Here's a quick follow up to my $500 '80 300SD which wouldn't start. The engine showed low compression, (under 50 psi in 2 holes), so I decided to pull the engine and go through it. I pulled the engine and tranny, and got the engine dis-assembled down to the bare block. 2 pistons were totally junked, lots of worn aluminum and scoring. The crank looks great, as did the bearings. I'll be dropping the block off at the machine shop ASAP, and let them tell me if the bores will clean up with either a 0.25 mm or 0.5 mm overbore. I hope they will, as I can save at least a little dough.

This was my first MB Diesel project, and one thing I have to say - these engines are complex. Lots of fasteners, brackets, accessories, etc. I'm used to working on Chevys and Dodges. I can usually look at any bolt from a SB Chevy and tell exactly where it came from. Not so with the Benz - but it definiely seems well engineered.

Just thought I'd share.

SteveM.

Do you have the factory shop manual for your engine ?
These engines go by very different rules than what you have been used to dealing with...

Granted I have never rebuilt a MB engine, but I thought that the cylinders were sleeved. Am I wrong to think this? If it is sleeved, you should be able to re-sleeve and save some expense.

Maybe you wore through the sleeving and you need to clean up the cylinder walls and then re-sleeve.

Just curious.

__________________
'82 300SD 206K miles Anthracite Grey received 250,000 Km badge
'93 GMC Turbo Diesel 1-Ton Dually 113K miles Stolen 17 Jul 05
2005 GMC 2500HD Crew Cab D-max 22K miles Love it!
'68 Corvair Monza 110 Coupe 26K Sold
'66 Corvair Monza 110 Convertible 123K
'52 Ford 8N Sold
'66 Ford 3000 Diesel (204 hours) For Sale
'86 White 2-65 MFWD Iseki Diesel

Have you priced out pistons $$$$$$$$$$ yet? Make sure you are sitting down when you do.

__________________
Jim

Yeah, I'm doing the same thing. The best price I've found so far for a set of pistons for my 300SDL is $1217.

__________________
Michael LaFleur

'05 E320 CDI - 86,000 miles
'86 300SDL - 360,000 miles
'85 300SD - 150,000 miles (sold)
'89 190D - 120,000 miles (sold)
'85 300SD - 317,000 miles (sold)
'98 ML320 - 270,000 miles (sold)
'75 300D - 170,000 miles (sold)
'83 Harley Davidson FLTC (Broken again) :-(
'61 Plymouth Valiant - 60k mikes
2004 Papillon (Oliver)
2005 Tzitzu (Griffon)
2009 Welsh Corgi (Buba)

Yes, the pistons are EXPENSIVE, but I don't think they'll be as expensive as the SDL mentioned by mplafleur.

I have done this before to a 617. Bored to oversize and used new pistons. It worked out great. Some feel that it is better to sleeve back to standard and reuse the pistons. I prefer not to do this because the pistons in a diesel are HIGHLY stressed.

In your case, you saw aluminum, so you probably have at least two pistons that are not reusable anyway.

Good luck,