oldsouth,

I have similar thoughts about my "lowly" E-class '87 300DT. Just ask Dave M !!

Currently I am just riding it out & not spending money until I need to (i.e. something really "breaks"). In my case, I have the parts I need to fix the engine (head).

Your situation is a little tougher because those factory rebuilt engines cost a lot more $$$ and they aren't always available. If you really liked the car then I'd probably get it taken care of while the parts are still available. - after I did some diagnostics like Dave suggested to verify it ain't something else. Like make sure the turbo rebuilt isn't prematurely failing.

Also consider suspension work, differentials, transmission, evaps, and other things that you have already done or may need to do. All of these things are $$$$ on a W140.

Regards,

I spent hardly nothing on the car except regular maintenance up till 200,000 miles. From 200 to 225 I had to do an evaporator core and transmission. Luckily I had an old black man that I knew that used to work at Mercedes do the transmission for me. He did an excellent job for $1400. Evaporator cost over $4000 at the dealership.

With the tranny & evap done, they should be good until 500k now. ;) The engine is next up, and the suspension may need attention eventually but that won't be more than a grand or two for everything. The car was $75k back then and at least that for a W220 now, so IMO it's worth fixing & keeping the car, assuming you like it (which it sounds like you do). Brian is correct though, some basic diagnostics would be a good idea just to make sure it's not something else, like a freak turbo failure on the 20k rebuild. If you can do general DIY work on the car, that also keeps the costs down. I think you can get printed manuals for the W140, if not, there's always the factory WIS system for service/repair procedures.

:cool:

Yeah, but how do you access the factory wis :(

You can either rent time online at www.startekinfo.com , or buy bootleg copies on CD or DVD. Drop me an email if you want more info on this, but be warned, the WIS is about as non-user-friendly as humanly possible. Imagine trying to eat a bowl of soup, blindfolded, using only a fork, with your hands tied behind your back... :p ...but the information is all there once you find it!

I would also consider the liklihood of electrical failures on the chassis, but with the trans & evap done so recently seems worth it to keep on rebuilding. :)

If you remove the breather tube from the air intake and seal it off you with thumb blowby will probably build up in the valve cover (unless there is a leak at the valve cover to breather tube). The amount of blowby can tell you some things about the condition of the engine. When enough blowby builds up, it will cause the stop lever on the injection pump to move, and eventually the motor will cut off.

On my 190DT and 300DT, nothing happens in 1 minute, there is no appreciable blowby. However, on my '86 190D, the motor cuts off in 5-6 seconds. My other 190DT takes about 26 seconds.

I would be curious as to the amount of blowby.

Regards,

I did that test at about 150,000 miles and the engine did not shut off but afterwards my oil pan started leaking around the gasket. I had to replace the oil pan gasket and it was not fun. Had to unbolt the motor and raise it a little to get to all the bolts. I don't want to do that test again.
I have my blowby pipe routed to atmosphere. I have a hose going to the bottom of the car. It drips a good bit of oil out and there is a steady stream of smoke that comes out of it. About the volume of lightly blowing out of your mouth. I used to have it go into a catch bottle, but that was too much trouble and no good place to mount it. I dumped it every oil change of 7500 miles. It would accumulate about a pint of oil in that time period.

According to my paperwork for the engine replacement from the MB dealer..the part number is shown to be

603 010 31 02 88

This was a rebuilt crated longblock assembly.I think it actually was a rebuilt bottom end with a brand new head.
At the time(Fall 2000) they had engines in stock and mine arrived at the dealer within one day of his order.They were in stock at MB parts warehouse in the Chicago area.
I can't imagine these still aren't available

Suspension is not really that bad on a 140..unless you drive the thing into the ground...trnasmission at the dealer is $2500 for a rebuilt unit with a two year warranty...again that may be on the low end...especially the car with the 5 speed automatics that I think are about twice that amount
Evap is expensive...but on my particular vehicle iot has been done twice...both times at MB dealers...one while with the original owner and another time under my ownership


Warren
1992 300SD 177K
Columbus Ohio