Getting that fealing its turbo time ,Im serviceing the car for grommets and gaskets to chase away those pesky oil leaks and have the exhaust manifold off the engine at this time ,is it diy friendly.

I had Tim's Turbos in Virginia do mine. I think some of the guys on here have been into this and I think there's a thread or two on the topic. IIRC, it wasn't too hard and the results were good but I can't recall any details.

Dan

I rebuilt the Garrett turbo in my SDL. If your car has the Garrett, it isn't any different than the SDL's other than having different turbines. I have no experience with the KKK turbo, from what I've read on them getting parts can be a pain.

The rebuild itself was pretty easy and straight forward. My biggest challenge was getting the bolts out of the exhaust turbine side. One of the bolts was so firmly stuck that we ended up welding an old wrench to the head and using a sledge hammer to get it loose (but it did come loose!).

Be sure to MARK EVERYTHING with a scribe before you take it apart. I made the mistake of not marking the alignment of the center section to the compressor housing on mine. This made it really difficult to realign later. Don't make this mistake.

__________________
Current stable:
1995 E320 149K (Nancy)
1983 500SL 120K (SLoL)

Black Sheep:
1985 524TD 167K (TotalDumpster™)

Gone but not forgotten:
1986 300SDL (RIP)
1991 350SD
1991 560SEL
1990 560SEL
1986 500SEL Euro (Rusted to nothing at 47K!)

Hey dan .it would be a fun project and the kits are pretty reasonable from what Ive sourced so far, it seems the difficult part is keeping all those fine little keepers from flying across the room. Assembly has to be just so , a marking of the casings is required for allignment ,this before dissassembly can take shape,taking photos as you go is a big advantage .The videos out their Ive found on the subject give some edge to the fine assembly it requires ,one makes it thru a quick tutorial and a bench vise is used ,the other I like has a youth taking one apart but is very accurate as he begins and runs thru the process of reinstalling all the little components .Both these videos Ill try to link to make this thread of value to its heading for others to source .I might take the journey ,the mystery is finding out if you need a new shaft or not,this of coarse can only be found by dissassemble,foregetting the reverse while waiting on the kit would be the issue.One has the shaft ,one does not.

Maybe you could go into the business ,your truck being the billboard stating "stoked with no smoke turbos "
A core out here in Houston runs about $72 out the door and a simple kit without the shaft will run just south of $40..Sell all day long for $275 ,mix in some track showings ,your now playing while you work .

I don't DO the "W word" - that's a 4-letter word in my presence! And now I have the big honkin' turbo from Tims' so a rebuilt stocker has no use for me - or Mutt.

Dan