Any parts worth saving off a 1976 240d before scrapping?
 

I have a 1976 240D that is nearly impossible to start. I am almost positive it is due to the fact that the engine has low compression. I have posted it for parts here and elsewhere but have gotten no interest. Are there any desirable or hard-to-find parts that I should remove before taking it to the shredder? I was thinking about offering some of the parts on ebay but I don't know which parts, if any, people would snap up and which parts would just go unsold. Any suggestions?

The car is burgundy with red interior and auto trans. Has 143,000 on it. Thanks.

now this is a W115 correct?

why scrap it.. how is the body. etc

Is the body rusty? How are the rear footwells and the jack points?

TheDon:

Yes, it is a w115. The short and blunt answer to why I want to scrap it is it is a Mercedes and once this one is gone I will never go near another one again. I paid $1200 and it ran for a 2 weeks. The long answer is that the engine rebuild costs are a joke. My 1976 John Deere bulldozer (4 cylinder) rebuild kit (contains everything including pistons and sleeves is under $800), people here are quoting that much for just the MB pistons and many parts are either hard to find or unavailable. Also, once you look at the John Deere diesel design next to the Mercedes engine you realize that the Mercedes engine is junk. People here talk about used engines but I haven't been able to find one.

The body has some rust through but I have photos taken at the repair shop showing replacement of the inner fenders. It is a michigan car so the body is not great, but like I said the inner fenders are newer (someone spent a fortune). I bought it to experiment with biodiesel but the car died after two weeks: I never did run anything in it except bonefide pump diesel though.

diametricalbenz:

I would have to check on the condition of the rear footwells (hopefully you mean floors). Same for the jack points. If you have a picture of what you want me to check that would be best.

what condition is the grill in? the chrome surround and insert.. I might be interested if it is decent

The car will be worth more as a parts car that it will be in scrap, also if it ran for two weeks and then died, it is most likely not compression. The w115 is probably not the best benz to be your first and it certainly is not the best for a wvo conversion. Much less room under the hood to work with than a w123 or 126. What are the starting problem symptoms?

Make sure you run a compression check before you doom the car to wrecker. If the car was running then I doubt there could be something catastrophic going on. Adjust your valves first, then do a comp test.

To TheDon:

It is not cracked but I believe it is pitted. I will check. Are you looking for something "showroom" or near it?

lietuviai,

The dry compression was below the minimum for diesel combustion and went up considerably when I put oil in the cylinders. The last time it ran correctly I noticed the oil pressure gauge fluctuating from 0-30. I parked it for the night and the next morning I checked the dipstick which came up dry and put oil in it: That is when the starting problem started. I can only speculate that it went dry on oil and the engine was damaged, but even if that were the case I turned off the car to get gas the last night it ran well, then drove another 10 miles to get home, so that cylinder damage would have had to happen within that ten miles.

Because it ran and started OK and died suddenly I hesitate to believe that it could be a valve adjustment problem. Do you agree?

Even a 1/2 mile without oil is enough to cause damage.

I believe there was one person here looking for a 240D intake manifold.

PatricdeBoer:

The car MAY have gone dry or nearly dry on oil for about ten mile, but even if it did, I have seen lots of cars take this and still run. One person here feeling if it did go dry of oil the crank bearing would be damaged before the cylinders, but there was no signs of any engine noise.

I check the compression after it first failed to start and found it below the minimum required for combustion. I put oil in the cylinders and it started. I hoped the starting problem was a one time thing caused by the cylinder oil getting washed away from the fuel and cranking the engine dry while the newly replenished oil was building up in the engine to lub the cyl walls, but those hopes were dashed when I turn the car off and it wouldn't start again.

Yesterday, I replaced a questionable fuel line, put in new injector seals, bleed the fuel system and it failed to start. I removed the injectors again, poured oil into the cylinders, reinstalled the injectors, and it started again. It nailed for a short time. I ran it for a half an hour, test drove it for four miles, turned it off and immediately tried to restarted it, thinking that hot compression would be higher and in an effort to rule out any intermitten glow plug issues: It refused to start again. After the nailing started it ran and drove good (except that it has blowby that nearly blows the cap off) until i turned it off.

At any rate I am going to devise a way to get oil into the cylinders through the intake (I have pulled the injector to get oil in the cylinders before, which drained the injector lines and introduced another variable into the mix). If it starts to kick I can confirm the compression diagnosis.

I was going to run commercial biodiesel not WVO and was even going to look into making it (I live on a soybean farm).

When you say the car is worth more as a parts car did you mean in pieces or selling it whole? I have been a gas engine mechanic for 30 years and after owning this car and looking at the way thing were designed I am completely unimpressed. If I can get anywhere near my money back out either selling it whole or in pieces that is what I want to do. Obviously though, it will be easier for me to sell it if I can get it running. Even if I can get it to start consistently I would not keep it. Thanks.

ForcedInduction:

Thanks for the lead on the manifold buyer. He is looking for a 77 with a vacuum controlled IP. My intake has a vacuum line attached but I don't know it that makes it interchangable. vbmenu_register("postmenu_1562969", true);

He is really looking for a 76 and earlier. He just thought that it was used up to 77.

Anyone. Any idea if I start parting this car if there is enough of a demand for the parts that I will sell several, or do you think I will sell one or two things, make 25 bucks, and be stuck with an incomplete worthless hulk. Any opinions would be appreciated. Thanks.

you will probably get more parting it out than selling it to the scrap heap..

just pull things off and mark them and store them... someone will use it..

I know someone that needs a good w115 grill and probably an AC compressor bracket for a 615....