The ups and downs of owning a W123.130 (non turbo 300D) - Conversion to petrol / gas! - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

Stretch · #1 08-10-2014, 01:46 PM

G'day Folks,

With the advent of the new long term build and project section on the forum I thought I'd join in with a new thread showing what I've been doing to my W123 300D.

This car was my first Mercedes. I bought the car because I wanted to have something that could carry a family of five, do 40 to 60 mpg and run on free chip fat. So that was one of the first mistakes I made!

The next mistake was to think I was buying a reliable vehicle that (most importantly in Holland) would be exempt from the dreaded road tax. Road tax here in Holland is ridiculously expensive if you don't really want or need to go anywhere, but that wasn't the case for a “classic” which used to be exempt.

In January 2014 the rules changed, however, and now all diesel powered vehicles younger than 40 years old have to pay what is essentially a higher business rate of road tax. At the time of writing road tax for my 300D will cost 1760 Euros a year before I go anywhere because they expect all diesel vehicles to travel at least 50,000 km per year (business distances). The future of the vehicle in its current guise is uncertain.

So to cut a long story short the road tax is no longer free but despite the low miles (160,000km ~ 100,000 miles) the car didn't turn out to be particularly reliable either!

Still it is not all bad news. I've been having fun – I've been distracted – I've digressed – I've been self prescribing automotive therapy during a time in my life when things have been pretty rough. I've stripped the chassis to component parts and taken many smaller parts down to nut and bolt level. I've learnt a lot. In terms of pleasure and satisfaction the car has already paid for itself because I'm a bit of a mechanical engineering nut case. To me taking something to bits – seeing how it works – admiring the engineering – thinking of ways not to buy expensive special tools – to substitute special tools with commonly found hardware and wood has been my reason for car ownership.

This is a story of what has gone wrong so far and what I've done to fix it. This story might not end well – the car is in danger of being scrapped – but you never know things might work out well for it in the end. Then again pigs might fly. Only time will tell.

Many people have said “scrap it and move on”. But this is after all a four door W123 – the best looking W123 body style in my opinion. The W123 is a bit of a boring design but comparing the W123 saloon to the W123 coupé (that looks unfinished and too short for its girth); and the kind of afterthought-ness of the estate (which seems to amplify the Mercedes geek design element); the W123 saloon is quite obviously the car they wanted to make in the first place. I think they designed the W123 four door first whereas the W114/W115 chassis was obviously a coupé first because that looks the best...

...anyway I consider a four door W123 to be worth saving. Here in Holland there aren't as many on the roads as there were a few years back. The W123 is getting to be a rarer every day. The chip fat craze definitely killed off most of them and now older petrol engined cars converted to run on LPG are also being targeted by governmental envy and they are disappearing too.

As I'm not willing to pay the price of driving a diesel in this country any more I reckon I'm going to have to go down the petrol engine route. This isn't really what I want. Given better (in particular cheaper) battery technology I'd go all electric and for the type of distance I'm likely to travel in this vehicle it would be just fine. But that's not going to happen just yet. The jury is still out on what I'm going to pick engine wise (but between you and me it will probably be a M104 and a 722.3)

The car is mine, The doggone car is mine - so what now? Diesel dilemma...

The car is mine, The doggone car is mine - so what now? - Mercedes-Benz Forum

So here's the car. This is what it looked like when I got it.

480 Manganese brown (metallic). Steel wheels and hub caps.

Stretch · #2 08-10-2014, 01:53 PM

Black dash - no wood - wind up windows - manual sunroof

All in all it looked like quite a good buy the paint wasn't too grotty either after a bit of a polish

Turns out all that glitters is not (automotive) gold

#########

If you like these cars looking like this - I warn you now - look away it is going to get "different"

gatorblue92 · #3 08-10-2014, 02:12 PM

I forgot what this car looked like in one piece

Stretch · #4 08-10-2014, 02:13 PM

I used the car as a car for almost a year before I finally started to get the itch to "fix it".

The first thing I wanted to do was to assess and keep an eye on the rust. Then I wanted to rebuild the front suspension - and of course the back then followed...

...the more I worked on the car the more I was aware that things weren't as good as they could be. The rear subframe bolts for example were totally corroded in place

The mounts were stuck too

Still I got that done

Rear subframe removal and bushing replacement

I did the rear wheel bearings too

W123 rear wheel bearing removal help needed

I got the front and rear suspension rebuilt (quite a common job for many a new W123 owner) and even got it aligned (self alignment)...

How I adjusted the toe in / out, camber and caster on my W123 300D

...I got it back on the road only to find that the engine was kicking out more and more black smoke.

