Have we reached the OM617/616 tipping point? - Page 4 - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

Dan Stokes · #46 07-03-2015, 10:46 AM

I paid $600 for the '83 240D that I harvested the trans/flywheel from. It was an OK body but the jack pockets were just starting to get soft. The body was probably savable. I found it in Raleigh so a friend and I trailered it back. You might expand your search a bit north to GA, SC, NC - the concept is that it's worth traveling to get a nice starting point. If you find something around here I'll check it out for you.

Dan

ollo · #47 07-03-2015, 09:37 PM

Having a back-up vehicle is good advice, even if it's just a bicycle! I have a good running 240D that is back-up for when I'm working on my newer vehicles. It is also great for running errands around town. When looking for rust free cars, people tend to be unaware that the Pacific NW has quite a few relatively rust free examples still kicking around. Don

barry12345 · #48 07-09-2015, 02:15 PM

At some point prices on 240d and 300d cars may substantially rise. Based on them being somewhat unique. No other car made was quite like them.

At this point in time one should consider buying up the best one available at an affordable price. One logic being the parts costs are also likely to rise as well.

Junkman · #49 07-09-2015, 04:51 PM

I've seen this on other vehicles. Every yard used to have 1st gen Datsuns. 15 yrs later, there are none. There are 126s here. Most are 1986 or newer and gassers.

Mölyapina · #50 07-09-2015, 05:02 PM

Our yards contain mostly 124 and 210 gassers. There's a 50% chance of an OM61X at any point. Ususally one or two W126 gassers.

vstech · #51 07-09-2015, 05:51 PM

Soooo... anybody wanna get the ones in my yard?

ROLLGUY · #52 07-09-2015, 07:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vstech

Soooo... anybody wanna get the ones in my yard?

I would love to, but I might as well be on the other side of the world as you being in CA.

Les Izmore · #53 07-24-2015, 11:35 PM

Well I guess I'll stop feeling guilty about my garage and driveway full of w123s and 6s - and I the 300SDL that I'm going to look at in the morning

MagicBus · #54 07-25-2015, 09:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jooseppi Luna

Our yards contain mostly 124 and 210 gassers. There's a 50% chance of an OM61X at any point. Ususally one or two W126 gassers.

Whereabout, Jooseppi?

You know where I am out in Worcester, and I go YEARS between seeing anything with an OM61X at the local yards. Not that I go often... but I still don't see them much anymore.

carl177 · #55 07-25-2015, 07:45 PM

Here in Miami we don't even see 201's. Most of these cars got exported to South America (Chile and Argentina) about fifteen years ago or so.

mach4 · #56 08-01-2015, 06:14 PM

Well, things were encouraging today, 4-5 617 diesels in the yard including a W114. There was even a decent R107

ollo · #57 10-28-2015, 08:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ollo View Post

Hello folks. This one was near me, so I went out this evening and had a look: It's on a large farm between Yoder and Canby, about 10 mi. North of Silverton.

Seller is a BMW guy who works at a shop in Portland. Has some classic BMW's in barns & garages on the property. He also has several motorcycles but just the 1 Mercedes.

Said he's not familiar with diesels at all, got this one cheap and family drove it for a while, but it was hard to start in Winter, had blow by and never did have any power(240D Auto!), so concluded it needed a re-build & parked it in a barn 2 years ago.

It has good paint & a truly rust free body, interior was fair, save for typical drivers seat split. Needs a good clean-up. Passenger side CV axle boot is torn and radiator is rusty. Good tires. I gave him $350 for it. When I get it home, I should be able to get it running and go from there.
Don

"Don great that you got it, let us know how it turns out.
Hard to start could just be Glow Plugs, valve Adj., Filters or low compression.
Might be a Diamond in the rough"

Here's rest of the story: Car had a clean title, but seller never transferred it to himself as a previous owner had filled out himself and wife as both the buyer and seller on the title.

I tracked that seller down(a grass farmer down by Albany) and got the necessary paperwork signed off. Once I had a good title, I tackled the car. Cleaned up inside and out but never got it to run.

Valves were all right on, compression was very low. #1=0, #2 & #3 low 200's and #4 just over 300. 2 MMO treatments only yielded about a 20# improvement. Given that it needed rear axles, driver's side hood hinge base attachment was rusted out, it had a wonky ignition switch and unknown condition of the auto trans, I decided to sell it.

But first I swapped out the nice headlight assemblies & window crank handles. Then took the map pockets from both doors as mine were missing. Car sold right away for $575 & there were 3 buyers who all wanted it. So, with the right car plus some effort it is possible to make a few bucks on an old Mercedes diesel. Don

Buyer was a diesel head from Monmouth, who will re-build it with his grandson. Don

Mark DiSilvestro · #58 10-28-2015, 12:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by trout007

Dan,

Thanks for the advice. I live in Florida so I can't go much further South. Around here when buying used we try to stay away from the beach. Beach cars are pretty easy to spot though with lots of body rust where the water collects.

I was looking at 82/83 240D's. But I can't find any manuals. All autos. I'm fine with the performance as long as they work.

While I prefer a stick-shift in a 240D, in defense of automatics, I've driven a couple that were quite peppy.
Many of the 'slugs' probably had issues with valve adjustment , vacuum, throttle linkages, or even fuel filters. And it's very important to try to find a solid example, with little or no rust.
I drove a $200 automatic 240D as a second - third car for several years, and would've probably kept it, except that it had been well thrashed by the PO's teenagers, had a tired engine, and was very rusty. Still, the automatic was at least tolerable, and the car was perfect for local errands and weekend yard-sales. So test-drive those automatic 240Ds. Maybe you'll find a decent one.

Happy Motoring, Mark

leathermang · #59 10-28-2015, 01:10 PM

New owners of old 240d MB's automatics need to be instructed to just put the pedal to the floor every time you start off from a stop.... many of them think of flooring the pedal as wasting gas... having been trained on gas engines... with accelerator pumps.. which do waste gas proportionately to the aggressiveness of the pedal movement...
but these diesels do not have an accelerator pump in that sense... and they need the power....

BillGrissom · #60 10-28-2015, 02:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mach4

Well, things were encouraging today, 4-5 617 diesels in the yard including a W114. There was even a decent R107

San Diego is M-B junkyard heaven. I hit the Chula Vista Ecology once when down there on "1/2 off" day, and recall six 82-85 300D's to choose from. Now that my son finished UCSD, our SoCal trips will be fewer. The yards here are full of 1990's M-B gassers w/ the funky Bosch Jetronics mechanical fuel injection. Sometimes the bodies are still nice, so guessing it isn't affordable trying to keep those high-end cars fed with parts.