Long life engine?? yea right...

[240diowa]

I always hear about how the diesel mercedes engines run a very long time but I have yet to find any Mercedes diesel for sale on cars.com or e-bay or the local paper that have 300K miles with out the motor being rebuilt. My guess is that with proper oil changes etc the expected life of a 240 or 300D motor is around 250K miles. A chevy 350 can do the same....

[Gurkha]

Nonsense, average OM616 will outlast crap Chevy any day, had a Trans AM so I know that well,abused OM 616/617 used on overloaded trucks manage to surpass 300,000 with ease, between my 500,000+ miles Accord V6 and my OM 616 engined vehicles, I have well over 10,0000 miles, I do wonder why you come to a MB forum and then bad mouth MB and compare it to a Chevy.

[sailor15015]

Flame suit on, dude.

Originally Posted by 240diowa

I always hear about how the diesel mercedes engines run a very long time but I have yet to find any Mercedes diesel for sale on cars.com or e-bay or the local paper that have 300K miles with out the motor being rebuilt. My guess is that with proper oil changes etc the expected life of a 240 or 300D motor is around 250K miles. A chevy 350 can do the same....

You're absolutely correct, you should go buy a Chevy 350 right away.

[Austin85]

Enjoy the Chevvy.
My 300D has just over 291,000. No rebuilt engine, doesn't burn a drop of oil and runs smoother than a new chevy anyday......Unless I only have 8K left on it???????? (yikes!)

[SD Blue]

Well, I am not going to drive up there to show you. You will have to come down here, if it takes seeing for you to believe it. I would lay odds that some of the MB diesels , that were considered dead, only needed some know-how on what to look for to get many more miles out of it.

BTW, is it just your nature to come into a new forum and tell everyone that they don't know what they are talking about? Maybe spending more time at a Cheby 3something forum, if there even is one, would be recommended.

The original engine in my 533,000 mile 240D went 333,000 miles before the rear main seal went out. I rebuilt the engine then because it had to come out for the seal anyway. There's no telling how far it would have gone had I been willing to just fix the seal and stick it back in.

That said, your evidence and mine are STRICTLY anecdotal. A properly cared for 616/617 engine will go a LOOoong way, just as will a properly cared for SBC IF the SBC is injected. There is NO carbureted engine that will touch a 616/617 for longevity.

A neighbor and good friend of mine has a GMC 4X4 pickup with an injected 350 and a manual transmission. It is about a '90 model and he has owned it since about 15,000 miles. He drives almost entirely on the highway and religiously changes oil and filter every 2,000 miles. The truck now has over 400,000 miles, runs great and has never been apart.

It all comes down to MAINTENANCE. Most any car built today shy of a Fiat or Yugo will go high mileage if driven and maintained correctly. The thing of it is, the 240D's were built 20 or more years ago. At that point the SBC was just starting to get injected. The SBC's of earlier years with carbs would not hold a candle to the MB123 diesels of the day.

SOOooo, let's compare apples to apples, shall we?

I don't bother with diesels any more now that gas engines are injected. The longevity advantage of a diesel over a gas engine in todays cars is no longer there.

My '88 300E has 286,000 miles and I just got back from a 2300 mile trip. The car performed FLAWLESSLY using a half quart of oil and beating the EPA highway fuel mileage rating by over 4MPG.

I'm still queer for diesels. I love 'em, but they don't have the advantages over a gas engine that they used to have.

Have a great day,

[dannym]

Lets see....no good cars listed on cars.com, e-bay or the local paper so they must be crap cars. Yep very sound reasoning.
Besides e-bay routinely has Mercedes diesels that get 50mph and have well over a million miles.

Any car will last a long time and be reliable if they are maintained but it is common knowledge that planned obsolescence is built into any vehicle produced in the past 10-15 years. Good luck trying to get your Chevy to last 20-30 years.

Also I would bet most of the "rebuilt engine" models are the 350 rod benders.

Danny

[superbeast1098]

I will put it this way.....

My diesel mercedes will still be on the road with its original and non-rebuilt engine long after your car with its 350 has been recycled to make beer cans.

[R Leo]

Lilly - '84 300D 285,000+ miles, never rebuilt, new timing chain at 270,000.
Marlene - '83 300TD 266,000+ miles, never rebuilt

[vwbuge]

Pretty funny that some idiot comes in here just trying to yank our chain. I feel obligated to throw in my 2 cents anyway.

1985 300SD 303,000 miles on ORIGINAL MOTOR AND TRANNY. I'll take you on a cross country trip anyday and will have to put NO OIL in the car. (except what I put in the tank!)

I also have a 1991 Subaru Legacy AWD Wagon. 247,000 miles A little rotted in places but ORIGINAL MOTOR that has never been touched (except for timing belt) The trany I replaced once at about 220,000 miles.

Like Larry says it all comes down to maintenance.

[GTStinger]

Mine went 385,000 on the original engine before the PO (my father in law) drove it with a failed water pump because he didn't want to stop in a bad neighborhood (that wasn't bad at that time of day). I intend to baby the rebuild for at least that many miles.

Originally Posted by vwbuge

Pretty funny that some idiot comes in here just trying to yank our chain. I feel obligated to throw in my 2 cents anyway.

Someone once said; never argue with an idiot, he'll drag you down to his level, then beat you with experience.

[Jarod]

yea, and the Chevy 3.3 (could be the 3.1) gasser sounds like a diesel Mercedes too!! my dad owns a 2000 Chevy Malibu, it sounds like my Mercedes diesel, it sounds like that because gm can't bore cylinder holes the right size, so they have to use special "polymer coated" pistons or something, but they only use them in 2 cylinders, so the other 4 slop around and clatter, its called "piston slap" very common in many gm autos, go here for more info:
http://www.pistonslap.com/
they have sound clips and everything.
go ahead and tell me that your 1980 Chevy will outlast my 1980 mb.
as you say, take care of the Chevy, and you'll get 200,000mi, but if you take a mb and drive it real hard, you'll get around the same number. i know I'm opening a can of worms for myself by saying all that, but i enjoy a good flame war!!!

[nazrat]

340k, original engine, appears to be the original transmission (certainly has been in the car for the last 200k miles).

-Tad