I have been thinking about adjusting my ALDA. My logic tells me that if I have smoke on hard acceleration, that smoke is fuel that has not burned. If that is so, then wouldn't the best adjustment be the exact point just before the cloud? Unless there is some benefit of pushing unburnt fuel through the engine and exhaust that excapes me.

Thanks
Don

__________________
1980 300TD-T (82 Turbo and Trans) 159,000 Miles "Jackie-O"
1983 300SD 272,000 Miles "Aristotle"
1987 Jeep Wagoneer Limited - keeps the MB's off the ice and out of the snow
1994 BMW 530it

Great topic butttttt... You may want to read the FIRST thread in this forum though. It is labled STICKY. After you do what it suggest then ask away if you still have questions.

__________________
"Know other lessons I need to learn? TELL me. Tired of learning'em the hard way".

Glow Plug Wait: [i} Time of silence in homage Rudolph Diesel. Longer you own a diesel. more honor you give". [/i]

Life; SNAFU Situation Normal All Fouled Up, & FUBAR: Fouled Up Beyond All Repair

-Now: Snafued Jeep TJ w/OM617 2Be daily driver & building SS M1079 w/Ambo boxed /live in Adv. Truck, Diesel KLR conversion
-Sold 62 UNIMOG Camper w/617 Turbo, 85 300SD

Bigred:

I've done two ALDA adjustments and had great luck with one, moderate luck with the other.

Never tried it relative to the 'white' smoke from unburned fuel however. Didn't seem to notice a difference in smoke, just acceleration.

Don

__________________
DAILY DRIVERS:
'84 300DT 298k (Aubrey's)
'99.5 Jetta TDI IV 251k (Julie's)
'97 Jetta TDI 127k (Amber's)
'97 Jetta TDI 186k (Matt's)
'96 Passat TDI 237k (Don's
'84 300D 211k Mint (Arne- Undergoing Greasecar Conversion)

SOLD:
'82 240D 229k (Matt's - Converted-300DT w/ 4 speed

I adjusted mine counter clockwise about 1 1/2 turns and didn't notice any power, put I think I get more smoke in the headlights at night. So I just turned it clockwise about 2 turns and did not notice a drop off in performance. Will see later tonight if there is still smoke. If there is, I am going to continue the clockwise adjustment and see if the smoke goes and if so what happens to performance.

Don

__________________
1980 300TD-T (82 Turbo and Trans) 159,000 Miles "Jackie-O"
1983 300SD 272,000 Miles "Aristotle"
1987 Jeep Wagoneer Limited - keeps the MB's off the ice and out of the snow
1994 BMW 530it

3/4 CCW for me, heck of an off the line difference, little to no smoke unless my foot is pretty firmly in it. I don't count smoke at night, it shows up too easily in headlights.

Sometimes it's interisting to hear new thoughts and experiences on common place topics, to me at least.
Nobody wants to type the same answer again and again, but still.

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

I will add that it is one thing to get a black and white answer, such as a book saying torque is 120nm. It is quite another to share with your fellows, what your working on and the cause and effect of your efforts.

When I post, either to ask a question or share my wisdom, it is to do just that. Chat with my fellow MB diesel enthusiasts through the exchange of postings in this forum.

Don

__________________
1980 300TD-T (82 Turbo and Trans) 159,000 Miles "Jackie-O"
1983 300SD 272,000 Miles "Aristotle"
1987 Jeep Wagoneer Limited - keeps the MB's off the ice and out of the snow
1994 BMW 530it

Actually I agree with you two completely. I have made the exact same arguments before. I especially agree that rehashing topics is a great thing. New thoughts and more clarity arise during the rehashing.

At the same time I have empathy for the old timmers and Moderators who see/help with the same things over and over again. (I've been a moderator other places for a total of about 2.5 years now)

IMHO doing a search first... then discuss/rehash/clarify/update what you read in the search sorta fits the best of both worlds. This way the same questions AND ANSWERs etc. are not posted over and over, yet you still get meaningfull dialog.

What do you think?

__________________
"Know other lessons I need to learn? TELL me. Tired of learning'em the hard way".

Glow Plug Wait: [i} Time of silence in homage Rudolph Diesel. Longer you own a diesel. more honor you give". [/i]

Life; SNAFU Situation Normal All Fouled Up, & FUBAR: Fouled Up Beyond All Repair

-Now: Snafued Jeep TJ w/OM617 2Be daily driver & building SS M1079 w/Ambo boxed /live in Adv. Truck, Diesel KLR conversion
-Sold 62 UNIMOG Camper w/617 Turbo, 85 300SD

First on the topic of the thread.

I adjusted my ALDA clockwise which is supposed to reduce the amount of fuel. This is my initial feedback and some additional thoughts on the topic of fuel delivery adjustments.

Speaking for myself, I am not driving a MB diesel for performance; however I don't want to drive a dog either. If I wanted performance I would have kept my 6 speed V8 tire smoking monster. I drive the MB diesel because they are "cool" and classy. I love the idea of rolling up the miles on a 20+ year old car, like it was brand new.

I am concerned about the impact of visible smoke because I think that’s where many develop the negative views about diesels and no doubt the actual emissions of one that smokes has to be greater than one that doesn't. This is not my planet, but rather I am a guest for my lifetime.

I may have lost a bit of performance it is hard to tell by seat of the pants, but tonight I did not see any smoke in the headlights of the cars that followed me. Over the next few days I will continue to check for smoke to see if it was a fluke.

