Hi all, been reading the forums for a few weeks now, but this is my first post.

I recently got an '84 190d (w201) 2.2 with a 5spd manual from a friend. He has 2 other old MB diesels, and didn't have time for this one.
The car sat for 10-15 years, partially in a garage and the rest outside. After siphoning out around 3 gallons of old diesel, putting 5 gallons fresh, and charging the battery, it eventually started. Running fine, sounding good.

After running it a time or two, cumulatively around 3 minutes, it made a few loud clunks and shut off. Then we started it again, to hear a terrible sound from the top end. We took off the valve cover, and discovered the hydraulic lifters were mostly if not all bad. These were replaced, along with both fuel filters, oil filter, oil drain plug, motor oil, valve cover gasket, and air filter.

It had a bad clutch slave cylinder, which I replaced and bled after a week under the car. This fixed the clutch issue (clutch pedal wouldn't move) and I know it works now because it'll try and overcome the mostly stuck brakes.

After these repairs, it runs with a similar clunking, but it seems the engine is only running on 2/4 cylinders. With the intake box off, the rear cylinder is wet with black fluid (presumably oil) and is puffing out smoke. The rest run without fluid or smoke. The engine shakes violently, but idles, and can rev up when flooring the pedal.

My question is, what is this wet intake, smoke, and rough running caused by? I have been theorizing that it's a fuel injector issue, but that doesn't make me understand the wet intake.

After cracking injector lines one by one. I've found that the outer cylinders do not affect how the car runs, while either the inner cylinders will disallow the engine from even starting. I can even crack the outer cylinders together without change.

Again this is my first post, so please let me know if I should change anything in the future. I tried to be as specific as possible, as the car has sat for at least a decade.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

It could be filled with gunk. You could hit it with Star-Tron. Blue stuff you dump in your tank that eats algae. You could also let the fuel run low and stick a snake cam in the tank to visually check the condition of the strainer.

I don't think it has any gunk in it though, with us having pumped all the old fuel out, plus replacing the fuel filters. It would be hard to run fuel low as we put a whole 5 gallons in it, and with how it sounds I can't run it that long comfortably. The fuel looks and smells clean and the primary fuel filter looks good. Any idea why the intake would be puffing smoke on one cylinder?

Can you run a diesel purge through the system with its own bottle that maybe enough also consider 2 purges back to back.

__________________
92 e300d2.5t
01 e320
05 cdi
85 chev c10

I ordered some diesel purge, I'll update when it comes and I run it through. What's odd is that cylinder 1 doesn't seem like it's firing as not only did cracking the injector not affect it, it also does not heat up the header when the engine runs. Interestingly, despite the smoke and wet intake, cylinder 4 does get warm.

I suspect the diesel purge might help slightly, but an injector rebuild will fix the issue completely. If not, I'd suspect timing as air and fuel are present.

The head gasket on this engine is known to blow between #1 and the chaincase. It results in rough running and cold #1 exhaust runner. I’ve had two do this same thing; I think long sitting with not running makes it more likely. The point is not enough compression to fire, so take a compression reading.

I doubt injectors are the problem. Timing even less likely.

I would pull the glow plugs and turn the engine slowly by hand from the crank shaft damper bolt in the direction of rotation slowly and see if it hangs up in any areas of rotation. If it hangs up, I will suspect that the valve lifer issue might have cause some of the valves and pistons to collide possibly bending or damaging some of the valve.

Another possible is if the 190 engines have bearing towers as the same era 300D engines do when valves and pistons collide it can crack the aluminum bearing towers that the camshaft rides in.

Look for valve train damage.

The other issue is old oil might not have allowed the timing chain tensoioner to tension correctly and the chain could have jumped some teeth. Line the engine up on top dead center which is OT on the damper on the compression stroke and see if the camshaft timing marks are close to being line up.

__________________
84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

vtmbz:

After rebuilding injectors, as well as running the engine on exclusively diesel purge for a bit (probably just cleaning the system, did get a little dark as expected), the engine sounded a little better, but still struggled hard. My brother got a diesel compression tester, which I used on cylinders 1 and 2 today (just testing as it was late).

Cylinder 1 as you predicted had no compression whatsoever. Not one bit. Hope running out, I guessed I may have been using the gauge wrong, so I hooked up cylinder 2.

It hit almost 400 psi! On a stone cold motor! From my very limited "research," this is pretty good, though it does confirm that at least cylinder 1 is dead. I also wasn't surprised as upon removing the heat shield and injector from both cylinders, only 2 had any soot on it whatsoever, indicating that 1 was not firing.

Now I ask, is this engine worth putting a headgasket into? Is that a difficult job? I like to think I am mechanically inclined, and this is a relatively simple motor, with a spacious engine bay to boot. I have worked on a lot of motors, and pulling heads off wouldn't be too big of a deal to me, granted this car doesn't have some German quirks I'm not familiar with.
I remain somewhat hopeful as the car did run very well for that short bit when we put new fuel in it at my friend's house, so I know it has potential.

Should I look into a head gasket job?

I will reply again with compression figures for 3 and 4 tomorrow. I didn't want to rush, and it was very late where I am located.

As I suspected, cylinder 3 also makes great compression (high 300s PSI) and cylinder 4 makes none as well. So could the headgasket be blown between 1and the crankcase, with 4 being blown around itself too? With 2 and 3 intact? Is this still worth it?

I doubt the engine will run with 2 out of 4 cylinders with 0 compression. Double check again. Check the glow plug holes.

Good luck.

__________________
Not MBZ nor A/C trained professional but a die-hard DIY and green engineer. Use the info at your own peril. Picked up 2 Infractions because of disagreements. NOW reversed.

W124 Keyless remote, PM for details. http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/mercedes-used-parts-sale-wanted/334620-fs-w124-chasis-keyless-remote-%2450-shipped.html

1 X 2006 CDI
1 x 87 300SDL
1 x 87 300D
1 x 87 300TDT wagon
1 x 83 300D
1 x 84 190D ( 5 sp ) - All R134 converted + keyless entry.

Believe me, it did and I checked a good few times. Also another indicator they're not firing is the lack of any soot whatsoever on the injectors for those cylinders with no compression, whereas 2 and 3 have some on them.

It didn't run well at all, but it did run and "idle." It even revved up. It's not happy.

I have a 240d and a 190d, so 616 and 601. Both are pristine. Both run quite rough.

Was this change actually substantial enough to truly notice a difference in the amount of shaking at idle observed?

__________________
Current Diesels:
1981 240D (73K)
1982 300CD (169k)
1985 190D (169k)
1991 350SD (116k)
1991 350SD (206k)
1991 300D (228k)
2008 ML320 CDI (199k)
1996 Dodge Ram CTD (442k)
1996 Dodge Ram CTD (267k)

Past Diesels:
1983 300D (228K), 1985 300D (233K), 1993 300D 2.5T (338k), 1993 300SD (291k)

I'm not exactly sure which change you mean. The engine ran very smoothly at first, then when it initially stopped running and we fired it back up the engine was violently shaking all over the engine bay, as though there was no balance in the crankshaft. Prior to this, it barely shook much more than any other i4 engine.

Well I popped the head off the car and the number one piston had exploded. There is a whole in the block. So that will be the end of this project. Thanks all for the help.