I saw that plume from Elgin several mornings in a row.... the first morning it scared the Heck out of me... I ran to the tractor and hooked up the 300 gallon spray rig thinking a grass fire was heading this way.... thanks for moving it back to the original position .....

Semi-off topic but, what kind of service history do you have on Marlene? You've got about 10K fewer miles on it than mine, and a half turn or so on the ALDA did worlds to wake it up off the line.
And it STILL does not smoke much at all, especially if the RPM's are up at all. It's odd the inconsistancy in these motors from one to another.

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One more Radar Lover gone...
1982 VW Caddy diesel 406K 1.9L AAZ
1994 E320 195K

Marlene's history is sketchy at best. When I bought her (almost a year ago now) I was promised "all the records from the prior owners." Basically, the seller was blowing smoke up my a**. No records ever materialized and I gave up after the 5th request.

In retrospect, I believe that he was convinced her transmission was about to puke (slow to engage reverse, stacking and flared shifts) and wanted to be rid of the car (fixing a zillion little vacuum issues, getting everything plumbed in right and adjusting the Bowden cable took care of almost all the tranny problems). Also, the goomer was about 6'6" tall...a 123 is not a kind place for a tall guy. And, the sunroof leaked like sieve (hehe...it was only a couple of clogged drains).

The odometer was showing 175,000 at the time of purchase but, wasn't working. When I rebuilt the instrument cluster, I advanced the odometer to what the PO said he thought the car had on it — 220,000 miles. I guess Benz owners are probably the only people that advance their odometers.

In the last year I've driven the wheels off of that car; I'm guessing that I've put about 17,000 -19,000 miles on her.

Required maintenance in the last year has been limited. I replaced her driveshaft and installed a boneyard powersteering pump to replace the leaking original. And, I put in an offset woodruff key to try and improve performance some. Everything else that's been done was optional/cosmetic.

She has her weirdnesses...generally, she gets about 24 mpg in town and 25-27 on the highway but periodically, she'll be fractious and only get 21 in town.

For me, a never-ending source of irritation is the differences between Marlene and Lilly (the 84 300D). The off-idle response of Lilly is almost like a gasser in comparison to Marlene. Both have the same final drive ratio (3.07:1)and both have the same boost (9.5psi at full chat).

Would I do it again? You bet! Marlene has to be my favorite of all the cars I've ever owned! And, the dogs love her!

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Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.