Luck is playing a Pachinko Machine , a failed engine is cause and effect.

Metal from where? How did the rod bearing look that is fed by the locked up third from rear main bearing?

Bearings spin because too much clearance beats the steel backing out and it loses crush. When a previously running engine has a bearing grab the crank, there is an oiling problem. Also just to get this out of the way, the tabs on a bearing are there for location purposes only.

You are missing my point, if a miss connection is preventing oil from entering the block, you won't have oil getting to the bearings. As a test, remove the oil cap, removing glow plugs or injectors will help cranking speed, crank engine. Look in the valve cover for oil flow. OHC motors have spray bars / drilled cams or some other method of flooding the cam / rockers. No oil up top = no oil at the bottom.

That won't help solve the stall problem.

The motor was running before, the valve timing is fine for now, 5* is nothing. Retarded cam timing actually helps low speed operation.

How far out of spec and in what direction? As long as there is some clearance, the engine will run. Too large clearance will actually increase compression a bit. Too small will still allow the engine to run unless you get below zero.

What wires melded and what type of starter are you using? How long were you cranking? The starter could be bad but all the other issues make diagnosis difficult.

On this same project?

Interesting thread .

The original IP timing sticker on my OM617 engine says 24 degrees BTDC just like the FSM does, 22 degrees shouldn't stop it from starting but I can't see how it's correct either .

__________________
-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

When you have an ip that supplies that much more fuel you have to advance the timing.

__________________
2004 F150 4.6L -My Daily
2007 Volvo XC70 -Wife's Daily
1998 Ford F150 -Rear ended
1989 J-spec 420SEL -passed onto its new keeper
1982 BMW 733i -fixed and traded for the 420SEL
2003 Volvo V70 5 Speed -scrapped
1997 E290 Turbo Diesel Wagon -traded for above
1992 BMW 525i -traded in
1990 Silver 300TE -hated the M103
1985 Grey 380SE Diesel Conversion, 2.47 rear end, ABS -Sold, really should have kept this one
1979 Silver 300D "The Silver Slug" -Sold

To rule out oil starvation try running a "race" oil filter. NAPA should have them in stock, they flow 2x as much but sacrifice filtration.

Did you change the oil that I dropped off?

Oil pressure is good and I know it is feeding the motor. Cam lobes have oil and oil is all over valve train after I can get the motor started. Oil also fills the filter and supply and return lines. The remote filter kit is no different than the way the stock filter housing supplies oil and filters oil from the block. It is just relocating it to a more ideal position. In a jeep cherokee the stock filter housing is a no go with the firewall. Essentially the relocation kit has a block off plate on the block of the motor and two lines coming out of that. Closest one to the IP is supply to filter, goes through filter housing/filter, into a "T" that has my pressure sensor and turbocharger supply and a main feed back into block. I followed the mercedesdiesel4x4 instructions to the letter and the result has been, from what I can tell, oil flowing properly and there was definitely oil in the valvetrain when I pulled the valve cover to adjust the valves.

All the rods and other bearings looked perfect. No signs of heat and there was oil under the pistons, around the rods, in the top end. I know it was caused by something although I am not sure what caused it. I guess I said crappy luck because usually in a swap that is as extensive as what I have done, there is some failure. I just never expected it to be the engine.

Valves were loose both on intake and exhaust side. Intake spec is .004" some were out by .002-.003. Exhaust was supposed to be .014" and most were .016". I was confident this would not prevent it from running (it ran before) but I knew it would only help to have them in spec so I adjusted them per the manual.

As far as a starter I have now installed a powermaster 250 ft/lb starter. This thing is a beast and cranks this motor with ease. I guess it should, it was over $300 for this starter and I had it next day air shipped to keep the project moving forward. I had it running last night multiple times but it will only run for a few seconds (15-30 seconds) then it will cut out like it is losing fuel. It makes me think it is a fueling issue.

I bypassed my gas tank to eliminate it from the equation and ran the supply and return lines from a 5 gallon diesel can with a lift pump from a larger diesel motor to prime the pump. That didn't change my starting condition. I did find the O rings around the bolt going through the fuel filter were shot and leaking fuel past. Essentially it was pressurizing the return lines going to my injectors (the little ones that jump injector to injector.). I thought for sure that this was part of the problem but even after replacing the bolt it still will either not start or start and run for only a few seconds.

I noticed when I pump the hand pump that there is air in the supply line. If I run the electronic fuel pump there is no air. It is weird and almost like there is air coming into the fuel pump at the hand pump. Have you ever seen this happen?

