Just so ~

Some will have done this and understand , others who are not so experienced will say it's a waste of time , you'll never know until you open it up and LOOK at the bearing journals .

I'd also want to do a compression test before anything else as if you fried the rings or damaged a piston / cylinder , saving the bottom end might not be worth the effort .

FWIW , a NA (at least) Mercedes Diesel engine will run passably with as little as 200 # compression in it ~ my '81 240D has a bad valve and has for 20 years and well over 60,000 miles ~ it's poky & slow but it runs just fine and doesn't smoke , gets 25 ~ 35 MPG's too .

' Patching ' engines is a learned talent but it's difficult to imagine a better place to start than a $750 car you like .

The worst out come will be : the engine truly is toast , go buy another one , wrecked/rusted out 123's are plentiful and cheap , yank the spare engine , strip it , clean , re seal and re paint it , enjoy a couple DECADES of pleasant , safe and economical motoring .

-Nate

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-Nate
1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better

YIPPPIIEEEE another member who has faith in the NA

I get that look of disgust when I tell people I like the non turbos...I don't need the extra power the turbo gives...and this is one of the reasons...they will run and run and run...a lot of people don't realize that many of these million mile cars are non turbo taxis over seas not turbo wagons in the usa...

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I agree. My 1985 turbo engine failed at 330K. The designers went to extremes to make these engines survive, like oil spraying up under the pistons. Makes me think they run near the ragged edge. I sure wouldn't play with the waste-gate controls or ALDA without being certain what I was doing, or you could easily push it over that edge.

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1984 & 1985 CA 300D's
1964 & 65 Mopar's - Valiant, Dart, Newport
1996 & 2002 Chrysler minivans

Sad but true , I love our 240D more than any of the other Mercedes Diesels I own currently (three) or owned in the past .

No , it's NOT fast but yes , it's fun to drive , in many ways it reminds me of driving a 1948 VW Beetle , very slow and takes a long time to get up to speed so one learns to drive it conserving our speed .

I had two different NA 300CD's , both were not nearly as enjoyable to drive as this base model 240D Sedan , only having slushbox tranny as an option .

I'm not getting any younger and I'll prolly keep this 240D when I down grade my fleet in a few years .

BTW : the 240 now has over 344,000 miles on it and I hope to have the original engine and tranny rebuilt this year , maybe after I retire in November .

This will obviously co$t way more than any 240D will ever be worth but I only paid $1,000 (IIRC,might be $1,500) for it and it still chugs right along Summer , Winter , rain ice and snow.....

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-Nate
1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better

You are being sent down the prim rose path by those that don't fully understand how an engine is designed or repaired.

If you do get it to turn and run it, it won't last.

Being you are set on continuing down the rosy path, the rest of this post is for others following along at home.

Bearing inserts from that era are made from a steel backing coated with copper, lead and tin. When oil is lost, the lead melts "soldering" the shell to the crankshaft journal. This is why the motor won't turn. With this rapid loss of oil, there isn't time for the crank journal to get very scared making a repair possible. It will cost rod and main bearings , some gaskets and detailed labor. ( There is a chance the engine was in poor condition before all this started , prior wear affects the outcome of this repair. )

Some engines, usually GM from the 80's, had hard bearings and more modern engines use aluminum bearings making this kind of repair less viable but still worth a look.

When an engine is run low on oil for an extended period of time, the bearing will melt , stick , unstick , scar the crank due to metal balling up ( galling ) and have a bunch of metal particles floating through the oiling system. This is what will occur if the engine gets turning and running again. At that point it will need a total dissassembly to clean out metal particles and probably a few connecting rods as the bores are sure to have been beaten out of round.

Thanks for everyone's support. I have been hiding my blunder from friends and family. Soon, I may have to reveal that I murdered 300d in the garage with a wrench. clue game ref.
My bro in Boston May score a turbo engine we can drop , which would becool. That leaves me with some spare time to investigate my motor. I plan to pull lower pan and see what lurks this weekend cheers mike

Just tell them. You will feel much better getting it off your chest.

On a postive note. Its fun to tear them down when they dont go back together.

I had aluminum bearings in one (****ty rebuild) and one rod bearing slid underneath another. Couldn't turn it over with a three foot bar but the starter could. It was weird.

Im an NA fan also. Ive thought about a swap but ive been reading this thread that gets into all the vacuum for the alda, And I'm kinda over it.

I have a 1970 220D.

Best of luck. And dont worry. We have all done some thing stupid.

Aluminum bearings work OK but have less tolerance of poor oiling ( lead will flow where al won't ) If the shells went under each other, the bore was too large ( not enough crush ) or the oil clearance was too large allowing the bearings to hammer flat and lose crush.

The tabs on the bearings are there to laterally locate the bearing during assembly, crush is what keeps them from spinning.

Yeah the crank was at minimum. The oil pump failed. Goodbye. I bought another motor due to the bad crank, and mix matched parts. It was a 615, had a 621 cam, rods from all era's, and on and on. I assumed it wasn't balanced.

Onword and upword. Thinking about building a 617 NA from a 114. Kinda matches my project. If I could ever locate a flywheel.

The only problem is the naturally aspired cars all have higher rear end gearings and suffer lower miles per gallon.

When changing to turbo engines the rear end and instrument cluster should be changes as well to keep the superior fuel milage.

The 240ds with manual transmissions can do fairly well as they eliminate the automatic transmission losses.

I put a 240D rear end in my 220D with a manual and I'm averaging 35 mpg. A turbo with a manual and higher gears would do better I'm sure. And what I do like about turbo, you seem to see less drop in town.

Tell me I can jack up the engine and remove both oil pans. Any one tried that? Mike

As far as I know it is impossible to remove the upper oil pan with the engine in the car...

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Did you see these near you?
Mercedes 300d
http://huntsville.craigslist.org/cto/5077799462.html

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1985 300 TD 448K
1984 300 TD 278K

1983 240D euro 240k
1994 f-250 idi turbo 330K
1986 f-350 IDI
1987 F-350 IDI

1985 JD 1050 4wd
1965 IH 3660

Its seems intimidating to pull that motor out. But its not bad. One step at a time. Label everything. With practice it only takes a couple hours.

Going in, slightly more difficult. But not bad.