Good Day All,

I just found this site and have spent the better part of my afternoon reading all about our "joys of ownership".

I have owned a '79 240D for about a year now and am in love with the car. I bought it from the original owner who probably serviced the car to about a 5 on the old 1 - 10 scale. It's got about 240,000 miles on it and looks brand new!

My dilemma: I know it needs a Transmission, (automatic), slips a bit in town and shifts real sluggish. There's a couple of pretty good oil leaks that account for at least half of it's oil consumption, (1 qt. @ 500 miles). On the highway it seems like it'll run forever! My confidence in the car blossoms as it cruises well at 70-75 MPH. The problem is around town. It seems to smoke quite a bit and idles with a rhythmic Chug, Chug, Chug. Most recently after a 500 mile round trip to Vermont it started making a Clack, Clack, Clack the sounds like it's coming from the top end near the front cylinder. This clack seems to all but go away at 1,000 RPM and above and the engine smoothes out nicely.

Could this all be answered by a thorough service? Valves, Fuel Timing, etc? I don't want to sink a ton into her. At that point I would upgrade to a 300DT.

When it's hot, how much smoke should be present when I open the Valve Cover to add oil? Is this a symptom?

Thanks for your help.