This was the culprit

Broken valve guide

OM617 manifold oil = broken valve guide

Stretch · #5 08-10-2014, 02:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gatorblue92

I forgot what this car looked like in one piece

Me too!

Stretch · #6 08-10-2014, 02:28 PM

On removal of the head I also found the cylinder bores were a bit gone so I removed the engine

How I took out my 1981 W123 300D (euro) non-turbo engine

Whilst I was rebuilding the engine I started having fun with the automatic transmission

722.118 Automatic transmission rebuild (Monster DIY)

Got that done too

Seeing as the engine and transmission was out being fixed I figured I'd take a look at the steering box

What a feeling it will be! A properly adjusted W123 / W116 / W126 power steering box

Then there's the starter motor

An OM617 starter motor is for LIFE not just for Christmas!

And the alternator

Refreshing the alternator on an OM617

Did the fuel pump (lift pump)

Refreshing the fuel pump on an OM617 (European spec – non turbo)

Stretch · #7 08-10-2014, 02:49 PM

Then the vacuum pump was fun (I got a bit carried away with that thread)

More than you are likely to ever want to know about OM61X piston vacuum pumps

But the fun had to stop!

I started off looking at the body - spring pocket areas were first

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/body-repair/286079-w123-hood-bonnet-spring-pocket-refurbishment.html

But the rust kept on being found!

In the end I found old accident damage too - different coloured doors

Pushed in floor pan

So in the end I had an attitude of "well I may as well keep going"

So it went to this

I found this

And I took this bit off again

Because I found this

...and so it goes on!

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/body-repair/303669-my-w123-saloon-sedan-old-accident-repair-bit-rust-repair-thread.html

Stretch · #8 08-10-2014, 02:55 PM

I'm still positive about the car. I'm thinking about colour =>

Colour choice for a W123 300D 4 door - what would you choose?

I reckon it could look good again with a bit of elbow grease and with a nice powerful engine in it (and a W126 suspension and brake upgrade) it could be good fun.

But I'm taking one step at a time.

The plan is to practice my (new acquired) welding skills and see how far I can get with that. If I can fix the rust and paint I think the car has a chance of survival.

suginami · #9 08-10-2014, 05:22 PM

I really enjoyed reading this thread, but does this mean you are done with the W201?

TheDon · #10 08-10-2014, 06:15 PM

Looking good.

I like the original color, one of my favorites.

Did you hits your photos on the forum? If not I'd try and do that with all of them so to preserve them in the future. Your work will help me with my 240D restoration.

Stretch · #11 08-11-2014, 01:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by suginami

I really enjoyed reading this thread, but does this mean you are done with the W201?

When is a car ever "done"?

At the moment the W201 is more or less ready to go. I reckon I could just bung on the old exhaust and do the alignment and take it to the testing station for it to be road legal again...

...however other (nasty) stuff is happening at the moment so I'm in no hurry with that one just yet.

If I can get further along with the W123 the chances of it not ending up on the scrap heap improve.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheDon

...
Did you hits your photos on the forum? If not I'd try and do that with all of them so to preserve them in the future...

What does this mean?

Mölyapina · #12 08-11-2014, 08:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stretch

What does this mean?

I think he's asking if you've hosted all of your photos on the forum. IIRC, the answer is yes...

Stretch · #13 08-11-2014, 10:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jooseppi Luna

I think he's asking if you've hosted all of your photos on the forum. IIRC, the answer is yes...

So this could have been an auto-correct mobile bollocks thing...

...I have to remember that everyone else has moved on to a world where you now need to guess what they meant to say before the machine made it incomprehensible!

Stretch · #14 08-13-2014, 06:10 AM

I think this is getting a bit out of hand - I'm not sure if I can fix this car.

I can't get access to all the tight corners and see properly so I can weld them. Here's an example of the driver's foot well

And the passenger side

I'm not sure if my welding abilities are up to this.

pj67coll · #15 08-14-2014, 09:18 AM

Sorry to hear about the BS road tax situation in Holland. Clearly a bunch of eco-freaks wanting to get rid of older vehicles. I agree that the rust seems bad but I don't think it's insurmountable. All just depends really on if you think baling out now would be better than sticking with it. Seems you have more skills than most and I'd think you can likely keep it going if you really wanted to. I assume you don't have and are not considering a new car? So without having to compare the cost of the road tax to that of a new car payment the cost of the tax looms larger as a consideration than it otherwise might. I agree with you that the 123 sedan is the best looking of the series. And if it were me and I were to keep it I would keep the original color. It's a nice color for that car and in general I prefer keeping cars original if doing a resto. Especially Mercedes. Either way good luck. Hope it works out.

- Peter.

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