I just bought a 85 300D turbo. Car has 250k. No records besides oil changes early on. Otherwise the car seems like it was well taken care of, runs great, everything works except the C.control is intermitten.

The PO doesn't know if the t-chain was ever replaced. Its got 250K. He's only done about 10k on it.

Is there a way to determine the age of the chain? Or should I just go ahead and change it out?

I'll be making a list of things to do, but this is def. 1st priority.

Luckily I'm not driving the car much.

search here on 'chain stretch'

or, just pay to get the job done and settle your mind

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Cheers!
Scott McPhee

1987 300D

A DIY with pictures.

http://www.peachparts.com/Wikka/OM617TimingChainStretch

Charlie

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there were three HP ratings on the OM616...

1) Not much power
2) Even less power
3) Not nearly enough power!! 240D w/auto

Anyone that thinks a 240D is slow drives too fast.

80 240D Naturally Exasperated, 4-Spd 388k DD 150mph spedo 3:58 Diff

We are advised to NOT judge ALL Muslims by the actions of a few lunatics, but we are encouraged to judge ALL gun owners by the actions of a few lunatics. Funny how that works

Find the procedure for checking chain stretch. To do it accurately, you need a dial indicator to use on one of the front valves according to manual procedure. Before going to that trouble, however, do a gross wear check by removing valve cover and rotating engine with a socket on the harmonic balancer. Turn the crank very slowly.

Move until TDC mark on balancer is aligned with marker and see if mark on front of camshaft aligns with mark on front cam bearing tower. If it is not in sight, turn the crankshaft one more turn and realign TDC mark. With TDC mark aligned and cam mark visible the cam mark should align pretty closely with mark on tower. If it is more than about a half mark width off, then it would be best to do the precision procedure for proper evaluation.

Hope this helps,
Larry