does anyone have an '85 CA parts car? need turbo oil feed
 

hi folks, just swapped a .951 (W126) oil filter housing for a .952 (W123) one. i had to stop the job and obtain the one bolt that is different between them - thanks to the homie in hesperia for the hook-up. then i realized the oil feed line is different too! awesome. since i have california manifolds, it seems that the oil feed line i need can only be found in a 1985 california 300D. wow. any leads?

I'm running the same configuration on my project. I was able to use the original feed line with just a bit of tweaking. Just carefully rebend the line to suit. It's been a long time but if I recall it just needed a bit of persuasion to clear the back of the head.

you rebent the 1985 .951 line to fit a .952? this line appears to be more than an inch too short. working with no mandrel, i'm not sure it would work. maybe heated up with a torch and with several new bends.

Sorry, I guess I got the direction wrong. I swapped a 126 oil filter housing onto a CA 300D engine and used the 123 turbo line.

understood, that direction does sound more practical. well, i would happily send you the proper .951 line if you can help find me the .952 one!

If push comes to shove you can just add a length of stainless braided -4 oil line to the hard line. Cut it off, weld in a -4 AN male fitting and get the turbo intake flange. Everything is available on eBay or your favorite speed shop. Just make sure you get the restrictor in the flange.

If you heat the Tubing you are going to cook and loosen the Oil residue that is coating the inside of the tubing and it will be difficult to clean out because the turbo end has like a 2mm hole in it which is much smaller then the tubing. That would make it hard to run some sort of brush in side.

Any sort of loose residue inside of that tube is going to go unfilterd into the turbo charger.

yeah, unless i find this very specific oil line today, brazing an extension on does seem simpler. i may take this to the welder's tomorrow morning. i'm not sure why any fittings would be called for if we could slip the straight ends into a slightly larger sleeve to get that extra inch or two.

Row52.com lists a 1985 300D at the Windsor Pick-n-Pull in row 64 since 9/25/15. The oil feed line might still on the car. The link also has a 15% off coupon for that location. Row52 | 1985 Mercedes-Benz 300 at PICK-n-PULL Windsor WDBAB33C8FA244728

It is a bit of a drive from SF, but the yard is open until 6 pm today. You just have to get in before 5:30 pm. Here is a link to the location.
http://http://www.picknpull.com/locations.aspx?View=Detail&ID=61&ClusterID=3

i looked on row52 as well, 3 hours is a bit too far for me to drive speculatively. that is what it is. i've pulled the old line from the car and diagrammed how it needs to be modified (in 2 dimensions) so i'm hoping to have the work done locally in the next couple of days - unless, of course, someone shows up with the correct one. thanks for the tips everyone.

row52 and/or picknpull has a feature where you can request any part from the car shown and people who make a living picking them can reply w/ a price. Perhaps some make trips thru SF and can deliver.

I do have the oil tube you need from my failed 1985 engine, but saving it in case I ever need to go back to its turbo (ex. future emissions rules). Of course everything I own has a price, but w/ shipping you'd do better w/ above.

i had an extra section of hard line brazed in locally for $80. adding a flexible piece would have been a fine alternative.

after brushing the exterior with steel wool, and blowing some brake cleaner and compressed air into the restrictor, i figured it was clean enough to reinstall. it did take some serious fettling to refit the line, but as mach4 reported, it's fairly flexible. i had success by first tightening the banjo bolt from beneath the oil filter, then working the feed flange into place on the turbocharger. made sure the line wasn't rubbing on the block or manifolds and braced it. i changed the oil, remembered to change the filter this time, and am waiting for the battery to recharge before i can start the engine back up.

You know the drill - pictures or it never happened! :)

haha, oops.

http://www.lithic.org/tmp/braze.jpg