Richclan, periodically check your shut down time. I am not sure yet but if using unheated vegatable oil I partially believe the compression rings may be coking up. If oil really heated should not be a problem. I have an almost pristine example of a 1984 300d turbo car that ran unheated vegatable oil. My shut down time is about three seconds as well. I have no history at all on the car other than it ran 100% unheated vegatable oil. For how many miles is also unknown. It is crazy to blame it on the unheated vegatable oil he burnt of course. On the otherhand there is no way the car has more miles on it than indicated and they are fairly low. The interior does not even look like it even was sat in ever. I am going to try to drive those rings loose with dino and additives first. Then if that does not work someone suggested soaking down with miracle oil might dissolve the coking next. I suspect though if there is no improvement I will eventually be doing something with those rings. I also feel the oil control rings are perfect in that engine. I am not anti vegatable oil but really feel it should be heated. Otherwise a small percentage may hit the walls of the cylinders wet and land up coked in the upper ring lands. Also we have another thread started with a thirty mile per hour 240d special since this one. In addition I once drove 19 hours to pick up a museam example of a 240d.I hope the cross information helps them both out. It exhibited the same performance. Would accelerate to about 30 and drop back to 25. I suspected the fuel filter on that one. The car was really bad otherwise as well so I did not even troubleshoot it on site. Thank goodness I never paid for cars in advance of picking them up when purchased on ebay. Ebay is far riskier than it was in those days now. I never buy 123s or simular on site anymore. You can really get burnt so I stay away. Kind of too bad for those really honest vendors out there. A lot of us early ebay car buyers have dropped out. The odds are against us now. I feel particularily bad about the 1999 mercedes diesel that was sold to an american from the nearby town on ebay. It did not go cheap as had very low miles. It was well cleaned up but had been in salt water. With their electronic systems it should be one thing after another until all is replaced or the new owner sells it. You do know where it will be sold. That salt water immersion will probably not show up anywhere like carfax or on the title. Kind of temporarily borrowed this thread as the originator is getting ready for this evening I believe. He may forgive me. Just general interest stuff anyways.

Did you change fuel filters?

tks barry123400
i do plan on heating the WVO eventually. there are alot of guys going thousands of miles via blending it w/dino. i dont run it straight that would not be a good thing.
the prev. owner never did the wvo thing, he was about 75 yrs old. the car was only driven 10k in 5 years. so the rings if sticking is for another reason. blow-by is depressing to watch isnt it.
anyway im sure more news to follow for this 240 knocker next year, i hope we can help him out. happy new year to all

__________________
http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u116/OC03/240d.jpg
Current Car:
1985 300DT 55K miles

Mario, if you mean the originator of this thread he changed the primary and secondary fuel filters in his first post. I believe he also ran the car on a can eliminating the tank filter etc.
If you mean me and that ebay gem there was no point as the car was junk. He had advertised it as a museam piece. It looked good in photos.
There is yet another poster with a 240d that tops out at 35-40. That makes three that I am aware of that are currently active. The difference from the other two is he seems to be loosing his oil pressure.
Must be a 240d pandemic. .At least it is a slow moving pandemic. Things do run in groups on site sometimes. Like a group of simular models loosing their cool one week. Or forget about faults in california as all the real cracks are in aluminium heads another week. It's just a wonder the 603 has not picked up the common expression of being a crackhead. Remember you never heard that one here. It never seems to end sometimes. The upside is usually before you know it things have been resolved. Without this site it probably would land up otherwise. Great guys. Well I better stop the hijack and turn this thread back to the originator now and wait to see how he is doing. A happy and hopefully prosperous new year ahead for all forum members.

Ok I am getting ready for another day of working on the 240D. I spent all morning searching past post and my brain is about to explode! Here is what I am going to try today.

1) Blow-by test (easiest thing first)

2) Test the stretch of the timing chain

3) Drip test the IP. Can someone please post a link to this procedure! I searched forever and can't seem to find the step by step guide to doing this method. Maybe I am just blind!

Thanks and I will keep you posted.

First I want to thank everyone who helped me with this car! I have learned so much! Well today I went out to work on the car. I planned on doing the blow-by test first. So I get in the car, start it up. It starts just fine. I was letting the car warm up to temperature so I could do the blow-by test as suggested. I went back inside to grab the laptop so I could use it as reference for the timing chain stretch test, vacuum system and other stuff. I come back out and the thing sounds worse than ever!! The knock is bad so I head towards the stop lever to shut it of and SMACK, CLANK, and DEAD. That is all she wrote folks. This engine is done.

Now first of all I learned my lesson by not actually driving the car before purchase. However, that being said I probably would have still bought it even after I drove it. We wanted a project and we got one! Bad thing is the project didn't last as long as we had hoped or turned out how we wanted. I did not pay a large amount for this car so I am not out a ton of money.

The next question is should I sell the car as a whole as parts/salvage car on ebay or to a salvage yard? Or should I part out the car myself and sell the individual parts on ebay as I can take them off the car. If I do this and anyone needs a specific part I would be willing to sell it to you for a fair price.

I have been given a ball park figure for new engine+install around $2500 with maybe a little more cost for optional upgrades. I am not sure I want to drop that amount of cash in this vehicle. First, because the whole reason I got this was so I could all the work and learn so that would defeat the whole purpose. Secondly, I could take that $$$ and save a little more and get a 300 for that $$$!

