You in the normally aspirated crowd won't know anything about this stuff...

In the interest of doing some 'theraputic' maintenance on Marlene, Friday night I'd pulled her overboost line to clean the banjos and the lines to the ALDA.

As it turned out, the lines weren't clogged.

Fast forward to Sunday afternoon... I head to San Antonio on an errand and what? I'm getting passed like I'm in leathermang's 240D. I can barely make it up small hills with the air conditioner on. Jeeze! What can it be?

My mind races, I must have gotten a load of dirty fuel, I should have adjusted those valves, a thousand other shouldas...

So, I pop the hood this afternoon and, on a lark, look at the overboost line...which is now hanging loose underneath the overboost switch. I guess, in putting it all back together, I managed to pull the pressure line loose from the bottom of the overboost switch.

Hmmm... loose line to ALDA = no extra fuel to injectors = ZERO performance which, of course was the complaint in the first place. Reattaching the line returned Marlene to her former glory.

Went ahead and changed the in-line and the spin-on filters and, while I had the system open, and replaced the return line cigar hose. It was getting cracked where it bends.

If the way Marlene performed without her ALDA line properly connected is any indication of how a normally aspirated 5 cylinder functions, that Garrett turbocharger is worth every cubic inch of space it occupies on the right hand side of the engine compartment.

Lesson learned.

R

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Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.

At a mile high, my guess is that the turbochargers adds about another 3 liters to the engine.

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

When I got my 85 300TDT .. You needed to kick it to get it going.. I got it cheap because the owner could not get it to run and had done lots of work.. I drove it home.. and made a few of the hills that my wife was running at 70 with her 78 300D at speeds of 35 in 2nd gear... After getting it home and checking it out.. I found the little piece of rubber hose that hooks the Intake line to the overboost switch was broken but being behind the brake booster you could not see it.. Total cost of getting a great running car.. 17cents.. The owner before had spent lots rebuilding the injector pump and new injectors.. Replacing the turbo.. But just could not get it to run.. Was sure it needed a new engine..

Ken

Thats like every mans dream.

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'85 300 Turbo Diesel- 308K

My recently acquired $850 '84 300D was bucking and surging from a standstill, and could barely get out of its own way during acceleration runs. Two quarts of tranny fluid and a patched trans cooler line cleared up the bucking, and a replacement for the leaky primer pump restored the power. Proof positive that knowledge IS power...

Bought a nice '82 300D in east Texas and drove it to Tucson. Power slowly fell off the further west I went. Cleaned the overboost line and banjo fitting but it didn't have much effect. Then found the real culprit - the throttle linkage was loose and was giving me progressively less throttle. Readjusted same and had all the original power that I was supposed to. Sure did get good fuel mileage coming west though....

Wes