I heeded no one’s advice not even my fathers and bought me an expensive, inexpensive 1981 300td. Yes I knew it had problems. But growing up around mechanics and garages I learned at a young age to love working on cars and having one that is less electronic gets me all gity inside. Plus I’ve always wanted a diesel station wagon.
So far I changed out the alternator swapped it from a junk yard – the alternator was good but the pulley had gone to…. Called Mercedes they wanted $126 list for it. That’s the pulley only. Crazy!
Next thing you know the ac compressor started making some noise the ac clutch or compressor must have seized up... cut the belt.... No noise… I’ll deal with the AC in the spring.
Two new balenced front tires took care of alot of vibration.
Had some exhaust work done, and then realized that I still had a major leak at the manifold. So out came the intake, turbo, and exhaust manifold. Taking it to dads shop to give it a good cleaning. It took a couple of hours but the Forum Sure helped. Thank you for those who have traveled these roads before me. Bless you all!!
Changing the motor mounts in the next day or two, while the manifolds are out...
I did the valve adjustment today and at times could barley turn the motor over form the power steering pulley nut. After adjusting some valves; turning it over got much easier and when I got done and went back through to check them you could tell a big difference when turning the motor over.
Here are the numbers I started with: engine was stone cold ( all exhust should be .35mm and intake should be .10mm)
Cylinder #1 exhaust .17mm Intake .015mm
Cylinder #2 intake .02 mm shuts .15 mm
Cylinder #3 exhaust .10mm intake .02mm
Cylinder #4 intake NONE (0) zilch exhaust .17 mm
Cylinder #5 exhaust .25 mm intake. 015mm
YOUR THOUGHTS …Have you ever had a valve adjustment needing that much adjustment…and should this help with rough starts when cold? What should i expect?
I bent a 14 mm wrench with MAP gas and a sledge it worked great... after doing them I heated up and changed the angel slightly to move better over the injectors. I plan on makeing another one as soon as i can find a spare 14 laying around.
Last question… anything I should replace or look at while I got the manifolds out of the car?

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81 300td turbo 212,000