Guys! An update!

So I decided to do a Hail Mary and soak the pistons from the combustion chambers. After digging around online I saw some videos of guys cleaning piston heads on the bench with Berrymans Chem Dip cleaner. It looked really powerful. I mean I was asking myself why I never used this stuff on pistons in the past. I have wasted hours scratching at pistons with broken rings to get carbon out of the grooves. This stuff cleans out the grooves with a four hour soak.

Last night I basically figured my engine was dead. Basically I’d written off the car. I wasn’t sure I wanted to pull the engine and clean up the pistons or swap an old engine in. I kept wondering why my car, which I never ran low on oil, had these lousy piston to wall clearances.

I went to Oreilly and got the one gallon jug of Berrymans chem dip and I poured it right into cylinders 3,4,5. I got a salsa jar about the same diameter as a piston and filled it with about 1/2” of fluid. I figured it would sit on top of the piston and leak down. Left it in for four hours. Came back and cranked the engine by hand to get it out. Then I cranked the engine to purge out all the chem dip. Used a lot of paper towels. I used an old shower curtain that came in handy to control the splashing. Wrapped up the engine and put half a roll of paper towels around the injector holes then cranked. Didn’t want to risk a hydro lock. Wore my pandemic PPE - gloves, 3M p100/organic vapor respirator and goggles. This stuff looked like cancer in a can.

I put it all back together and cranked it. I immediately noticed the difference with more even cranking. It still isn’t metronome like stable but it doesn’t have that stumbling like only 2/5 cylinders are making pressure. It is more even now.

I started it and and drove it around my neighborhood. Wow. The rocking amplitude is about 20% of what it was. I still think it isn’t perfect but I’ll take this. Before my knees were swaying back and forth and I could visibly see my hoodstar moving 1/2” in each direction. It was like I was driving an old hot rod with a nasty lift cam. My hood used to vibrate and flex. Now it doesn’t move at all. Just a very subtle roll that is almost what I would call nearly normal. Tolerable. I’m idling at 750 rpm.

It isn’t this smooth but my car isn’t unmolested like this one either. This is perfection.

https://youtu.be/MDbR7uF0JYs

She starts the car at 5:55. I’m not expecting my old car to be like this. It is just a benchmark to move towards.

Anyhow my SD is running much smoother. Little undulation. I’m going to change oil first thing tomorrow morning. Then do some more compression testing to quantify just what I’ve done. It’ll be interesting to see if this is just my imagination.

I can still feel a little irregularity in the cranking when I start it. I may be able to focus on a particular cylinder once I compression test 3,4,5.

More later. Thanks everyone for the great tips. The forum has saved me once again.

__________________
79 300TD “Old Smokey” AKA “The Mistake” (SOLD)
82 240D stick shift 335k miles (SOLD)
82 300SD 300k miles
85 300D Turbodiesel 170k miles

Oh, boy ~ Berryman's inside the engine ?! .

This is going to be interesting .

I too vote for Kano Labs Kreen .

When trying to dissolve / remove carbon buildup and the gooey crud that often fills the piston ring lands, it is critical to GIVE IT TIME TO WORK .

I too have the rocking engine syndrome on all three of my W123's.two of which have zero smoke and run like new apart from the damned idle shaking .

__________________
-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

You might as well do all 5 cylinders before you change the oil.

^^^^ He's right you know


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Definitely soak all the cylinders.
If your block heater cord is in good/safe shape (many are far from safe) plug it in to add warmth while soaking. If you have an electric sander, attaching it firmly to the valve cover or oil lower pan could add vibration to the soak. occasional crankshaft turning will help also. Let it soak for days, you may be amazed with the results.

Good luck and keep us posted!

__________________
"Rudeness is a weak man's imitation of strength" - Eric Hoffer

Hmmm. I guess I should have soaked them all. It’s back together and I’m driving it around. Runs great. Haven’t checked compression...it’s too dang hot out here in southern California. My garage is over 100 degrees.

The Berrymans was pretty extreme. I didn’t want to do a marvel mystery oil soak and get no results. I still have most of the gallon can.

My plan is to drive it around, check compression. Then resoak if necessary. I didn’t see the point of soaking the cylinders with 390psi of compression. It’s interesting that he last three cylinders were the low ones. I wonder if the oil crawls along the walls of the intake and ends up in the back.

I’m a little worried to do this again. As of today I have something to lose!

I’ll post up my compression test results when it cools down.

The car does have a block heater. I’ve never plugged it in. I bet it will help as would agitation. I was afraid to leave the Berrymans in too long because it might be in contact with my head gasket. Not sure if it would damage it but there is a point where one has to stop before destroying the entire thing.

__________________
79 300TD “Old Smokey” AKA “The Mistake” (SOLD)
82 240D stick shift 335k miles (SOLD)
82 300SD 300k miles
85 300D Turbodiesel 170k miles

The cords on the block heaters fray and become an electrical shock and fire hazard. Fortunately the cord just plugs into the heater.

With fresh oil and filter, get it hot and run it hard.