We have talked a fair amount on this board about Italian tune-ups and blowing out the crud. Maybe we are creating the crud by dumping in more fuel than it can burn? So it would seem there is a fine line that we cross by increasing performance at the cost of general diesel acceptability, our own drivability and possible engine maintenance.

If I added 1 or 2 seconds to my 1/4 mile....so what.

On the topic of the search issue, personally I go through waves of answering posts and then not. I think that we pass on our information to others who then pass it on to new car owners and they pass it on and so on. I never gave thought to the moderators or old timers replying to every post, because my expereince is they don't. That is not a critisism of them at all. I think they should be involved at whatever level they wish to, just as we all do.

Don

Don

__________________
1980 300TD-T (82 Turbo and Trans) 159,000 Miles "Jackie-O"
1983 300SD 272,000 Miles "Aristotle"
1987 Jeep Wagoneer Limited - keeps the MB's off the ice and out of the snow
1994 BMW 530it

For best performance on a 617, you want to just see some smoke at full throttle and about 3000 rpm. Less fuel will eliminate the smoke, but cost you some performance. More smoke won't necessarily give you better power, and it's sure irritating.

I've discovered how to control the smoke on the Volvo -- has to be done with the engine running (my winter project, I suspect the IP needs work, ouch!) -- the overboost control on that pump is an hourglass shaped device in the ALDA so that fuel goes down as pressure goes past max allowed, and mine has been overfueling somewhat. Great clouds of black smoke if you downshift the automatic, much worse than any MB diesel I've ever seen. Car behind can vanish in the cloud, very bad press for diesels!

Peter

__________________
1972 220D ?? miles
1988 300E 200,012
1987 300D Turbo killed 9/25/07, 275,000 miles
1985 Volvo 740 GLE Turobodiesel 218,000
1972 280 SE 4.5 165, 000 - It runs!

My thoughts are if you don't want to reply, then don't reply. I know I asked some pretty basic questions, when I first came to this site. If everyone would have jumped on me to "use the search" it would have left a different taste in my mouth then the friendly and helpfull welcome I did recieve.

As far as the ALDA adjustment. I thought the smoke of fuel was black, and the alda should be adjusted so there is a faint whisp of black smoke under load. I increased my 0-60 times with a full ccw turn of the alda by 2 seconds. My car is still sluggish off the line, and I think I have some other problems. My reaction to the alda adjustment is that I wish I would have left it alone.

__________________
RT


1984 300D---Sold
1995 E420 - 106K - Brilliant Silver Metallic/Orion Gray --- Sold
1984 300SD - 151K Manganese Brown Metallic/Mostly Black --- Sold
1982 240D - 79K - Manila Beige/Palomino---Sold

Ok, two things and I'm going to take the high road here and shush..

1. I don't watch television. I don't even own one.

2. I stand by what I said. I don't see the problem. I have and do frequent several automotive boards, and re-hashing old topics are all you have left eventually. These old cars are not going to magicaly grow new features and problems. It's GOING to be the same old thing, over and over, we all have basicaly the same problems with our respective vehicles. None of you are under any obligation to answer anything, and the search button is not hard to find for anyone with an eye to look.

And that's it. Have a lovely evening..

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

This thread has been moderated. I am always one of the first people to remind folks to do a search but once the comment has been made there is no need in beating it to death. Since that is out of the way -

I have adjusted the ALDA on one of my turbodiesels once and did not notice any difference so I put it back where it was originally. The '85 300D still has the original protective cap over the alda adjustment and runs as good as any you will ever drive.

__________________
Jim

Guys,

First and foremost, this is a place where we have been remarkably successful at helping each other and we should strive to keep it that way. The generic request to use the "search" feature at the top of the thread list is intended to help both the person with a particular problem get a meaningful response quickly, and those of us who are challenged by keyboards and available time to work up helpful responses when the subject has already been addressed adequately. Keep in mind though, the judgement of whether the subject has already been adequately addressed can only be made by the person with the question, as they are the ones with the need and the only ones who can tell if the need has been met. So, the same subject may be brought up if the thread originator needs more information, or if they just want more opinions or they are looking for confirmation that they understood the archived threads they unearthed with the search function.

We log onto this website to share our experiences with these cars. Lets keep making this a friendly place to share these experiences by practicing something my kids are learning about in the FIRST robotics project they have participated in for the last few years called "gracious professionalism." Kind of a hard term to describe concisely, but it is something I think I see on this site regularly - like offers to drive to another member's home to help get a job done, or be available by phone, or offer a part that is hard to find since you have a couple, or when I asked, for volunteers to help out my daughter if she had problems on her way across the country. No one needed to volunteer but at least a dozen of you did. I was much more at ease knowing I could call for help if I needed (and it let me focus my anxiety on fewer things since I was not going to just be at ease about the whole thing anyway).

So, lets try to keep the reflex type responses that conflict with the goal to be helpful under control, whether it is being sarcastic or piling on when someone does say something stupid or offensive. Thanks, Jim

__________________
Own:
1986 Euro 190E 2.3-16 (291,000 miles),
1998 E300D TurboDiesel, 231,000 miles -purchased with 45,000,
1988 300E 5-speed 252,000 miles,
1983 240D 4-speed, purchased w/136,000, now with 222,000 miles.
2009 ML320CDI Bluetec, 89,000 miles

Owned:
1971 220D (250,000 miles plus, sold to father-in-law),
1975 240D (245,000 miles - died of body rot),
1991 350SD (176,560 miles, weakest Benz I have owned),
1999 C230 Sport (45,400 miles),
1982 240D (321,000 miles, put to sleep)