roth

1982 300TDT Wagon
1982 240D Euro!, 4spd manual-Parts car now, dead engine
88 Jeep Grand Wagoneer-fixing up for offroading
1989 Ford F150 (rust bucket) For Sale!
1953 Dodge B-4F, 1 1/2 ton Stake Bed (new restoration project)

You need to determine which turbo you have... hopefully its the KKK because they are easier to adjust the wastegate on.

It would indeed be very cool to make a panel like this with a boost guage, 12 volt socket and 115 vac outlet... but, how big of an inverter would you need to run regular stuff? you can find the little 50 amp boogers but, you cant run to many things on 50 amps.

Im not sure. sounds like a good project.

Where in the engine compartment did you connect for the boost pressure?

I had a leak on the overpressure switchover valve (the one mounted on the firewall) - There was small crack in one of the rubber connectors.

I used a small lab clamp on the turbo bypass tube to temporarily adjust boost - You could use a small vicegrip or anything that will squeeze the tubing. I found that it had to be almost totally squeezed before it affected boost. My boost was at about 8.3 and I got it up to about 10, but did not see any great improvement. But my car has a rebuilt engine, valves adjusted and runs well anyway.

I hooked into the rubber line that's supposed to go to the overboost valve. Someone bypassed it sometime. I need to hook it back up & see if it works one of these days.

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Michael Roth

1982 300TDT Wagon
1982 240D Euro!, 4spd manual-Parts car now, dead engine
88 Jeep Grand Wagoneer-fixing up for offroading
1989 Ford F150 (rust bucket) For Sale!
1953 Dodge B-4F, 1 1/2 ton Stake Bed (new restoration project)

McRoth,
Do you know off-hand what the internal diameter of the hose is from the banjo bolt to the overboost valve? Anyone else know? I seem to remember 4mm, but I'm not sure... Thanks,

SteveKaa

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1982 300SD 345k miles

I used a 1/4" tee to splice into it, but it was kinda big. I'm not sure exactly what size it was though.

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Michael Roth

1982 300TDT Wagon
1982 240D Euro!, 4spd manual-Parts car now, dead engine
88 Jeep Grand Wagoneer-fixing up for offroading
1989 Ford F150 (rust bucket) For Sale!
1953 Dodge B-4F, 1 1/2 ton Stake Bed (new restoration project)

What are you trying to run? Most wall outlets are only 20 amp service!
or....
Did you mean 50 watt? (That would be about 500mA, barely enough for most laptops need 1A/100 watts) However, you could run two in parallel.

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Sam

84 300SD 350K+ miles ( Blue Belle )

Hey, That looks much better than my effort. I used a piece of 16ga galv iron and covered it with some blue MB vinyl from the parts car. Looks OK, but yours is SOOO much ncer.

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Tony from West Oz.
Fatmobile 3 84 300D 295kkm Silver grey/Blue int. 2 tank WVO - Recipient of TurboDesel engine.
Josephine '82 300D 390kkm White/Palamino int.
Elizabeth '81 280E, sporting a '79 300D engine.
Lucille '87 W124 300D non-turbo 6 cylinder OM603, Pearl Grey with light grey interior


Various parts cars including 280E, 230C & 300D in various states of disassembly.

Whoa, yeah, I mean watts not amps.. wow.. sorry.

The one I saw at harbor freight was only 50 watts... pretty crappy in my opinion. Aren't the wattage ratings a bit off anyway?

I would like to do this someday.. but I would probably want to run something more than 50 watts, like 300 watts or so...

Now my wood for some reason doesn't look nearly as bad as this picture makes it seem......but refinishing it is something thats slated as a future project.

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Proud owner of ....
1971 280SE W108
1979 300SD W116
1983 300D W123
1975 Ironhead Sportster chopper
1987 GMC 3/4 ton 4X4 Diesel
1989 Honda Civic (Heavily modified)
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Section 609 MVAC Certified
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"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche

I feel some inspiration coming over me. Seeing all these custom ashtray panels has me wanting to make one for my wifes car. She was just complaining to me a few weeks ago that I spend to much time tinkering w/ my truck and not enough time tinkering w/ her car. I think I'd like to make one w/ a boost gauge, a pyro gauge and a cig lighter plug so we can still charge up the phones while we're out. What I'd really like to do is maybe cram the A/C controls down where the ashray is and put a custon panel up where the air conrtols are.

I think I'll have to add this to my list of things to look into before I put on an open air system, but after I fix the Self leveling system.

Man I feel bad about my plexiglass panel now. I am going to have to break down and build a nicer wood one, I guess.

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Keep everything as simple as possible-but no simpler--Albert Einstein