1995 E300 Newest diesel in the fleet. Literally..... - Page 7 - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

JimmyL · #91 02-06-2009, 01:55 AM

Well, I replaced the engine mounts this evening, and as usual I guess things could have gone more smoothly. Yep, it was like most all jobs on these things....

As a reminder, there was a brown oil leaking under the car. It was coming from the engine mount.

At least on these cars you don't have to mess with engine shocks! I looked at the set up and thought "man, this is gonna be so much easier than a W123. Well, it didn't really end up that way, although it isn't more difficult either.
On these mounts there is a 17mm bolt through the top and a 17mm bolt up from the bottom. Here is the driver's side mount with the bolt removed from the top.

And this is the view from the bottom, bolt still attached.

I think it is better to do one side at a time. You really have to jack the engine up quite a bit for the extra room required by the new mounts, and the oil filter housing sure does crunch into the faux fire wall insulation.

The top 17mm bolt on the driver's side wasn't a problem really, although it was a bear to break loose. I got the best angle with the ratchet on the bolt and breaking it loose from beneath the car.
The passenger side took a bit more effort. These bolts were very tight, and with a swivel I just couldn't get a good bite on it.
So, I had to remove a bracket holding the exhaust pipe to the manifold.

Moving that down and out of the way allowed me to get a 1/2" 17mm socket with swivel and extend it up in order to break it loose with a bigger ratchet. The swivel was almost straight in this configuration.

Next.....

bgkast · #92 02-06-2009, 02:03 AM

At least there are no allen head bolts involved!

JimmyL · #93 02-06-2009, 02:05 AM

Here is an old mount next to a new mount. The pics don't show very will just how compressed these old mounts were.

Also notice the tabs on the bottom of the above pics [they are upside down there, btw] Those tabs [ears] face away from the engine and there are cut outs in the engine mount arms that these tabs fit inside. This makes sure the mount is juxtaposed correctly.
I first loosened both top and bottom bolt, removed top bolt, jacked up engine, remove lower bolt, install new mount with bottom bolt, leaving slightly loose, lower engine and manipulate the mount tab and engine arm in position, thread top bolt carefully and tighten both up. [nutshell version]
**note**
Make sure you thread the bolts into the mount before you install the mount, just to make sure the threads are OK. I had one mount that I had to really work with to get the lower bolt to thread correctly. [passenger side]

Here are views of the new mounts installed.

drivers side

passenger side

The engine was very smooth before this, but I have never driven a diesel that idled smoother than this one does now. Amazing!!

Here is the blown out mount.

All in all not a bad job at all.......

Chad300tdt · #94 02-06-2009, 08:09 AM

Nice write up Jimmy.

Now I want one of those in my fleet.

JimmyL · #95 03-23-2009, 02:05 AM

Well, been dorking around with fairly trivial stuff for the past month or so.
First thing I did was send off for my 250K kilometer badge which came back very quickly. So I removed and painted my grill insert black first of all. I pretty much have a standard policy of painting them all black and clear coating over the top of it. Seems to look better with any car color involved, and sure beats the old flaking gray/silver.
So, before and after:

It was way too bright when I took the pics, but its not like I'm waiting for the best part of the day for pics of this.

Also, the family cat simply will not stay off the hoods of the cars out front. Matter of fact, yesterday I saw him jump from China to the White wagon to my Ford PU to my Chevy PU. Hood to hood to hood.......
And I finally washed the Batmobile today and found some wicked scratches, cat of course, on the driver's 1/4 panel right by the hood hinge section. Probably his jump on point. So................

It is a cheapie Walmart cover. I first got a size 3 for large cars. Supposed to fit up to 16'8" but it was too small, so I went back and swapped for a 4. That is the correct size. It ain't fancy but I needed something fairly quick. Will look for a better one as I go, but few last more than a year outside with the wind, so no use spending too much on it.
Wish I had a car port.....

Bio300TDTdriver · #96 03-23-2009, 10:09 AM

WOW the black really makes a difference. The horizontal chrome pieces almost disappear in the gray, not with the black.

Don't you have any bridges with water under them where you live?

Make sure you don't leave the windows down or the small scratches will be the least of your problems.

JeffreyNMemphis · #97 05-26-2009, 11:21 AM

Nice car Jimmy!

Very cool write ups. Does the car still have the flapper issue?

freesoul · #98 05-26-2009, 05:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skid Row Joe

Compare with guys that own your like model to see if theirs are as sluggish. I've never driven any of the 2.5 turbo or 3.0 diesels from that era. So I don't know how they accellerate.

I've got the 95 E300 and I just replaced all glowplugs and new wiring harness. While I had the intake manifold off I cleaned all the soot out and also cleaned the intake ports on the head- this I did by rotating the engine until the valves closed and used a 1" metal pipe cleaner and then vacuumed out any debris with a tiny piece of hose taped to the vacuum. A few of the ports were really bad.

