I bought a '82 300SD last week with 157k on it. The seller had the car in a garage, where it had just recieved a new turbo. He claimed someone test drove it and "blew the turbo".

Should have been my first clue right there.. who blows a turbo on a 617 at 157k? Maybe I just don't get out enough, but I hadn't ever heard of it before.

I walked into the garage and looked under the hood at the replacement turbo. My first question was "Where's your wastegate hose??"

The mechanic tells me the hose was blocked off on the previous turbo, and so he blocked it off on this one. I couldn't believe it.. I thought there was more to being a mechanic than having opposable thumbs - how could he not even understand the _concept_ of a wastegate?

Everything on the car was in pretty good condition, but the motor barely made .8-1 bar even under load and the bottom end had a banging that sounded like a pile driver. I towed it home and will have it back on the road once I put my old motor into it. But man, I'm still dumbfounded by the dumb that was in that shop.

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'82 300SD 351k

Thats bad news becasue that T3 turbo can easily put out over 20 psi boost if the wastegate is unhooked. Way more than is safe. I suspect engine damge related to this discovery is yet to be found..

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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

as the old man put it once 'some people ain't too swift'

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'02 BMW 325i
'85 300D 450k
'93 190E 2.6 170k(killed by tree)
'08 Ducati Hypermotard 1100S 6k
'06 Ducati S2R800 14k(sold)

Did the mechanic look anything like this guy in the attatchment below?

Attached Thumbnails

 

Can you say
"Not the sharpest knife in the drawer"
or
"The elevator does not go to that floor"

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Sam

84 300SD 350K+ miles ( Blue Belle )

no..he had a strong resemblance to John Kerry however.

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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)
---------------------
Section 609 MVAC Certified
---------------------
"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 have a feeling this is the car you bought.

1982 Mercedes Benz 300SD Turbo Diesel

yep, that's the one.

It photographs well, but there's some missing paint on the doors. I'll have to get that touched up before salt season up here, even though it's going to be off the road for winter.

I already love it, it's just going to a while before it's back on the road. Front suspension has some issues.. it will wallow and understeer to the right, but dive into the turn sharply to the left. When I get under it and start checking ball joints and things, I'll see what's gone wrong.

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'82 300SD 351k

I'm curious. How is it you would know what mcneils mechanic looks like?

Or was that just a knee jerk/lock step reaction?

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Rob M
Norwich, VT USA
1980 240D Euro delivery 4 speed manual silver/blue
~160K miles

Busybenz - I think that post probably should have gone to the open forum. This one is too valuable to most of us to trash.

Well it is a balanced response to the post it refered to.

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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)
---------------------
Section 609 MVAC Certified
---------------------
"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 was looking at buying the car, fly in and drive back to detroit.
I kept getting different stories from the seller, he would always "forget"
something about the car, he "forgot" so much that I got him down on the
price from 2500 to 1875.00. In the end I just felt I could not trust him, it looks like I was right.
The good news is he has only had the car for a short time, and the previous
owner had it less than a year and did not drive it, so it should end up being
a good car. I actually was able to talk to the original owner that bought the car new and sold it just a couple of years ago. Nice guy, he sold it because
he did not drive anymore, he was around 85.
It should be a keeper when you get done with it.

That ad sure had "Bull$hit Artist" written between the lines.

Was that a dealer or a private owner?

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Palangi

2004 C240 Wagon 203.261 Baby Benz
2008 ML320 CDI Highway Cruiser
2006 Toyota Prius, Saving the Planet @ 48 mpg
2000 F-150, Destroying the Planet @ 20 mpg



TRUMP .......... WHITEHOUSE
HILLARY .........JAILHOUSE
BERNIE .......... NUTHOUSE
0BAMA .......... OUTHOUSE

Moetown, I hope you're right. The car has all the markings of being a solid and well kept vehicle, except for the grease monkey that blocked off the wastegate. When I get the old motor out, I'll post pictures of what happens to a 617 with no wastegate. I'm hoping it's rebuildable.


Just for reference, he actually looked more like Putin than Kerry or Bush. Seriously..

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'82 300SD 351k

I forgot to mention that the engine noise it has now is probably not related to the turbo issue. He just put a new lower oil cooler line on it, we know what happens when they go bad, it probably ran out of oil.
I think he pinched off the wastegate hose hoping to get a little more power
out of it, to mask the damage done by the lack of oil.