It's alive!
 

I got the chain guide today, and installed it. I assembled everything needed to fire it up, so a few things still need to be put back on to drive the car. After a little cranking, the injection lines filled up and it started to run smooth and quiet (well as quiet as a Diesel should be). There were no odd noises, and it revved up just fine. I would say that my efforts to bring this engine back to life were a success! I still have to put on the cooling system parts and all the belts and pulleys, as I did not want to put all those parts on if the engine would not run or if it still had another problem. The owner and I are happy to get this engine running, rather than to scrap it and put the rebuilt engine in. This way it is all original and has matching numbers.....Rich

SUCESS
 

Sweet ! :) .

Don't you just love it when a plan comes together ? :P .

I got it all put back together this morning, and fired it up. I noticed oil leaking from the new cam cover gasket, so I suspected the cover got bent from the timing chain or other parts trying to occupy the same space. Sure enough, the cover was bent, so I went to my parts stash and found another one. No more leak! Here is a photo of the parts that were bad, and replaced.

Make some junk art and create a purchase here ,IM thinking wind chime.

Very good Rich ;

Is there a How-To on removing the cam chain without cutting it ? .

I've never done a valve job in a OHC engine and I need to do my '82 240D .

I'm afraid to do some wrong thing and damage $pendy parts .

TIA ,

No need to cut the chain if you are just pulling the head for a valve job. You hav to cut the old chain and master link the new chain to it when replacing it. This is the only way without totally re-timing everything. Mach 4 has a thread on the procedure if I remember correctly.

A link to this thread would be helpful .

I've spent hours searching for one....

FSM 1982 240D cylinder head removal.

No pictures, but post # 3 in this thread seems to have good advice, even though it is for a 1985 300D.

Try this http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/355389-chain-replacement-tool.html

Ditto. My 1985 OM617.952 started making a ticking noise when my son had it. By the time I pulled the vac pump off, it had driven ~100 miles. The pump arm was cut half way thru, so that gives you an idea how fast it can wear. The ball bearings that ride on the "roller coaster" ramp had fallen out, causing the arm to drag on it. Once the arm is cut thru, it slides down into the timing chain w/ results like Rollguy relates. The vacuum still measured OK, so that is not a valid indicator.

I didn't find any ball bearings in the last oil chain, but figure they are probably sitting somewhere that won't cause harm. I'll wait until I have to pull the lower oil pan for other work to search for them. There are posts giving the PN bearings to buy, some having metal side shields to contain the balls. By the time my came on from ebay, I had already installed a used vac pump I had. The ultimate fix is to change to an electric vac pump, and there are posts on that w/ mixed reports.

I guess to get out the message to others about this issue of bearing failure within the vacuum pump is to watch and hear for a noticable sound from the frt of the engine.Mine was a click ,click sound that rose and lowered with rpms.This might give rise to one thinking its possible a lower bearing issue in the engine or waterpump failure etc,etc.Once youve found the vac pump at fault its good to go for discovery of the lost pieces ,it will be in the pan / pickup screen .A total of 12 small bearings were found in my case with a few plastic shards wedged into the pickup screen .A glimmer of metal fragments were also visable in the oil remaining in the pan upon servicing the vehicle .The trick in knowing this problem and what to do when it arises is key because if it does continue to ride without the bearing the armature will fail and your problems will be much like this thread has discribed as the motors future repair.

I would recommend that the key is to consider replacement of the vacuum pump as a "maintenance" item to be replaced at 130K to 150K intervals. If you wait for the unusual noise you will need pretty good luck to stop any damage. It is correct that a new pump is $340 plus but once again this is cheap insurance especially for someone with fewer skills, experience, and equipment than Rich.

I would also add that the cam plate ("roller coaster") must be inspected as well, and possibly replaced. A good one will have a thin wear line in the middle of the cam surface, and it should be smooth with no pits in the metal. The bearing has a rounded surface, so it's contact is not across the width of the cam. If your cam has wear across the entire surface, or divots in the ramp, it needs to be replaced. Please look at post #40.

Rebuttal to "there is nothing cheap about a cheap Benz"
 

I have heard it said that "there is nothing cheap about a cheap Benz" (or something to that affect), and I totally disagree. This car was purchased at a fraction of it's value, and brought back to life. It is now worth probably triple what my friend has in it. This is only one example of a "cheap Benz" that has been brought back to life, and now has great value. The moral of this story is: don't give up on your car or engine if the vac pump seemingly destroyed your engine. This is the second one of these I have done, and it has been my experience that it does NOT bend valves or damage Pistons. This makes it fairly easy to replace a few parts to get the car back on the road. Yes you may have to go through a lot of disassembly (pan, oil pump, chain tensioner, cam towers, chain guide, pulleys and balancer, etc), but it is worth the effort. I have about 12 hours in this job, but that is a small price to pay for end result. It could have cost over $1,000 for a replacement used engine, and many times more for a rebuilt. The owner wanted to keep this car as original as possible, even down to the engine number. It was worth the effort to fix the original engine, rather than just replace it.......Rich

Are the valve face perpendicular to the piston top, which makes them less prone to bending? What broke the camshaft/ towers? What took the brunt of the impact? I've heard in VW diesels, when the timing belt breaks, valves do not usually bend and the engine can usually be put back together and run for a while till the weakened valve drops and destroys the engine. Have you heard of that happening in MB's?