OK. So I had nothing to base line the preformance of my OM617 W123 against and today someone who's owned a few took if for a rids and said it's very slugish and slow.

No power or get up and go. Where should I start. The Engine is a swap in I did becasue the PO blew the origional engine up. Starts, run and idles NP. Just will not get up and go. Acts more list a 240 not a 300 is what I was told.

Thanks

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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

Lotsa threads on this topic....start with the easiest and work your way through...

Filters
Fuel: Primary & Secondary
Air
Fuel Tank strainer

Then get into the mechanical systems if no joy there. Especially injectors and valve settings

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1985 300D 172,110mi and goin' strong

Tee in a small nylon tube to the intake manifold (nylon tube off rear intake) and run into the cabin to a vac/boost gage, or just stick the gage outside against the windshield (held by wiper arm). Drive the car and see if you get boost (usually up to 10 psig).

After I put a used engine in my 1985 300D, it was extremely sluggish, barely moving faster than 5 mph. Strange since the engine ran fine when I tested it outside the car, with zero blow-by. After hooking the gage above, I measured ~20 inHg VACUUM when trying to accelerate. I removed the air inlet U-tube and found a wad of paper towels I had stuffed to keep stuff out of the turbo. Ran great after that. Years earlier, it started running real slow on the way home from work, barely above idle. I found the rubber isolator on the throttle rod had split, so my pressing the pedal wasn't doing much.

If your engine is getting air (verifiy intake pressure above), the speed and power will be controlled by the fuel, so check the fuel inlet pipes aren't clogged as above. If the injector sprays are bad, it will still run but will smoke.

Look up also cleaning the boost signal line.

Sixto
87 300D

You need to say if it is a Turbo Diesel or a non-turbo Diesel.

Also it would be nice to have a better descriptions of symptoms.

If the Car has slow acceleration at lower speeds but once it is moving it drives nromally at higher rpms it likely does not have an issue with the Filters.
When the above happend to Me it was slopply Throttle Linkages not pushing the Throttle Lever on the Fuel Injection Pump far enough.

If it is a Turbo Diesel and it is OK at low Speeds but not at high speeds it can be the Filters partially plugging; including the Tank Screen or the Boost Pressure is not making it to the ALDA.

If it is a dog at all speeds it could be the filters as previously stated.

You also have not said if there is any abnormal smoke at any speed that might indicat the Air Filter is Plugged or some issues.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

FIlters are all new. Not sure about the tank screen and not even sure how to check that one.
It's OK off the line in MO but I have no baseline. It's really slow if you are trying to accelerate while moving 20 mph and up. I'm not sure the kick down cable is working correctly either as I've never gotten it to down shift but it should load up and try and accelerate and it's not doing that.

No smoke at all at any speed or under any typ of acceleration attempts.

As far as I know the line form the manifold to the ALDA is clear as all that was cleaned up when i swaped the engines.

Linkage should be adjusted correctly. New FW mount and evenything is well adjusted and there does not appear to be any slop. I'll double check that. I'm going to check the throttle movement through the gas pedel and verify that's all good.

What can I do to check the tank pickup screen?


Thanks

Also It's an 83 300D so it's turbo. If it were smoking I'd bee looking at the air filter/turbo but since it's not I'm thinking fuel delivery.

__________________
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

They only way you will know a base line is if you drive someone elses 300D with a Turbo.

I find My 300D to be faster than my Chevy Chevvette and Volvo non-turbo Diesel but slower than My Chevy Astro Van (4.6 liter Egine).

If you have at least 1/2 Tank of Fuel you can swap the positions of the Fuel Inlet and Fuel Outlet Hose (the Cigar Hose) where the come off of the Fender Well.
The bypasses the Fuel Tank Screen and draws Fuel From a higher position in the Fuel Tank. Do that only for testing as you will run out of Fuel sooner because you are drawing Fuel for a higher position in the Fuel Tank.

