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  #166  
Old 11-09-2018, 08:50 AM
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Post Crankcase Breathing

Thanx .

This one is the first I've had that didn't always have a mess of oil in the air cleaner can .

I meant to ask : what happened to the impeller ? .

I too was nervous about overhauling a T3 turbo but it was pretty simple in the end and yielded impressive gains in fuel economy, power and elimination of that bothersome blue smoke .

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  #167  
Old 11-09-2018, 08:54 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by vwnate1 View Post
I meant to ask : what happened to the impeller ?

I too was nervous about overhauling a T3 turbo but it was pretty simple in the end and yielded impressive gains in fuel economy, power and elimination of that bothersome blue smoke .

I wish I knew what happened to those compressor wheels. Both of the donors were trashed. Maybe they were ingesting rocks or small boulders? I strongly suspect someone was running with no air cleaner, missing the breather hose, or running those stupid K&N's that don't filter anything.


I was never nervous about rebuilding the turbo. If it didn't work out, I'd send it off to a rebuild shop and have them do it. My main goal was to get rid of that annoying blue smoke! Turbo rebuild + IP tuning = ZERO smoke. I never thought I'd achieve that with this car.
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  #168  
Old 11-09-2018, 09:03 AM
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I had the same basic thought process but as a Journeyman Mechanic I have learned not to trust anyone else's work because fully 90% of the jobs I do involve correcting other's mistakes .

Clean, filtered air is critical ~ with no exceptions those who like the K&N typ air filters only like hearing the intake honk when they mash the gas pedal ~ they simply don't care that they're deliberately destroying their engines and often _lie_ about that part .
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1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better
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  #169  
Old 11-09-2018, 10:31 AM
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Originally Posted by Diseasel300 View Post
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.

Good to know - thanks
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  #170  
Old 11-09-2018, 08:16 PM
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Question Garret T3 Turbo Overhaul Kits

Two questions :

Is there a link to the page of these kits with the 360* shaft and spiral seal ? I tried looking them up and was bewildered by the many choices .

Is there a pictorial on checking this .003" gap mentioned ? .

I have a spare T3 turbo and would like to overhaul it, don't want to put a kit and upgraded impeller shaft in a worn beyond use housing .

TIA,
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1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better
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  #171  
Old 11-10-2018, 09:17 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by vwnate1 View Post
Two questions :

Is there a link to the page of these kits with the 360* shaft and spiral seal ? I tried looking them up and was bewildered by the many choices .

Is there a pictorial on checking this .003" gap mentioned ? .

I have a spare T3 turbo and would like to overhaul it, don't want to put a kit and upgraded impeller shaft in a worn beyond use housing .

TIA,

PM sent.
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  #172  
Old 11-11-2018, 02:26 PM
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Thumbs up Garret T3 Kit

Here's the link to the "complete T3 kit" : » Garrett T3, T4, T3/T4 Rebuild Kits

You have to choose the kit # 3 and the 360 shaft, looks like the co$t is $119 right now .

THANK YOU ! .
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1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better
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  #173  
Old 01-19-2019, 01:37 PM
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Been Busy

With my last update, I noted that suspension work was in my future. Little did I know how that project would spiral out of control!

Originally I was planning on rebuilding the rear suspension to correct for the sag noticed at the TexFest event I went to in October. Then as I noted, while sitting for the turbo rebuild, the front end started howling in pain due to trashed ball joints.

I sourced all the parts and went in with a plan of attack. Did I mention that older Mercedes seem to know when payday comes? It's like they plan for it...

Last edited by Diseasel300; 06-19-2021 at 10:06 PM.
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  #174  
Old 01-19-2019, 01:42 PM
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First on the agenda was to service the rear suspension. While surfing the bootleg EPC I have, I noticed a footnote with regards to springs. Apparently the electric rear seat is an option and requires a heavier spring and thicker pads. Joy! So the springs and pads I ordered before were for the normal car without the extra weight. Explains the sag...

New HD springs, new 3-nub pads, new anti-roll bar links, and new subframe bushings went in. The subframe bushings were original to the car and completely collapsed. Since my car is rust-free, replacing them was remarkably easy. After reading story after story about how awful the job is, I was expecting the worst and it simply wasn't bad at all.

Check out the anti-roll bar link.....think maybe it's been rubbing the wheel a bit?

Last edited by Diseasel300; 06-19-2021 at 10:06 PM.
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  #175  
Old 01-19-2019, 01:47 PM
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Then the first unexpected repair occurred.

While under the car to do the rear suspension work, I noticed that the right halfshaft boot had torn open. It was intact before TexFest, and only driven a short distance afterwards, so I knew it happened at some point in the 2 weeks before then.

Luckily the SDL uses the Annular axles, so they come off easy. I have a friend with an Astoria boot gun who was willing to reboot both axles for me, so off they went for rebooting with Astoria FB-3000 boots. I suspect this is not the first time they've been rebooted. There is old grease slung on the bottom of the car and the clamps that were on the boots said "Made in USA".

Fortunately the CV joints were still in good shape and moved smoothly, so they got repacked with grease and new boots installed. I've put a couple thousand miles on since with 0 issues, so I'm happy with the repair! Just more money the car unexpectedly siphoned out of my wallet

Last edited by Diseasel300; 06-19-2021 at 10:06 PM.
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  #176  
Old 01-19-2019, 01:52 PM
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Time to focus on the front suspension.

