OK, this is my first post after "listening" for a while, great forum!

So after a while of longing I finally got my first MB, 1985 300D. What a car! A little scary on eBay but I think its OK. There were, of course, no maintenance records on this beauty with 227,000 miles, but she seems in pretty good condition. One owner, garage kept, non-smoker, went to an auction and purchased by my seller who only had it long enough to eBay it, hence no records.

It started right up after 3-4 seconds of glow plug and idles very smooth without any vibration. After driving it a bit and not liking the lack of power and not shifting very well at all, I decided to perform some maintenance and discovery. Vacuum at the brake booster is 19 at idle. I adjusted the valves per spec INT .004" and EXH .014". I did a compression test after the adjustment and found as follows: #1 390, #2 380, #3 280, #4 380, #5 360. I "glowed" all the glow plugs briefly while the injectors were out and they all worked fine, then unplugged the wire from the relay to not heat glowplugs while cranking engine for testing. I replaced the air and fuel filters and put it all back together, using the old heat shields and injector return lines as I could not get new in a timely manner before my eagerness to see how well it was going to run. All of the valves were completely shut down without clearance before adjustment and the timing, when the marks were perfectly lined up, was at 3 degrees ATDC. The timing chain was very tight to the sprocket and there was no scoring on the cam lobes. Upon putting it back together bleeding the injectors the battery got weak so I charged it with my 6 amp charger for about a day. When I finished getting it together and fired it up----I noticed mega white exhaust smoke and boy, was it running ROUGH! There was noticeably more blow-by out the valve cover breather hole. It seemed to calm down after it had warmed up but still smokes a lot. I took it for a spin and it still runs without much improvement in power or shifting at lower speeds but seems to run a bit better at 60-70 mph. It still idles very rough when warm and still smokes. Also the battery dash light is on now when driving---the battery voltage is 12.5 volts off but 12.3 volts when at idle. Could this have happened, maybe fried the voltage regulator, with charging the battery?

I am very confident that the valves are adjusted right as I painstakingly checked them all a second time before buttoning up. I've noticed that the linkages need adjustment as the injection pump linkage does not contact the pump stop--its about a quarter inch short at full throttle. The EGR valve does not hold vacuum so I plugged the line and on test drive it maybe shifts better but can't really tell.

Can anyone offer some advice? I'm going to do a diesel purge and see if it helps. Can the pump be out of time? Can the #3 low compression be the culprit? Could having no clearance on the valves cause the engine to run smoother? I appreciate any input, sorry this got so lengthy.

Brian

white smoke is coolant. does it smell sweet?
you probably have a bad gasket now that the valves are adjusted and creating higher pressures.

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'82 Euro MB 300 D Turbo Silver/Blue - Fixed
Adding W115 Intake and Intercooler

1986 Chevy Camaro Cp 400HP For Sale
Engineer
Tuscaloosa, AL

ROUGH IDLE WOULD BE DUE TO 100PSI DIFFERENCE IN COMPRESSION AT CLINDER #3....ID HAVE TO SEE THE SMOKE TO ACCURATELY MAKE A CALL, BUT IF IT IS TRULY WHITE, THAT COULD BE COOLANT

LACK OF POWER COUPLED WITH HARD OR LATE SHIFTING IS USUALLY A SIGN OF FEUL STARVATION......I.E CLOGGED STRAINER/FEUL FILTERS....GOOD LUCK!:fork_off:

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:fork_off: MB ANTICHRIST:fork_off:

That sounds right.

Do you see oil in your coolant bottle?

Have you lost any coolant?

Thanks for the fast replies!

The smoke smells of diesel fuel, not sweet. I haven't driven it but 15 miles or so because of the battery/charging problem, the battery today shows 12.3 volts and runs at ilde at 12.09 volts. I'll install a new regulator and see if this gets better.

I ran it a while at lunch today, there is no oil in the reservoir or coolant in the oil. I'll cycle it through a few run/cooldown cycles to see if it looses coolant in the reservoir.

Another thing I noticed today....sitting in my driveway, when you give it half throttle or so it takes it a while (5-10 seconds) to "spool up" to hold a higher RPM. The smoke is not there as badly at 2K RPM as yesterday when its warmed up....could it just be starved for fuel and really carboned up in the engine? I'll check the tank strainer (filters already replaced) to see if this gets better.

Maybe it just needs a high speed freeway blow-out before tackling the shifting problems?

Thanks for your replies,
Brian

for battery light just double check your ground straps- they will cause the light to come one if loose.

check your line from the rear of the intake manifold to the overboost switch for clogs- the banjo bolt at the manifold clogs easily if its never been cleaned. If its clear, but the line is ripped or disconnected it can make yo uthink you have all kinds of problems. The car won't get out of its own way and may shift rough or not at all.

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1980 500SE/AMG Euro
1981 500SEL Euro
1982 380SEL
1983 300TD
1983 500SEC/AMG Euro
1984 500SEC
1984 300TD Euro
1986 190E 2.3-16
1986 190E 2.3
1987 300D
1997 C36 AMG
2003 C320T 4matic

past: 1969 280SE 4.5 | 1978 240D | 1978 300D | 1981 300SD | 1981 300SD | 1982 300CD | 1983 300CD | 1983 300SD | 1983 380SEC | 1984 300D | 1984 300D | 1984 300TD | 1984 500SEL | 1984 300SD | 1985 300D | 1986 300E | 1986 560SEL | 1986 560SEL/Carat | 1987 560SEC | 1991 300D 2.5 | 2006 R350

Thanks, I'll check the connections, I might have bumped something loose when doing the valves.

I forgot to mention that I cleaned the banjo bolt a couple of weeks before this valve adjust project-it was about half clogged. At the same time I replaced the air filter, it was pretty gummed up dirty but there was no oil in the air cleaner---my thinking was that there was no blow-by, a good sign.

Thanks again,
Brian