For those of you who have and provided a lot of support and advice concerning Janet's red 1979 240D 4 Speed, the patient has a final diagnosis.

This was all done but not before joining AAA, transferring the title, going to the tow yard, coordinating a tow, but finding out that a DOT release was needed. 2 days later on my lunch break, I got the vehicle release, went to the tow yard paid the exorbitant impound fees, searched for the car on a golf cart in a old railroad yard and had it towed leaking diesel all the way to Santa Monica from Downtown LA.

Here's what was discovered in chronological order by my mechanic Tony at Europa Motors in Santa Monica who volunteered his spare time in his own shop to do all of this for FREE

#1 and #2 cylinders were found to have extremely tight valves - (valves were adjusted and a compression test was done) - no start

Very low compression was found with cylinders with not much more than 200 psi in each cylinder.

The fuel rack was found stuck in the OFF position - no start

#1 was tested with compressed air causing no movement in the piston and so there appeared to be a mystery leak somewhere in the block

Head was removed and observed that the head was not torqued down properly and was seemingly not sealed properly, the head gasket however was in good shape.

With the head off, the #1 intake valve was pulled and all were severely "pitted" and had presumed that the valve seats were damaged and upon closer inspection the valves were completely covered in carbon deposits, the stem seals were relatively new, and apparently weren't leaking. This leads one to believe that there was so much blowby from oil consumption that it was leaving enormous deposits of carbon on the valves (this is confusing because the engine was supposedly running perfectly before it was non-op)

Checking the bottom end, the pistons have a lot of play and are very loose and the rings are presumably well worn which explains why there was no piston movement when the compressed air was pumped into the engine through the glow plug opening.

At this point the engine IS completely worn out and would require a rebuild.

Does anyone have a 240D engine lying around that is somewhere in the vicinity of Santa Monica, CA?

Janet, ismelldiesel.....there you have it

EDIT: Check out the ironic post number "123616"

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Here are the two previous threads to the story

2nd Thread Concerning Selling
1979 240D Regarding Selling

1st Thread by Janet
1979 240d mechanic says the engine is no good, no compression

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1974 240D 3.0L 4(M) - 250K -OM617.910 + 300D FW + Rajay turbo power!
1977 6.9 3(A) - 84k