guys, guys, guys. you should be ashamed of your responses to this thread. i simply asked how to up my performance on the cheap, and now everyone's coming out of the woodwork with their flames

it's ok though, i do my fair share of prodding and instigating batboy and others, so i'm willing to take it all with a grain of salt

to clarify, i have dismantled many mercedes cars from the 114 to the r129 chassis and everything in between, including the engine of a w123--in some cases completely dismantling the engine. just last week i removed the oil filter housing, the tube that leads from it to the turbo, and the oil lines that go from filter housing to oil cooler. i'm no stranger to this engine--i am a stranger to fixing it though, and the workings of a diesel engine in general. that doesn't mean i know how to do a valve adjustment. it's one thing to turn a wrench to dismantle a part, it's quite another, as you know, to turn one in order to fix something or put it back together, especially when it concerns items which require precision work.