Hello again all, here is the latest. The head is back on the engine and most of the accessories are back on. I welded on the bolt and spacer/washer that holds the sprocket on the oil pump. It's not working itself loose this time..

The original oil pump was very difficult to turn by hand. This replacement unit turns much easier. I cleaned all the bolt holes and used lock tite so they should stay put.......

Also re installed the oil pan today, no issues there.

more pic's

Eddie E

Attached Thumbnails

   

Some more pic's of it out of the car.........

Cheers,

EddieE

Attached Thumbnails

   

The newly rebuilt turbo is spinning free......

Ed

Attached Thumbnails

   

The trans has had a persistant leak at the front of it so I looked it over. Removed the torque converter and found that one of the keys that engages the converter to the pump has disintegrated.

The other is half gone. There are small chunks of metal next to the shaft.

Really is strange because the trans was working fine.

Lucky for me I had bought a second trans to rebuild as a spare. I will have to swap the pumps for now.

I have to ask at this point, are all MBZ cars this problematic? I also own three BMW's that as old as this car and have similar mileage but they don't have anywhere near the amount of issues that this benz does.

In the shaft pic you can see whats left of one lug. On the other side should be the other, it's not there..........

Some Pic's

Ed

Attached Thumbnails

   

An interesting note. The fluid in this trans has turned opaque pink color.

Could this be a coolant leak causing this? The trans has a cooler that is integral to the radiator. I imagine that a pressure test is the only way to check for sure.................................

Has anyone else seen this condition?

Ed

"Pink Milkshake" in the Tranny "just might be" failure of the Radiator/Cooler interface inside the Radiator.

There is at least one W124 and the W140 models that have a SEPARATE ATF/Air
cooler in back of the bumper on the right-hand (passenger)side. it has a
thermostatically controlled fan in back of the Cooler to assist in heat dissipation.

__________________
'84 300SD sold
124.128

Man I tell ya it never ends with this car. I did not see any trans fluid in the coolant when I drained the system. I would venture that the coolant is pushing its way into the trans cooler when the system is under pressure. I think I will cap the ports for the integral cooler and find an external unit to mount up and separate the systems.

I have a name for this car. It is now and forever known as the battle wagon.....

"BISMARK".

Nobody sinks this battle wagon!...................

Except me when I eventually get tired of rebuilding it................

Got to find an external cooler now....any ideas anyone?

What model is a W124 or W140? Is that a 300D?

By the way this radiator is only 2 years old!!!!???!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Any an all advice greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

EddieE

The idea of removing the oil cooler form the radiator is a bad one IMO. the Radiator helps the trans get up to temp faster on cold days also. I've seen it cause issues in other applications

Ford removed the Oil to water cooler form the 99 Diesels and they had issues keeping the trannys cool even with an Oil to air cooler so in late 2000 they added the oil to water cooler back in and the number of trans heat problems droped. They just used a oil to air cooler that was 2 small. Replacing the radiator in the 99 and early 2000 trucks is a standard mod for many that own the 99 and 2000 ford trucks. As for the trans oil I would expect that to be under much more pressure than the 14-19 PSI the coolant will be under but I could be wrong. Antifreeze in the ATF would make for white foamy froth on dipstick.

__________________
Mad_Matt's Current Stable:
Oil Burners:
09 Jetta TDI The highway queen @ 105k
83 300D. Sold
Gassers:
16 A4 sport line
10 Passat
83 Recaro Trans AM WS6 Bone Stock Survivor
11 Harley Ultra

The pump drive tangs can easily be damaged when installing the transmission/TC from what I've read here, might have been removed before.

__________________

Gone to the dark side

- Jeff

How would the tangs get damaged by installing the torque converter? It only fits one way and simply slides into place.

Ed

From what I've read (haven't done one yet) the TC must be installed on the transmission, all of the way down and engaged, then moved back out to mate to the flex-plate. If not engaged properly the installation can damage the tangs when the transmission is installed/mated to the engine.

__________________

Gone to the dark side

- Jeff

Hi again,

the engine and trans are back in the car.....again.......hurray!

I swapped the trans pump with a good used unit.........

I will be using the original radiator as the unit I purchased new two years ago has failed.........

I have also traced all the vacuum lines so they are correct.

I will be starting after I get the new oil and trans filters installed.

Also the turbo will be disabled when the engine is started for the first time............. again........

In another thread one member told me I am writing accounts that are scarier than a stephen king novel. I don't think so. Lets face it the car is 22 years old and has over 300K miles on the odometer.

Another interesting note. When reading through the manual I came across a section titled "notes on cylinder head gaskets". One note really took me by surprise. It has to do with the cylinder liner material used to manufacture the gasket. It specifically stated that all turbocharged engines must use a gasket that has the liners manufactured out of stainless steel. While non turbo could use the lesser mild steel liner material. I compared two gaskets that had been purchased from the same vendor. One turned out to be stainless the other was mild steel. Both parts were sold for use on the OM603.961 turbocharged motor. I asked the vendor if they were aware of this and they said it did not matter. Frankly I believe it does matter otherwise it would not be published as such.

Enough for tonight, I am dog tired as always when I get to write these entries.

Also a couple of pic's

Cheers,

Ed

Attached Thumbnails

   

Nice work. You're building up three engines at once?

I know it's all back together now, but for the oil pump shaft bolt, you can always use blue Locktite.

__________________
Michael LaFleur

'05 E320 CDI - 86,000 miles
'86 300SDL - 360,000 miles
'85 300SD - 150,000 miles (sold)
'89 190D - 120,000 miles (sold)
'85 300SD - 317,000 miles (sold)
'98 ML320 - 270,000 miles (sold)
'75 300D - 170,000 miles (sold)
'83 Harley Davidson FLTC (Broken again) :-(
'61 Plymouth Valiant - 60k mikes
2004 Papillon (Oliver)
2005 Tzitzu (Griffon)
2009 Welsh Corgi (Buba)

I too have read that in the FSM. Given a choice however, I'll avoid putting stainless-steel against the aluminum head, I'd rather use mild steel.

__________________

Gone to the dark side

- Jeff

Actually I am building only one engine. I used my spare engine for the parts I had to replace after the con rod failed. The other gasket is for a SDL that my brother owns and is having overheat troubles and gets coolant into cylinders number five and six...........

As far as the locktite I used red and torqued the oil pump bolt before putting a spot of weld on it.