The lower ball joints were completely roached and had been since I got the car. I drove it anyway as sort of an "endurance test" to see just how long they'd last. The answer was just shy of 15,000 miles. Yay for a dry climate!

To get the ball joints replaced, the steering knuckles had to come off. The ball joints can be replaced easily if you have the factory tool, but less easily if you don't. Fortunately I know someone with the tool, so guess what I did.... Yep, sent them off to have the old joints pressed out and new ones pressed in. Lemforder of course.

Last edited by Diseasel300; 06-19-2021 at 10:06 PM.
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  #177  
Old 01-19-2019, 01:54 PM
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While the steering knuckles were out for repair, I serviced the front hubs and repacked the wheel bearings. Surprisingly, the bearings were still in excellent shape

Last edited by Diseasel300; 06-19-2021 at 10:06 PM.
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  #178  
Old 01-19-2019, 01:59 PM
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Enter unexpected expense #2.

While I had the brake rotors off, I figured I'd get them machined. Wrong. Minimum spec for the machine shop to turn them is 25mm. Mine were at 21.3mm and 23.5mm. Damn. Had to buy new rotors, but at least now they're not grooved and worn.

When the steering knuckles came back, I reinstalled them along with new upper control arms, new anti-roll bar bushings (thankfully the ends looked brand new with no rust, thanks again dry climate!), new tie rods, new drag link, new steering stabilizer shock, new wheel bearing seals, new radio suppression clips, new brake hoses on all 4 wheels, and a good brake flush.

Last edited by Diseasel300; 06-19-2021 at 10:06 PM.
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  #179  
Old 01-19-2019, 02:21 PM
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I finally got the car back on the road a few days before Christmas and used it for a couple of road trips. I noticed that the car was not very happy starting in cold weather and my idle haze had returned. Otherwise, the car was running well enough and my fuel economy had risen considerably, I've been averaging around 23-24mpg in town and around 30mpg on the highway.

To address the cold starting issue, I looked at the glow plug relay first. I know none of the glow plugs are bad, and I've had issues with the relay in the past. Testing showed I was only getting around 5V at the glow plugs instead of the 10+ you'd expect.

Seems the contacts were in a pretty rough way, so they got sanded down, polished, and adjusted so that they work properly. Now I get ~11V at the glow plugs.

It helped a bit, but didn't eliminate the rough starting and 10-15 seconds of chugging, coughing, and smoke when started first thing in the morning.

Timing the glow plug light matched up with the charts I'm able to find online, so I know the timer is working, so I elected to do the glow plug light mod in this thread: Easy Glow Plug Relay mod: better dash indicator

Longer glow times helped slightly, but still didn't get rid of the chugging and rough starts. This is a problem I've always had with the car and this winter is definitely the worst its been, very annoying!

My next plan of attack was to piddle with injectors. I bought a used set of injectors off a forum member to replace my mismatched mess of OE, Bosch rebuild, VW, and Bosch India injectors which I've never been able to get dialed in 100%. I took my time and cleaned the new-to-me injector holders, polished and lapped the halves, and installed my Monark 265 nozzles, then shimmed and balanced to 2000PSI +/-15. This was by far the longest I've spent messing with injectors and dialed them in PERFECTLY.

Did it help the car? Did it heck. If anything the starting was WORSE and the idle haze much more significant! This screamed to me that something was up either with fuel delivery or with timing.

First I went down the fuel delivery rathole. I'd been running one of Greazzer's OM617 style overflow valves which had helped in the past with starting issues. I swapped it out for a new OE OM603 style with the drilled orifice instead of the spring-loaded ball. Made no difference.

Next I checked for air in the fuel system by installing Funola's clear PVC hose on the return fuel line. Absolutely no air in the system. Not even when sitting for days.

That left only timing. I loosened up the IP bolts and decided to play with retarding vs. advancing the timing. Retarding the timing made it much worse, more smoke, much more acrid, and louder injector nailing. Advancing the timing seemed to help, so I kept advancing until I hit a sudden sweet spot. Suddenly the engine quieted down, the nailing stopped, and the idle smoke all but disappeared. If I kept going, the idle got rattly and started black smoke, so I found the sweet spot again and tightened down all the IP bolts.

Lo and behold, the timing was the issue. Probably it and the injectors not being perfectly matched was most of my problem the whole time I've owned this car. Now, it starts immediately on the 1st compression hit, needs no glow to restart, idles so smooth it's crazy, and the loud clattering nailing at idle is completely gone! Smoke is nearly nonexistent and power is up noticeably, especially in higher RPMs.

Who'd have thought... Anyway, now with the suspension rebuilt, the injectors matched and balanced, the turbo rebuilt, and the IP timed and tuned, the car drives like a completely different beast. So smooth and quiet on the highway. No more knocking and clattering from the suspension or the engine. The rear end was comically high for the first several days after being rebuilt, but now has settled in to where it looks perfect. Even with a full tank of fuel and passengers in the rear, it isn't sagging. I'm a happy camper!

Last edited by Diseasel300; 06-19-2021 at 10:06 PM.
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  #180  
Old 01-19-2019, 09:04 PM
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Congratulations. Thanks for sharing a success story.

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