When I put it back together, at first it smoked pretty bad but a nice run on the highway cleared that out. Now it runs much better! Next step is injection pump timing and also checking the injectors.

matthias08 · #99 05-26-2009, 06:44 PM

I still love your color. just saying.

JimmyL · #**100** 05-27-2009, 01:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JeffreyNMemphis

Nice car Jimmy!

Very cool write ups. Does the car still have the flapper issue?

Spent about 58 minutes on the phone today with Jeffrey. Good dude and doing a very diligent search for his next Mercedes. Sounds like he has a couple of good candidates lined up.
Of course I put in good words for the '95 E300's, and I gave far less support for a rod bender.

Also not a thing wrong with a W124 2.5 turbo. We'll see how his search goes!
Will be watching his progress with interest......

RUN-EM · #**101** 05-27-2009, 04:48 AM

Hi Jimmy,

There is (was?) a product for repair of stripped aluminum manifolds...just a paste product. You removed the bolt, added the paste into the hole, coated the bolt with a release agent, and re-installed the bolt until dry. Then you could remove bolt again, clean up bolt and re-torque.
Think it was a product made by the lock-tight group in conjunction with the Edelbrock company (hot rod intake manifolds).

Dang, Sunny is gonna be miffed at you....black on the new Merc. But it does look great. Congrats on the new purchase.

Regards

Run-Em

JeffreyNMemphis · #**102** 05-27-2009, 08:56 AM

Thank you for the kindness Jimmy!

Jimmy was kind enough to share his diesel experience with me. My research shows that the 2.5 turbo is 124hp and 166 torque and the 3.0 NA is 134hp and 155 torque with estimates of fuel mileage being the same. The posts I have read seem to express that the 3.0 in real world driving gets a little better mileage; probably due to the turbo drivers wanting to feel that boost all the time!

Does anyone know where I can find a .pdf file or Mercedes brochure that describes the updates of the W124 series in 1994-95? Pretty tough to find information about a run of a few thousand cars... The Wikipedia article on the W124 series describes the W124 series as pre-facelift and post face-lift (94-95). I would say the new smoother running 3.0 NA was more than a face-lift.

The power to weight ratio of the W124 3.0 is better than the W210 3.0; W124 weighs4495 GVWR versus the W210 at 4700 GVWR. 205 pounds is 4.3% of the W210; not much but, a Porsche owner will live without airconditioning and radio/stereo to gain that much advantage.

The 2.5 turbo has 11 ft.lbs. more torque than the 3.0 NA. Racers tell you that torque wins races. If we all meet up next month in Centerville, Texas we can have the Diesel turtle races and find out if the 2.5 is faster than the 3.0!

My Dad drove a 1977 300d NA until the car had 350,000 miles and then reluctantly sold it. The car was slow, but absolutely beautiful for its time. He spent many Sundays polishing and primping that car and then going for his joy ride.

babymog · #**103** 05-27-2009, 10:20 PM

The '94/'95 updates are mostly cosmetic, but include a new trunk lid that is flush with the tail-lamps and chrome lift handle, new trunk lettering, new hood/grille/ornament that is a bit of a cleaner look and more like the 140, new rear bumper with a wrap-around impact strip (pre-'94 is shorter on the sides), clear turnsignals front and rear, biggest IMO is the headlamps, a one-piece glass lense for the headlamp & foglamp that actually lights the road, Euro light pattern and clear fogs, HUGE improvement over the crappy looking and working '86-'93 US-only headlamp with plastic fogs.

Inside the passenger airbag became standard, storage armrest, new smaller steering wheel,

Functional was of course the new engines (M104 gas or OM606 diesel), bigger-better brakes with 4-piston front calipers, the newer 8-hole wheels.

There was also a "special edition" '95 available with special (ugly IMO) wheels, stainless sill-plates, standard phone and hands-free, burlwood interior accents, and some special paint colors.

My solution is buying a '95 Special Edition E320 and stuffing a well-tuned OM603.9xx in it. It's hard to go backwards in power from that combination in the '87 300D, but also hard to accept the lesser trim level inside and out of the earlier '87 cars, ... so I'm cheating. Should be better performance than the '98/'99 E300D and its 606 turbo with only mild modifications.

JeffreyNMemphis · #**104** 05-27-2009, 10:49 PM

Sad news... the 1995 sold today! I just called yesterday and it was available.

Anybody know of a super deal on a 1995, send me a note please. Of course I would take a Babymog 1995 Special Edition with a 603.x9x stuffed into it.

babymog · #**105** 05-27-2009, 11:02 PM

LOL, so would I, ... but it's in the early stages of making sure the A/C and stuff will all work as it should before the M104 comes out, probably first couple of weeks in June.

I also forgot to mention a biggie to you and me, the '94/'95 has original R134a A/C system on the '95, no conversion necessary for good cold air, and of honorable mention is the cabin filters.

Consider yourself lucky though, you're out of the "rust belt". I seldom even consider a local car, have bought most of my cars and flown to retreive them from several states away. At least you can find good ones within driving distance.