Hey guys,


I wanted to show my progress so far. I bought my 87 300sdl with 139,000 miles in good condition. I built an exhaust manifold and bought all the necessary plumbing for relocating the turbo. I cant say there was a huge notable difference, maybe slightly more responsive but the 0 to 60 is still 14.






Before someone chews me up, yes I have the wastegate blocked off with a bolt and exhaust pipe for an intake. Its a work in progress.

Attached Thumbnails

 

First thing I would do is check the timing chain for stretch. This is done at the cam sprocket and harmonic balancer comparisons. If it's off a couple of degrees then you should install a woodruff key that compensates. I would advance the cam a couple of degrees to bring up the low end torque. Which means the car will have more power down low.
The woodruff keys are available at ******** az.
Next thing would be to advance the injection pump 3 degrees over stock. The timing is probably late due to timing chain stretch. Hopefully you'll have enough of an adjustment. Otherwise you'll have to remove the injection pump and reposition to obtain the correct timing. I had to do this on my 300sd. Like I said makes a big difference in performance.
Lastly put a manual boost controller set to 15 psi. The factory setting is probably off by a couple of psi. You'll needs a boost gage to monitor the upper level of boost, these are fairly cheap on eBay. Also the manual boost controller is also available on eBay fairly cheap.
All these improvements make a big difference.
You'll be very happy when these adjustments are made.
Got to love these old mechanical diesels.
Roddy

Sent from my SM-G900I using Tapatalk

What exactly are you trying to accomplish? If you're just trying to simplify the exhaust manifold setup, find a W140 diesel in a junkyard and use its exhaust manifold and crossover pipe setup. It gets rid of the ridiculous loop back system that bypassed the trap oxidizer without resorting to a lot of custom fab work.

Good luck with that. The 60x engines don't use a woodruff key, they use a locating dowel on the cam that is not adjustable. If the timing is retarded the only way to correct it is to roll a new chain.

__________________
Current stable:
1995 E320 149K (Nancy)
1983 500SL 120K (SLoL)

Black Sheep:
1985 524TD 167K (TotalDumpster™)

Gone but not forgotten:
1986 300SDL (RIP)
1991 350SD
1991 560SEL
1990 560SEL
1986 500SEL Euro (Rusted to nothing at 47K!)

Thanks for the info dieselworks. An upgraded head swap is on my list along with the timing chain.

I want to make the car go faster. When I started researching it I saw a lot of custom manifolds and bigger turbos to compliment the IP upgrades. I weld for a living so the header is what got me excited about it.

You'll want a 22 head casting if you're upping power, the original 14 casting is fine for stock power but won't reward you if you're hammering on it. You'll need an injection pump with upsized pumping elements and a tune, and you'll need an upgraded turbo. The stock turbos are pretty well at their limit on these cars. If you really want power improvements, find yourself a turbo 606 to swap in. With them being 4-valve they breathe a lot better and have a central prechamber instead of offset like the 603.

__________________
Current stable:
1995 E320 149K (Nancy)
1983 500SL 120K (SLoL)

Black Sheep:
1985 524TD 167K (TotalDumpster™)

Gone but not forgotten:
1986 300SDL (RIP)
1991 350SD
1991 560SEL
1990 560SEL
1986 500SEL Euro (Rusted to nothing at 47K!)

I cant believe it, I found a 22 head at picknpull! I'm going to attempt to pull it tomorrow, but I'm nervous I'll screw it up. Ive had to abort mission due to stripped bolts there before. Any tips would be appreciated.

What a find! I'm in the middle of a head gasket replacement on my #14 head and the only issues I had were exhaust manifold studs breaking off which can be solved once you're home and the head is on a table. The triple-square head bolts all came loose on my 255k head albeit with a nice sharp *crack* on each one.

Yea, my buddy brought a sizeable breaker bar that was real handy. We weren't able to separate the timing chain though, had to unbolt the cam sprocket and couldn't have fished it out without a pin bar.

I also ended up leaving the chain in the engine, showed less than a degree of stretch and gear teeth looked good so I zip tied the chain to the gear at TDC and yanked the bolt. Was a real PITA getting the chain guide rail pins out though; hands down biggest struggle of the whole job so far.

What worked for me was heating the bosses of the head where the pin was driven through with a torch. Then prying on some M6x1.0 bolts + washer threaded into the ends of the pins. Even still... had to use enough heat to melt the plastic guides before the pins budged... Not to mention a wrench over the bolt/washer stack for bracing and then a big claw style pry bar. What fun

Here is an update on my journey...

I finally got myself worked up enough to install the upgraded injection pump I've been sitting on for almost a year. I started Friday mounting the electric fuel pump bracket in the rear and plumbing everything in. I added a valve because Holley suggests cleaning out the pump every 10k-12k miles. This being my first rodeo I thought I could get away with not using an injector pump timing lock pin because I spent the money for a legitimate timing light.

oops...

I had to pull the pump back out probably ten times before I finally got lucky. I eyeballed the timing mark but every time I'd place the shaft in the timing gear it would jump way out of spec. I had to preload the timing mark lower to anticipate the jump, what a pain.

Now its 9pm and I cant figure out why the pump wont prime. It took an uncomfortable amount of time to realize that the rack was stuck shut, then a while longer to realize that the little lever on the 2nd plunger wasn't attached to the rack (sorry if I am butchering the terminology).

Whats more uncomfortable is that this pump was shipped to be from an authorized Bosch repair facility but my resolve to leave that pump right where it was overcame.

The increase in power is awesome. I requested 110cc, and I think I got it. A rough 0-60 was 9 seconds. There is a boost leak in the crossover flange that I need to address, but even still the KKK is reading 25psi!

The pump is loud, its better when the cars in motion. The idle seems to rev between 6-700rpm. Very little smoke at WOT. This is all preliminary though. I haven't messed with the linkage, nor connected the alda.

Attached Thumbnails