Well the last poster may have been a break. Sounds reasonable and probably not too many currrent members including myself are too familiar with this type engine. Perhaps better to judge blowby from the crank breather hose. If the car sat unused for a long period I wonder if some oil control rings may have seized? A good soaking of the cylinders may be worth trying. Little cost even if no results.

The timing chain is directly below the opening for the oil filler cap. There was a lot of oil pooled around the chain tensioner. Maybe I will try again with the breather hose, though oil runs out of it and then drips down the side of the block.

Maybe I have two or three cylinders with acceptable compression and one or two cylinders with poor compression, which would allow for quick starting and good power, while giving blow-by and smoke. The valve guides and seals are probably also worn.

I was thinking about putting in the spare 5 cylinder turbo diesel engine I have (which was previously in a fintail), but putting one in a W110 chassis is more difficult than putting one in a W111 chassis. I'd have to find the special W110 230 radiator and I'm not sure if the 200D springs are heavy enough to handle the turbo diesel engine like the W111 230S.

I'd actually like to stop messing around with this car and focus on the 300SD. I'd like it off my hands but the only way I am going to get back much of my investment is to part it out on eBay.

__________________
Stop paying for animal enslavement, cruelty, and slaughter. Save your health and the planet. Go vegan! I did 18 years ago. https://challenge22.com/

DON'T MESS WITH MY MERCEDES!


1967 W110 Universal Wagon, Euro, Turbo Diesel, Tail Fins, 4 Speed Manual Column Shift, A/C
1980 W116 300SD Turbo Diesel, DB479 Walnut Brown, Sunroof, Highly Optioned, 350,000+ Miles

I don't know how long the car had set before I bought it. The previous owner said that the car had 2,500 miles on a fresh rebuild and he drove it often. However, the license plates expired in 1996 and the title was in his uncle's name.

It was bought new by a doctor, then went through several owners, one of which used it to commute to work daily for about 10 years in the 1970s and 1980s. After that it was used as a car on a farm and I guess the previous owner inherited it and tried to make some quick money.

I think there is too much crankcase pressure that is causing excessive oil leaks from all of the seals. The car smokes heavily and rattles until it warms up.

Even if I were to get the engine sorted out, then I would have to replace the rocker panels, floors, parts of the firewall and trunk, and probably the rear panel. Then I would have to spend about $1,000 replacing all weatherstripping on the car since it's original. I'm not very excited about the car anymore.

__________________
Stop paying for animal enslavement, cruelty, and slaughter. Save your health and the planet. Go vegan! I did 18 years ago. https://challenge22.com/

DON'T MESS WITH MY MERCEDES!


1967 W110 Universal Wagon, Euro, Turbo Diesel, Tail Fins, 4 Speed Manual Column Shift, A/C
1980 W116 300SD Turbo Diesel, DB479 Walnut Brown, Sunroof, Highly Optioned, 350,000+ Miles

I tried again, this time removing the breather elbow on the valve cover, then started the engine. I could see nothing coming out of the hole in the valve cover, not even smoke.

I'm still not sure about the condition of the engine. All of the oil seals are leaking badly so at the very least I would need to pull the engine to replace the oil seals. It most likely has worn parts and I don't feel like putting anymore work into the car. I would hate to replace the seals and then have them blow out from too much much crankcase pressure caused by blow-by.

I have the engine, heavy rust, and leaking weatherstripping to worry about, which will cost me thousands of dollars and much time to fix. It seems to be a money pit at this point.

I paid $1,200 for the car when it was in poor mechanical condition and have thousands of dollars into it. I'm tired of tinkering with this car when I need to focus on my 300SD. I would get less than $1,000 if I sold the car, which would be stupid. Since there are thousands of dollars in parts on this car, I think the best thing would be to part it out.

__________________
Stop paying for animal enslavement, cruelty, and slaughter. Save your health and the planet. Go vegan! I did 18 years ago. https://challenge22.com/

DON'T MESS WITH MY MERCEDES!


1967 W110 Universal Wagon, Euro, Turbo Diesel, Tail Fins, 4 Speed Manual Column Shift, A/C
1980 W116 300SD Turbo Diesel, DB479 Walnut Brown, Sunroof, Highly Optioned, 350,000+ Miles

There's something very odd going on there. If you've got no blowby coming out of the valve cover, the hole is either plugged hence explaining the leaking seals, or the engine is in very good condition. If you don't have any blowby coming out the valve cover then the hypothesis about stuck rings is also probably not true. Are you sure there's no oil going from the vacuum pump vent line over into the intake? You're symptoms are very similar to another case posted on here about a month ago on a similar engine.
Are your glowplugs functioning?

__________________
1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

I don't think the valve cover hole is blocked since I can see through it.

I took off the line that went from the vacuum pump to the intake manifold and while the engine was running I saw nothing coming out of the line. Smoke was still coming out of the exhaust.

The glow plugs were tested to be working a few months ago when I changed them to fast-glow. It was smoking well before I changed the plugs, too.

