In another thread I crowed about my acquisition of a cheap 87 300D. The owner was about to send it to the crusher and let me have for the crusher price of $400. Among its many problems I was told that "the turbo didn't work." And sure enough, it was sluggish. And when I floored it it would belch these huge billows of smoke.

Replaced the air filter, changed the fuel filters, changed the oil. Drove it hard. The more I drove it, the more the smoke disappeared, the quicker and stronger it seemed to get. But it still didn't seem to be as quick as it ought to be.

So I removed the ALDA. Had been reluctant to do it on my other cars...afraid I would damage something. But on a car I got for $400....what have I got to lose??

All I can say is....WOW! WHAT A TRANSFORMATION!!! The crusher-bound dog has been transformed into a beast in just two days. All the power I could ever want and then some!

My only problem: I'm finding it difficult not to smoke. My SDL doesn't have its ALDA either, but I have no difficulty preventing it from smoking. So not sure what to do about that. I guess I can always shim the ALDA and put it back.

Anyway, that's my success story for the day!

__________________
14 E250 Bluetec 4Matic "Sinclair", Palladium Silver on Black, 159k miles
06 E320 CDI "Rutherford", Black on Tan, 179k mi, Stage 1 tune, tuned TCU
91 300D "Otis", Smoke Silver on Tan, 145k mi, wastegate conversion, ALDA delete

19 Honda CR-V EX 77k mi
Fourteen other MB's owned and sold
1961 Very Tolerant Wife