PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum - View Single Post - 1978 300D issues, which should I do first?

Zacharias · #2 03-23-2013, 11:40 AM

Welcome and congratulations on the car.

Overall for 330k kms on the odometer, assuming this is the original motor, it sounds like it performs well for a car that came out of the hands of an unenthusiastic owner.

The blowby is sort of to be expected... but I wonder if that is in part because it sounds like the car probably sat for extended periods. It's possible that the rings will come back to life a bit as you drive the car a bit more. I have purchased three cars that sat for long periods and on two there was a difference after a few months... the third never got better.

I didn't see a mention of fuel filters. If you haven't changed them yet, you should. A partial fuel filter blockage would contribute to the lack of enthusiasm for hills.

You do need to get the valves adjusted before you really know for sure how the car starts and performs.

If after the valve adjustment and fresh glowplugs it still doesn't like starting in the cold, you could consider doing the upgrade to manual preglow controller. Of course you can just do multiple glow cycles and achieve the same result, but I find the manual control more convenient (I have it on my '78).