Great advice. I was worried that the manifold job would be tricky and likely difficult. I bought the gasket, that's when I learned that both manifolds were done at the same time.

During my second trip permit - legal driving on street - I needed to go to WA state for family issues, was making major money on a large job - more loose money than time - so I took it to my Vietnamese mechanic buddy's garage. He owns two 350SD , cut his teeth on Mercedes diesels in Vietnam, prevalent there. I know the guy is good, he found the stalling gremlin in my Chev van - I had searched for two years.

He adjusted the valves, he said two were close to tight. Also smoothed out the occasional hard shake at idle, not sure how that was accomplished. He said he tested the injectors and they were good. I could ask him for more details on that. So the compression test was done about 1600 miles after the valve adjustment. I was thinking that would be good enough but I'm still fairly new to some of this.

Glow plugs sounds like a good idea, not an expensive one either.

I think the odo is accurate, the car exibits modest wear and tear. Oregon DMV gave me the PO's Eugene address, I was in the area so I took the bold step of going to the door. The young woman who answered said the names on the title were her grandparents, both deceased - her mother, now in Montana was the one who had signed it over to the garage, didn't sell it, they told her it would cost $6K to get it running, she gave it to them to cover the diagnostic work. Sounds a wee bit crooked. They did have the title at one time.

Anyway, it had been her father's car, he was a VW mechanic, in her words: from the factory in Germany. It was her car for 15 years. When I got it there was too much tranny fluid in it, maybe a pint or more too much. Made me worry that various fluid issues might not have been dealt with well, after all the dad was getting old, maybe long gone, though you'd think she'd had good tutoring.

The acceleration is not good. I hemmed and hawed about buying it, I only did so because it's a cherry with low mileage. I think I'll land on my feet. If it had been sub 300, would have been forehead smack action, so I'm pleased that it's at least what it is.

It was a cold test, so what, would warm be maybe 20 psi higher?

I'll check the throttle linkage and alda.

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Te futueo et caballum tuum

1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K