As far as bleeding the system I have done it just like my other diesels. I will admit maybe I am doing it incorrectly. I use the electronic fuel pump and let it run and cycle until I see solid fuel (no air) flowing back through the return line. I cracked the injector lines at the injectors and hit the starter several times for 15 seconds or so. I would get fuel leaking from several injectors, sometimes they would "spit" a little. Once I saw that I would tighten them down, hit the glow plugs and usually I could get it to fire for a few seconds or at least sound like it wants to fire. I have not had any luck after this.

If I am doing something incorrect in the bleeding procedure, let me know and throw ideas my way.

This won't help the situation. Even the smallest oil filter will have enough flow at idle. Besides, any proper filter system will have a filter bypass.

Here is the original motor in the engine bay:





Here is the second motor in place:






Intercooler picture after TIG welding and before paint. Checked fitment with front clip to make sure it all bolts up nice:







After painting the intercooler plumbing:






Front end back in place, intercooler juuuust poking out (you can see the silver plumbing clamps)



If I can manage to get this thing fired up I will do a full writeup as I have video footage on my canon 6D mkii from the entire swap, fabrication, installation, etc.

Everything is hooked up and ready to roll as soon as it fires up. I appreciate the help, guys. Hopefully I can hammer down a solution and get driving!

A couple of thoughts:

1) Are you sure you timed the pump on the correct BTDC cycle?
MB diesels have been known to run, albeit poorly, when timed out of phase.

2) Maybe you have excessive air restriction?
You have fairly abrupt turns on the front mounted intercooler.
Or, an errant glove or shop rag in the intake stream may be blocking the airflow.

3) Improperly routed vauum hoses from the ignition switch to the shutoff valve?

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78 W116 300SD 'Desert Rose' new as of 01/26/2014
79 W116 300SD 'Stormcloud' RIP 04/11/2022

I do not have the vacuum shutoff connected currently since I wanted to eliminate it from the equation.

The motor will not even run with the intercooler piping off. Already tried it just to be sure. I checked for rags, lol. That was one of my first thoughts initially.

Timing is set to 22 degrees BTDC per the Dieselmeken instructions. I am sure it is in the correct cycle, cylinder one valves are pointing "up" at the 22 mark where I timed the pump. I then drip tested the cylinder one piping outlet and fine tuned to about 1 drop per second per the manual.

Couple WAG's here..............

Try starting with the vacuum shutdown completely disconnected and the oil cap off.

1. If you have a failed or misinstalled solenoid, that'll shut you down as soon as vacuum builds, which would take a few seconds. Disconnect the hose obviously prevents this and would let you troubleshoot further.

2. If you have excessive blowby or no/clogged PCV, my understanding is that blowby will pressurize the crankcase and act pretty much like the shutdown system, just by pressurizing one side of the diaphragm instead of applying vacuum to the other.

Good luck.

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617 swapped Toyota Pickup, 22-24 MPG, 50k miles on swap

This looks like a good project .

To answer your question : yes, I've had the manual primer pump fail and cause air to get in, the engine began to run weakly, then poorly and hard to start, after I replaced the hand primer pump it ran flawlessly again .

__________________
-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

That's a good one, yes I had a manual primer pump fail as well. I also had a new one that was bad out of the box.

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617 swapped Toyota Pickup, 22-24 MPG, 50k miles on swap

Ok so I eliminated the primer pump and put another unit on. This one does not make air bubbles when pumping and it is a much more “firm” feel when pumping it.

I also noticed I had done something kind of dumb. I accidentally had the fuel return banjo bolt in the fuel supply location. This banjo fitting has a check valve in it. I suspect this would limit fuel going into the pump in the supply location. I switched that all around and bled the system again. To my surprise the motor started and idled. It idled really rough at first but began to smooth out. As it started to smooth out the turbo whistled some and then it fell on its face again. After that I was unable to get the motor started again regardless of what steps I took.

I really am at a loss with this pump. All lines are now 100% correct with brand new copper washers. The hand pump is in good shape. I am just not understanding why I cannot get this thing to run properly.

Another WAG...exhaust restriction??

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78 W116 300SD 'Desert Rose' new as of 01/26/2014
79 W116 300SD 'Stormcloud' RIP 04/11/2022

Have you confirmed that there is fuel coming out of the fuel return line when the engine is idling? It should be a significant amount, several gallons per hour, if you're getting a drizzle there's a problem. Does the engine continue to run or run longer if you keep pumping the primer pump while it's running?

Anything back from Dieselmeken? I'd probably just chill and wait to hear back from him. You can see in my build thread I dealt with a lot of crap with chasing issues around, very frustrating and I seldom dealt with it patiently. Wish I had.

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617 swapped Toyota Pickup, 22-24 MPG, 50k miles on swap