The "Diseasel" - '86 300SDL - Page 11 - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

Diseasel300 · #**151** 10-08-2018, 12:01 AM

Again, not a factory-fresh look, but it does class up the dash a bit. I elected to go with a "Cinder" colored dashmat from Covercraft. It seems to be a pretty close match to the original color of the dash pad.

Diseasel300 · #**152** 10-08-2018, 12:05 AM

While not really Diseasel-related, the SL got taken out of storage for the fall this past week. I intend to take it to TexFest this coming weekend, so it's been getting cleaned and worked over. Not to break it's tradition, it decided to have brake problems. Of course - any time you want to drive the damn thing it breaks down. I wasn't having it this time, for 20 years it's avoided going to any sort of rally, show, or get together but not this year. It's going if I show up with only 3 wheels!

And what garage isn't complete without a 126 and a 107?

vwnate1 · #**153** 10-08-2018, 12:52 AM

Well ;

That looks better than 99 % of the dash covers I see on W123's, the defroster outlets are not covered and it sits neatly .

Diseasel300 · #**154** 11-08-2018, 09:22 PM

Wow, these last couple of months have been incredibly busy, and not just with the car!

In early October, I got invited to the BMW "TexFest" in Leakey by a forum member here on PeachParts. I don't own a Bimmer (I probably will one day), so I did the next best thing.....I got the 500SL all fixed up and took it instead! I only live about 40 minutes from the gathering area, so I just drove in to hang with the crowd. Day 2 was supposed to rain, and since the SL is terrifying to drive in the rain and the top leaks, I took The Diseasel.

The point of having TexFest in Leakey is because it is right in the heart of the "Twisted Sisters" motorcycle route. https://www.ridetexas.com/the-twisted-sisters/ It's a collection of roads with lots of turns, hills, dips, corners, etc where you can have some fun. The SL was surprisingly terrible in the corners - too much weight and completely numb steering, but the SDL was shockingly poised! Nobody was more surprised than I was!

I did learn a few things about the car though.
1: The rear electric reclining seat is an option, not a standard feature.
2: The rear electric seat means I should be running HD rear springs, which are different from the ones I installed earlier this year
3: The amount of smoke coming out the tailpipe of the car is truly ridiculous
4: With 4 people in the car, it'll easily do >110mph

Now I've tainted my car with a BMW sticker! And I have a photo to prove it was at the event too (you can really see that rear suspension sag)!

Diseasel300 · #**155** 11-08-2018, 09:27 PM

One of the things I've been preparing for prior to going to TexFest was rebuilding the turbo. I've known for quite a while that a large portion of my oil consumption is due to turbo seals, both on the compressor and turbine side.

The big problem is that my turbo is just worn out. I knew it when I pointlessly threw a turbo kit in 2 years ago, so this time I decided to source donors and so glad I did. I wound up with TWO donor turbos, both from 1987 cars. One came from a forum member who was parting out an engine with a broken piston, the other came from the forum member who invited me to TexFest.

The issue with the '87's is that they have the ARV (Air Recirculation Valve) on the compressor housing and have the intake snout stick out a good 2" further as a result. If I used that compressor housing on my car, the intake snorkel would hit the cooling fan. Since my '86 has no such nonsense, I wound up using the compressor housing from it.

My next big issue is that BOTH of the '87 turbos had completely trashed compressor wheels. Not sure what happened to them, but both were well beyond salvage. Ironically enough, the one from my '86 was perfect.

You can see where this is going.....

Diseasel300 · #**156** 11-08-2018, 09:33 PM

Yep....Taking THREE turbos to make ONE good one.

The state of the turbine side of my turbo was really in bad shape. The carbon buildup under the heat shield, on the oil "piston ring" and the turbine shaft was pretty catastrophic. Obviously the oil consumption through this part of the turbo was far worse than I had expected it was! Sure explains the high oil consumption!

I ordered a rebuild kit from GPopShop and sprung the extra cash for the upgraded 360˚ thrust bearing and the "stepped gap" piston ring for the oil seal on the turbine side.

Most sources I've seen, including the GPopShop say the maximum side clearance between the piston ring and the groove is .002" - .003". Anything more and you'll have oil consumption problems. The side clearance on my turbine shaft was .009", and that was with a NEW piston ring! Yikes!

Fortunately the donor turbine shaft I had was completely within spec and had no scoring to the bearing journals. After some time with solvent and a brass brush, I got things cleaned up and rebuilt the center cartridge.

Diseasel300 · #**157** 11-08-2018, 09:34 PM

Shiny, Shiny Turbo!

Diseasel300 · #**158** 11-08-2018, 09:38 PM

Before installing the turbo, I decided to replace the passenger side motor mount. It was squished but not completely flattened. I figured since I had the turbo out, now was the time to replace it since the turbo pretty well has to come out to change it.

To attempt to extend the life of the motor mount, I decided to install a sheet of Mica "paper" as a heat shield under the metal heat shield. Mica paper is used as an electrical and thermal insulator, so we'll see in a few years if my experiment works or not. My thought is that it can help shield the rubber from the heat of the turbine housing and the exhaust manifold. Does it actually make any difference? Ask again in a couple years and we'll have an answer!

While I had access, I also removed the old turbo oil feed line for replacement. The original got bent when I replaced the head gasket in 2016. While it wasn't kinked, I wanted to replace it anyway to be on the safe side. One of my donor turbos came with the oil feed line, so I was set!

Diseasel300 · #**159** 11-08-2018, 09:43 PM

When driving the car, I noticed a sort of intermittent "farting" noise from time to time, only when accelerating or driving in very specific conditions.