The Turbo does not have any effect until about 2000 rpms. If you are slow below that rpm it is not the Turbo causing the issue.

Unfortunately when trouble shooting you pretty much need to start with a list of things starting with the items most likely to cause the problem and methodically go down the list.

Things like "As far as I know" and "Linkage should be adjusted correctly" indicate that those things on the list have not been checked.

When I first got My Car it was scary slow at the low end. Once it got moving it ran normally; it ran fine on the Freeway.
I used to dread coming to a stop.
I Tighten Up My throttle Linkages and the Car has been fine for 5 years now.

If you put your Hand and hold the Throttle Arm where it comes out of the Fuel Injection Pump and have someone slowly step on the Accelerator Pedal and watch the Throttle Linkages and see how much movement you get before those linkages start to push on the Throttle you will get an idea what is going on.
Also the Bell Crank At the Fire Wall has a Plastic Bushing behind it that falls apart and the same with the Rubber parts in front.

The Factory Service Manual has a list of the Lengths that each Linkage Rod is supposed to be and on mine there is a 10mm headed Bolt and a Kidney Slot to allow for some adjustment.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

You can check the screen for flow by getting to the tank screen outlet at the base of the tank and disconnecting the rubber flex line where it mates to the steel line going forward. Preposition a catch container as you are going to get some fuel. If you have good steady flow, your tank screen is allowing fuel to pass. If it flows slowly, then the tank screen is clogged. Do a search on masc243 and you'll see what mine looked like last week. My car was starving for fuel and would idle, but starve while trying to accelerate and until supply would catch up with demand.

Another troubleshooting assist method I've read about, but have not tried is to swap the supply and return lines in the engine bay. This would allow you to draw fuel from the return line, and return fuel via the tank screen. If car runs fine like this, then tank screen is full of crud.
Hope this helps.
Mike

Update. Adjusted the throttle stop on the injection pump and made sure all the linkages were lubed and adjusted and wow what a different car. Had to do some work to get the accelerator to hit the kick down switch and boy what a different car. Thanks for all the advice and tips. Now I need to sort our some sluggish shifting issues and now that I can run the car it will be fun to drive.

__________________
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

Comment on the Throttle Lever Stop. There is a specifc proceedure for adjusting that. If properly adjusted it prevents you from overspeeding the Engine.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

Agreed....I would never touch that....what I read about it in the FSM....scared me away from even looking at it.....besides the tank screen, could also be a rack damper bolt issue, fuel pressure relief valve, bad injectors.....and/or valves...could also be a transmission problem and bad oil in the diff.....lots of different things can add up to a sluggish ride.,,

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Ya OK on the throttle stop but what is over speeding an engine? I guess you're talking about over reving the engine as in running it over the red line. My tack works and I never took it over 4K RMP's because I did not have to.


I'm competent with most thing mechanical and electrical I'm just not all the up on the Merc specific terms. A little help on the terminology would go a long way for me to connect the dots.

Thanks for the tips and the help. That's why I come here.

__________________
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

It's worth saying as well that if the complaint is about a non-turbo motor, it might just be because it's a non-turbo. Just sayin'

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Current Collection:
1990 Ford Ranger 5-spd ~168xxx miles (now totaled )
1980 Mercedes 300TD ~189xxxmiles

Glad you figured it out, and she is running good.

Now about the terminology...what does this mean?

"Starts, run and idles NP" what`s NP?

"It's OK off the line in MO but I have no baseline" What`s MO?

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

I would think NP is no problem. Normally MO is Missouri, but in this context I think he means something different.

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Whoever said there's nothing more expensive than a cheap Mercedes never had a cheap Jaguar.

83 300D Turbo with manual conversion, early W126 vented front rotors and H4 headlights 401,xxx miles
08 Suzuki GSX-R600 M4 Slip-on 26,xxx miles
88 Jaguar XJS V12 94,xxx miles. Work in progress.
99 Mazda Miata 183,xxx miles.