I bought an 85 300TD for $450 last week, car is actually in decent shape, just dirty, and I want to restore it to everyday use, even if I have put another 1.4K money/time in it..( I rebuilt an 83 240D Diesel and I'm addicted)Car starts great on 20 degree day even after not running for 3 weeks.
The car starts out with horrendously slow acceleration in the beginning. You have to ram the foot to the floor to get it moving. After initial acceleration (if you can call it that) it takes off normally ..
I dont think the problem is engine related.I think its in the fuel system. I intend to start work on the car in 3 weeks when weather breaks.
I'm not a bad amateur mechanic, but some of these
questions may sound very dumb:
Before I start taking apart fuel system,
(1) Could this because of Auto transmission problems? Car shifts normally smoothly once it gets moving.
(2) Can Diesels have a plugged exhaust?

Replace both fuel filters first. (You can order them from fast lane above.)

There is a part called the aneroid valve. It is responsible for adding more fuel when boost is detected, you may want to give it a tweak to get more fuel to the pump, this will improve power GREATLY, but will cause a little more smoke.

Good luck.

Hi
I had the same problem in my 84 300D when starting from zero at any stop sign it hardly moves till the turbo kicks in, and the solution was adjusting the fuel pump to increase the prboost delivery, I could not do it my self I had some one do it for me, hope this will help you.