1984 300SD Engine Trouble

[dwferg]

Ok, I went the cheaper route and had my leaking oil cooler lines refitted at a hydrolic hose shop, both done for $58.00 took me 8 plus hours to get them out and in but hey they are done. Well I didn't catch the fact that the new hoses rubbed up against the fan belt and yes all of my work was needing to be done again since after driving my now oil leak free car for 15 minutes the oil pressure was gone along with 6-7 quarts of Fresh Chevron Delo, so I had a real mechanic do the lower oil cooler line that the fan belt sawed threw. Now I go to pic up the car and it has a loud knocking noise and the mechanics think that it is a valve or a bearing sticking or going bad? Loud knocking that accilerates with the engine acceleration. They say it was because of the 2-3 minutes the car was operating with the leaking spewing oil everywhere oil coolant line. The knock seems to be coming from the #4 piston top end, also noted is that I had the glow plugs changed out and the #4 glow plug would not come out and actually the out half broke leaving the inside stuck. I am not sure if a piece of it is causing the knocking noise or if they are seperate items all together. HELP!

[leathermang]

How long did your car run with the reduced oil pressure ?
Were you driving it... or sitting in your driveway checking for leaks ?
How did you figure out you had a problem? Oil spewing, saw the guage not going up, going down.. that sort of narrative of what happened.
How did you get the car to your mechanics shop ?
If you had normal rpms of driving... and you did not notice it quickly... like within seconds.... or your oil guage was not responding quickly...
then you very well may have a problem with the bearing on the rod at the crank throw...or the other end of the rod at the piston pin....
Structural problems like this are hard to diagnose by sound... as it travels through solids and liquids ( some cps ) better than air....

[engatwork]

driving my now oil leak free car for 15 minutes the oil pressure was gone along with 6-7 quarts of Fresh Chevron Delo

I'd start looking for another engine or plan on rebuilding the one you got. If the rebuild is done right you will come out cheaper finding a good used one to install.

[dwferg]

I was driving and turned a corner into my court and thought my power steering went out because it was slipping due to the amount of oil on the belts. I had the car towed to the mechanics. Engine RPMs at that point were in the 1000 to 2000s but enough oil would of had to spew out due to the fan belt cutting the oil coolant line to make it slip.
I ran a search on rebuilt motors from MB and it looks like someone got a quote for 4200 out of the box rebuild from MB, I am also looking for a I think 81 through 84 300sd 5 cylinder salvage with low miles to swap the motors, I have heard you can pick up the whole car for 2-5 hundred but if you try to just buy the motor from a pick and pull/salvage yard it is anywhere from 1800-2500 with unknown miles? I am open for any suggestions. One idea I had was to take it to a MB mechanic and see if they know what is going on, from my limited knowledge maybe it just needs a valve adjustment and I am out the door for 2-500 hundred???

[leathermang]

" thought my power steering went out because it was slipping due to the amount of oil on the belts."

What do you mean by that statement? That you later found out that you had no power stearing boost due to the fact that the engine had quit running ?

Are you saying that when you felt no power for your stearing boost you then looked at the oil pressure guage and it was too low ?

Did your engine quit or did you turn it off with your key ?

The second half of you last post is pretty much on the money...
If you do the work yourself... and frankly it does not sound like you have the mechanical knowledge or tools to do that.... you should be able to rebuild it if only the bearings were toasted... for about $1500...

But finding a good running matching car and buying the whole thing leaves you will lots of good spare parts... and IS usually the cheapest way out...

A good normal mechanic can change out the engines intact... while it takes a really good mechanic or a dedicated Benz freak to do it correctly themselves....

Don't waste your money on the valve setting.... you have bigger problems....

[kerry]

Don't know your location but I was at the Pull and Save in Denver a couple of weeks ago. There was a 126 in the yard because of a collison. It had the 617 engine. I have no idea what condition it is in, but I think the price for an engine there is around $100.