Ok guys, help me out here. My 1985 2.3 190e is driving me nuts.
After rebuilding practically all of the engine, I have the car running fair. It is idling at 1100, but pretty smooth. RPM's drop to 750 when in gear. It drives ok, but pings pretty bad on hard acceleration. Timing is DEAD ON. Gas is super premium. So I was out test driving the car tonight.. I did a 10 mile drive and on the way home when I came to a stoplight, the car shut off. It would not restart. It was like the battery was dead.. but it is a new battery. The car always appears to have a weak battery when the engine is hot. Also I was losing coolant out of the overflow tube. Why? The auxilary fan (electric) was on, and temp was reading about a 1/8th of an inch above 100C.

What would cause the engine to ping on acceleration if gas is fine and timing is right on? (high temp comes to mind, but temp seems normal). Also any ideas why the car stalls when comeing to a stop? One last thing (maybe a big thing) I pulled the vacuum line off the fuel pressure regulator and it was leaking fluid. I assume the diaphram is bad and replacement in necessary. Will this cause all my issues?

richbark,

Check your cap on the coolant reservoir. An old cap may not seal anymore and then allow coolant to boil over and out the overflow tube. Sorry, have no experience to pass along on your other issues. Jim

__________________
Own:
1986 Euro 190E 2.3-16 (291,000 miles),
1998 E300D TurboDiesel, 231,000 miles -purchased with 45,000,
1988 300E 5-speed 252,000 miles,
1983 240D 4-speed, purchased w/136,000, now with 222,000 miles.
2009 ML320CDI Bluetec, 89,000 miles

Owned:
1971 220D (250,000 miles plus, sold to father-in-law),
1975 240D (245,000 miles - died of body rot),
1991 350SD (176,560 miles, weakest Benz I have owned),
1999 C230 Sport (45,400 miles),
1982 240D (321,000 miles, put to sleep)

Was the head resurfaced raising compression?

Jim,
The head was indeed resurfaced. The compression is at 152 psi cylinders 2-3-4 and 150 in cylinder 1.

I also have checked that the vacuum advance in working fine.
Rich

I'm not real big on snake oil, but seeing as how your head was resurfaced(compression possibly changed-increased), try running some octane booster along with the premium your using.

If the pinging lessens or stops, then the head resurface caused a large compression increase.

One thought I had is to try a colder plug, your compression numbers don't indicate excessive compression. It might be a hot spot that is causing the pinging.