Turns out that "farting" noise was my fan hitting the hose to the coolant expansion tank. The SDL has a really stupid setup for that hose and it runs very close to the fan anyway. I'm running the 11 blade fan from the OM606 which sits back slightly further and the new motor mount raised the engine to just the perfect position that it was trying to eat my radiator hose!

As a temporary solution I used some tape, a piece of hose, and a zip tie to hold the hose out of the way. I have a new hose ready to go in, but hasn't been installed yet.

Diseasel300 · #**160** 11-08-2018, 09:48 PM

I next turned my attention to my breather system. Earlier this year I installed the breather puck from a VW TDI engine to replace the ruined breather puck that's stupidly part of the valve cover on the OM603 engines.

I very temporarily set it up with some old air line and some electrical tape. Very ghetto. But it worked very nicely! The point of the breather puck is to close off the breather system when the turbo creating high vacuum in the intake snorkel to prevent it sucking oil out of the crankcase. There's a spring loaded valve disc that will close the valve when exposed to vacuum, but will reopen when the vacuum ceases, or when pressure builds in the crankcase. The VW part was like it was made for the OM603. The VW grommet fits the 603 breather hole PERFECTLY, the breather puck sits right up against the crossover pipe like it was made for it.

I decided to make it a permanent fixture on my engine. I took a brass hose barb and turned it down on the lathe so it would fit TIGHTLY in the hose fitting on the valve, then glued it in place with black permatex. Add a hose, a hose barb, and a couple of radiator clamps and you have a breather system that's better than OEM because it can be serviced!

Diseasel300 · #**161** 11-08-2018, 09:57 PM

Then things sort of went off the rails...

After rebuilding the turbo, the oil smoke disappeared, but the smoke at idle did not, nor did the smoke when the car was in motion. I met up with one of the guys I met at TexFest in San Antonio a couple weeks ago and we drove each other's cars. You rarely ever get to drive behind your OWN CAR! I didn't like it.....the smoke and stench coming out of it at ALL TIMES was ridiculous! Any time he accelerated, I was left coughing in a cloud of cancer. That' GREAT for driving in front of Prius and Volt drivers, but not every driver is a smug slow-driving eco-hippie d-bag that deserves a cloud of cancer from the Deutschland Dinosaur...

So I decided to tune the injection pump again. And that turned into a TEN DAY ordeal of trial and error before I finally got it dialed in.

Long story made very short, the timing was off somehow (even though the timing pointers all lined up), and the injection settings were all wrong. I documented what I did in my tuning thread in the performance section: Help Tuning a 603 IP

I finally did get it all dialed in though, and now I have ZERO smoke at idle and virtually no smoke even under hard acceleration. I never thought MY car would run like that! I was convinced that all my smoke was coming from engine wear! Just seems it was a bad turbo, wrong injection timing, bad IP setup, and too much hair on my head.

And as it always seems to be with this car, now that I fixed all those issues, the balljoints are trashed. I guess as long as I was driving it, it was keeping the rust knocked off and things were fine, but now that it sat for >2 weeks, it ain't happy! Sounds like a horse trailer banging and squeaking down the street! Yikes!

So, as always, it's being the TrollCar™

Next on the agenda: Balljoints, tie rods, center link, steering stabilizer, upper control arms, and swaybar bushings. Think that'll all happen after Thanksgiving.

vwnate1 · #**162** 11-08-2018, 11:26 PM

Thanx for the detailed update ! .

Lots of good stuff in there .

I wish my Brother cared to take any sort of care of his 1987 300SDL, it's a sweetie but he never washes it and the engine is *so* greasy when he took it in to my tranny guy for a trans overhaul, they washed the engine for free just because .

I wonder if I could make that rockerbox breather puck fit my OM617......

Keep us posted on how all this goes .

Stretch · #**163** 11-09-2018, 03:54 AM

Nice update - good to see the turbo stuff. I've never taken a turbo to bits before. I've seen people having to balance (well get them balanced) once they have been taken to bits. Was this not a concern?

Diseasel300 · #**164** 11-09-2018, 08:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vwnate1

I wonder if I could make that rockerbox breather puck fit my OM617......

You shouldn't need it for the 617. Since it has the oil separator in the air cleaner with an oil return to the engine, it essentially has an oil "catch can" built in. The 603 doesn't. It has a baffled valve cover insert with a control valve built into the cover that is non serviceable. Since it fails, the valve cover is then open to the turbo inlet 100% of the time and uncontrolled, the result is the turbo sucking oil out of the valve cover.

I can confirm that the valve works. My intake snorkel used to be full of oil and the breather hose was always dripping when pulled out. Since I put the valve in, the breather hose is bone dry.

Diseasel300 · #**165** 11-09-2018, 08:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stretch

Nice update - good to see the turbo stuff. I've never taken a turbo to bits before. I've seen people having to balance (well get them balanced) once they have been taken to bits. Was this not a concern?

They're not hard to service, it's more a matter of persuading the old bolts off than anything. An oxyacetylene torch is a requirement!

Balancing isn't required on the Garrett turbos (which is what mine is). Each piece is individually balanced. They can be put on a machine and balanced further, but this is not a performance application so I just don't care.

The KKK turbos are a different story. The moving section is balanced as a unit, so the compressor wheel, turbine shaft, and locknut all have to be marked before disassembly and reassembled to the same positions. If any part of them is ever replaced, the cartridge has to be rebalanced.

I'd suspect that balancing on a machine is the "proper" thing to do for a very long-term solution, but that also involves finding a shop to do it and dealing with them rolling their eyes because its not some huge Holset for a Dodgey Cuminsideme for some sawed-off redneck who wants to roll coal.