I went to look at a 76 450SL today that the owner is selling pretty cheap. Owner says the car started running rough recently , it has 122k miles,on it, and he doesn't want to put any effort or money into finding out why. That always throws up a red flag for me but I figured I'd ask the forum if there are some common things I can look for that would cause this. The car runs but you can hear it is not running smoothly and if I push on the accelerator it revs up very slowly and the miss does not go away. If I had to guess I'd say at least 4 of the 8 cylinders aren't operating. The car is pretty clean otherwise so I'd like to pick it up it this can be fixed for a reasonable price. Any ideas? Thanks

if you are sure it's really 4 cyls missing, i'm betting the timing chain jumped and possibly bent the valves on the driver's side head. they will jump up to 4 teeth, run like crap and NOT bend valves. could also be 4 leaky injectors, 4 bad plugs or 4 bad wires. but, 100k is about the limit for the timing chain and 122k is well past, assuming the odometer still works. could be a bargain. if the valves aren't bent, it's not a bad job. you have to pull the valve cover on both sides to be sure. good luck, chuck.

This is just the sort of situation that would make a pre-purchase inspection by a knowledgeable MB indy well worth your while. Welcome to the forum.

__________________
1988 California version 260E (W124)
Anthracite Grey/Palomino
Owned since new and still going strong and smooth
MBCA member

Past Mercedes-Benz:
1986 190E Baby Benz
1967 230 Inherited from mom when she downsized
1959 220S Introduced me to the joys of keepin' 'em goin'

There are only 10 kinds of people in the world--those who understand binary and those who don't

I believe the '76 has the electronic fuel injection (Don't know what you call it). There are 2 sets of points below the ignition points that control the timing of the injectors. If they get dirty or oilly, the car will run bad. Usually just need a cleaning.
I'm sorry of I have my years mixed up but maybe someone old like me may remember.
Paul

__________________
84 500 SEL (307,xxx miles)