The engine starts up fine in subfreezing weather and has lots of power. It just smokes like crazy when cold and leaks oil everywhere.

In an effort to fix the smoking, the injectors were rebuilt with Monark nozzles (by a specialized Mercedes injection shop), the injection pump was sent to that same shop, diaphragm replaced, some new parts, was calibrated on a test stand, injection pump was installed and drip-timed to exactly 26 degrees BTDC (as in the factory service manual), valves were adjusted to specs, and the air cleaner oil was replaced and filled to the proper level.

I'm at a loss. The cam has to be off one tooth, though. When the cam marks are lined up I don't think the pointer on the crank pulley should read 6 degrees BTDC? Maybe the chain was stretched so they moved it one tooth to compensate for it?

__________________
Stop paying for animal enslavement, cruelty, and slaughter. Save your health and the planet. Go vegan! I did 18 years ago. https://challenge22.com/

DON'T MESS WITH MY MERCEDES!


1967 W110 Universal Wagon, Euro, Turbo Diesel, Tail Fins, 4 Speed Manual Column Shift, A/C
1980 W116 300SD Turbo Diesel, DB479 Walnut Brown, Sunroof, Highly Optioned, 350,000+ Miles

i dont know if you are still driving this car ,but with the cam mark lined up,the damper should read Zero with a variation of 5 degrees after top dead center being a worn but acceptable chain. To check if the chain is worn ,remove the tensioner and feel the chain,if it can be moved around a lot,it's worn. Replace it then check your timing . Adjust as per necessary.
Smoke when cold could be worn valve guides and seals,especially if the blowby is negligible. As the engine warms up ,the slack in the guides is taken up by expansion . Over night,oil will pour dwon the valve stems and fill the top of the pistons . When you start the engine it burns off ,causing smoke until it's all gone.

I've rebuilt one of these. Don't bother. It is expensive and hard to short-cut. My 1960 OM621 smoked like crazy at startup. After rebuild top and bottom, and a new IP and injectors, it smoked like crazy at startup. Lots of power (for 55 HP), no oil consumption after rebuild etc. I think it worked more or less as it was designed to. If it bothers your neigbours, you can use the block heater (almost certainly installed) and get a cleaner start.

If you want to drive it more, I would suggest you sort out the valve timing issue and time the pump. The cam marks should line up at TDC on the crank (half the time). What you report is odd, if I understand the previous posts, with advanced cam angle. It was not uncommon to fit an offset key, then when chain stretch got really bad, slip a tooth and fit the key the other way! You can pull the crank gear and get a look: pull the tensioner, stuff the crankcase hole, wire the chain in place (put #1 at TDC compression first, for reference) break the cam bolt and slide off the gear.

You may want to wind in a new chain (not too hard). The tensioner is oil filled and it sits in a pocket in the head filled with oil. What you mentioned above is this pocket Before you pull the tensioner, suck the oil out or it makes a big mess. Refill on the install, then pump the tensioner it in and out with a short bar on the idler gear and you will feel it harden up. It should really wind that chain up tight, otherwise you also need a new tensioner. Time the pump with the overflow method (easy, instructions everywhere on this forum) and drive it!

I've also restored the body on one of these 110 cars, the finback. Again, don't bother. The `new' unibody was terrible, with lots of traps for water and rust. Car is from the PNW I assume which is only worse. I can share some pics with you if you want to see how much work it is to rebuild one of those bodies. It would be hard to find a more financially ruinous project than a 110 body restoration.

Good luck. Keep it safe. Drive it. Nice car when it runs!

I just read these replies. I've given up on the car. I think a previous "mechanic" did something goofy to the engine. After the injectors and pump were serviced the pump was installed at drip timed to precisely 26 degrees BTDC.

I acquired a rusty W110 chassis Universal station wagon that I will some day transplant the wagon sheet metal from onto a W111 sunroof sedan. I'm keeping a few parts for it. I would have focused only on my 300SD except my dream car is a fintail wagon and I jumped on the chance to own one. But it will be a very long-term project.

Right now I'm parting out the 200D and have a few parts on eBay, like the rebuilt injectors, serviced injection pump, rebuilt radiator, etc. I'm really sad it had to come to this, but to me it would have been more effort than it was worth to fix the rust and the engine, and apparently everyone else felt the same. No sense taking less than the $1,200 I originally bought it for, after spending $3,000 in parts when I can part it out and get most of my money back.

The W110 wagon, on the other hand, will be worth my time and effort, but it will take a lot to transplant the wagon parts to a sedan. It has its own thread here: I Found A Cool Fintail Wagon

__________________
Stop paying for animal enslavement, cruelty, and slaughter. Save your health and the planet. Go vegan! I did 18 years ago. https://challenge22.com/

DON'T MESS WITH MY MERCEDES!


1967 W110 Universal Wagon, Euro, Turbo Diesel, Tail Fins, 4 Speed Manual Column Shift, A/C
1980 W116 300SD Turbo Diesel, DB479 Walnut Brown, Sunroof, Highly Optioned, 350,000+ Miles