Good point about the head gasket, I didn't think of that. That risk can be controlled by not filling the cylinder all the way.

As far the back cylinders coking up, they do run slightly hotter. The front cylinder being closest to the water pump even has a slightly difference clearance spec. It is a minute difference but it is there for a reason.

Good luck!!!

__________________
"Rudeness is a weak man's imitation of strength" - Eric Hoffer

looking forward to see the results

I wouldn't worry about the head gasket since the fire rings are usually made of steel.

You don't have to worry about the rest of the gasket because if you had a head gasket leak big enough where a liquid makes it to the composite side then the huge combustion pressure would have blown through that composite material long time ago.

Strong cleaners/acids can etch/damage pistons since they are usually made of aluminum

That this works out O.K. .

Berrymanr's attackes all things plastic & rubber and there's quite a few things inside the engine I'd worry about .

Since you changed the oil (I ass-U-me, hot and thr filter too), it's prolly fine .

? Only100* F in the garage ? it was 116* Fin the shade in my driveway to - day, naturally stupid ass Nate was working on an old Motocycle and getting the '82 240D ready for a scenic drive up North to - morrow .

I may be stupid but I'm fat & ugly too .

__________________
-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

The one you can buy on parts store shelves is perfectly safe for anything on an engine. It's the nuclear "dissolves the soul right out of your body" professional-grade stuff that will destroy anything but metal (even aluminum is iffy). That's a non-interchangeable mistake you don't want to make for sure.

I changed the oil and filter.

Apparently Berrymans chem dip has undergone a major formula change in the last twenty years. I did some nosing around and got two very different MSDS sheets for it. One had a main ingredient of Methylene chloride, another seemed more like complex alcohols - you know stuff ending in “ol”.

Perhaps an attempt at being green?

There’s this:
http://sds.chemtel.net/webclients/ram/XBER0905.pdf

And there’s this:
https://www.berrymanproducts.com/assets/CD-A-Int-0996-R01.pdf

I thought it was going to be some crazy eat anything solvent but I looked at the plastic bags I put my soaked rags in for disposal and they were intact. So were the old glossy magazines I tossed down to catch drips. Oddly I did get a peculiar headache in the middle of the night after working with it. But that could be my wife running AC all night. I even power washed my engine in the driveway before heating up the engine. It splashed all over the engine bay. It did clean off my firewall in many spots where it happened to splatter.

The shower curtain I used to contain the spray from the injector ports survived too. I’ll have to get another one from the dimestore if I attempt this again.

Nate - Man it was hot yesterday. We were 5 degrees lower in OC than in LA. I noticed Altadena clocked in at 110. Luckily my garage is attached to the house which my wife cools like an icebox. All I could hear up and down my street yesterday was the roar of ac units. I guess people ignored the governors order to conserve power. My wife said we shut it off when the power goes off. The attached garage had a downside - my wife said no hot engines in the garage today...in other words no test drives or we’ll overwhelm the AC. Heat from the cars rises up through our floor right into the house. Good for winter awful for summer.

__________________
79 300TD “Old Smokey” AKA “The Mistake” (SOLD)
82 240D stick shift 335k miles (SOLD)
82 300SD 300k miles
85 300D Turbodiesel 170k miles

Ok I got it. Didn’t read the “professional” in your post. Yes, I did a search for chem dip on o’reillys and three products come up. The ones labeled “professional” are a totally different beast. I definitely got the weak stuff.

__________________
79 300TD “Old Smokey” AKA “The Mistake” (SOLD)
82 240D stick shift 335k miles (SOLD)
82 300SD 300k miles
85 300D Turbodiesel 170k miles

IMO, The engine will be fine having used a store grade chemical for a short period of time. If it was the pro grade mentioned and used longer that would be different.

Be cautious using aggressive cleaners in the oil as that engine has a rope rear main seal that could be damaged. If doing more cleanup I'd do it from the top of the cylinder followed by an oil change like you did.

Good luck!!!

__________________
"Rudeness is a weak man's imitation of strength" - Eric Hoffer

Ahh, don't be so hard on yourself. We don't think you're stupid!

__________________
“Whatever story you're telling, it will be more interesting if, at the end you add, "and then everything burst into flames.”
― Brian P. Cleary, You Oughta Know By Now

O.K., I only ever used the really nasty stuff, once you've seen it attack everything you'll know to respect it 1,000 % .

Anyways, I'd chuffed to hear it worked out O.K., my '84 Diesel Coupe is smoking badly, or I guess noticeably anyway and that's too damn much for me as I have two other W123 Diesels that have _zero_ smoke so I'm trying to get my lazy bum in gear and do a Kreen service on it before I give up and tear the engine apart (again dammit) .

It was 110* in Altadena, 116* in the shade just down the hill a little bit, I must be stupid to be working in it .

I drove around the Central Valley to - day and it was bugger all hot ~ every time I stepped out of the car it was like being hit in the whole body with a hot towel .

My place has no AC so I'm hiding out at my Sweet's to - night .

__________________
-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