Thanks again for all of your help I appreciate everything! I have attached a couple of dreadfull pictures for your viewing!

Attached Thumbnails

   

Easy to do (Mostly) .....you will need a drip tube......a cut-off section of injector line that is bent over and afixed so it is pointing toward the engine mounted on #1 delivery valve holder.....Make one or buy one...This is one of the best test....and involves some minor dissasembly...you will have to remove a couple of parts from delivery valve holder #1....
There are a couple of other variations of this test you may want to try also....

You could do a well-up test without a drip tube...not as good but close...
If you understand what the timing is about you can better know about the different tests....
Search under (IP timing)....read all of the techniques so you can get an idea of what you are looking at....what you want is for the IP plunger to be stopping the barrel fill as it begins the (push) of the fuel column.....this should happen at 24-26 degrees before top dead center of #1 cylinder....So what you see with the drip tube is the stopping of the fill flow out of the drip tube...as you are slowly rotating the engine while pumping with the hand pump....( I know it is odd to think of stopping the fuel flow for beginning of injection but that is how to time these things...The stopping of fuel filling is right before or right at the beginning of the pressurization of the sealed fuel column..)
There are others out here that like the other methods but according to my Bosch IP guy with 30 years of experience the other methods have been wrong too many times and the problem is too variable leaving the delivery valve components in for the test....I have done all the methods on my cars and the drip test is not much more trouble at all compared to the others and you (know) it is correct......but you can start with those other methods and work toward the drip method if you want to ease into this test...Again read all of the info you can get on this timing...counting the drips is not really needed with the drip test...you just want to find the fuel fill stop point...so when the flow stops that is your begining of delivery degrees read on the crankshaft pulley...You should get plenty of search returns on IP timing...If not contact a moderator for help....post back and you should have plenty of forum folks watching and helping....All of this sounds far more complicated than it really is once you do it....I agonized for days before I did it....and now it is simple.....I might be stupid but at least I am slow....!

__________________
1978 Yellow 300D (The Mustard Toad)
1980 Blue 240D (The Iron Toad)
1989 Grey Mitsu.4WD Mighty Max Pickup (Needs a Diesel transplant bad)

(Open the pod bay doors HAL)

Yellit

Thanks for the IP timing response! But unfortunately it came a little late. Read the post I made right before yours

A rod blew through the block.. Intense!

My sympathies. We now have a conclusive diagnosis.
Put a used engine in it. Replacing an engine is not that difficult even for a novice mechanic. It's one of the first substantial jobs I ever did on a car. You should be able to do it in a weekend. Pull the engine and tranny together, put the tranny on the used engine and reverse the procedure.

__________________
1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

Aint no reason to give up on the project......

Doing an engine swap on the 240D is alot easier then you think. The chassis was designed to hold an inline 6cyl so there's plenty of room. Hell look at the bell housing bolts - you can turn them leaning over the fender. Aint none of your pals ever done an engine swap before? The 240D is perfect for first-time swap project! And the same principles apply to any engine swap you do hereafter.

Basically it's just a matter of removing the hood, unbolting the manifolds, linkage, radiator and fiddly bits connecting the engine and then renting a hoist to leverage it out. Mostly common sense. And you should be able to scratch up a decent engine for about $500.

Otherwise call Vince Layton at 314-293-0681.... He is president of the St.Louis 123 Club now forming at http://www.club123d.org/ Vince will be a wealth of information. He also buys/sells 123's and can help locate an engine in the neighborhood...... tell him "DieselDog" sent you.

Dog-
I have contacted Vince. He said he has an engine right now. I didn't ask how much he wanted for the engine only. I am still not sure if I can do the swap? Still up in the air on this. If I could get on for $500 I would be tempted. The question is if I can get one. I have never pulled and engine and transmission and I think I could run into a lot a problems? Maybe not. I would definately have to get a an exact match engine if I was to do a swap. I am not confident enough to make the changes in the transmisson and such.

Well you wanted a project, you got one

As long as you make a note and take pictures of what goes where, particularly any vacuum pipes, you should be fine.

Plus there are loads of people on here who would love to read such a thread, myself included.

Not to mention you'll have the opportunity to pull the old engine to bits and see how it all goes together. Good knowledge for any future work you need to do on your 'new' engine.

There is an independent import mechanic in Columbia that fixed the a/c on my 190D. Tom's Import is on the business loop. He's open 7 days a week. Primarily VW/Audi but I'm certain he could do the engine swap if you don't want to try it. Vince would be the best but Columbia is closer.

Kudos to Diesel Dog on the diagnosis. He called it early on.


Kevin
1979 240D manual
1984 190D manual

When I was 17 I bought a 1962 MG Midget with a bad clutch and a chipped tooth in first gear. At that point in my life, the most difficult mechanical job I had ever done was replace a motor mount on a 1963 Buick Special.
I pulled the engine and tranny of the MG in one day by myself. Sent the tranny out for a rebuild, bought a new clutch and put it back together in a little over a day. Great learning experience and confidence builder. It helped me through my college years by allowing me to buy cars that needed their engines replaced. Got some great deals that way.

You are more than up to it. You don't need much more than a set of sockets and box end wrenches. Drain and remove the radiator. Disconnect the fuel line. Disconnect the glow plug wire. Disconnect the alternator wires. Disconnect the speedometer cable. Unbolt the front flex disc and rear transmission mount. Unbolt the motor mounts.(There maybe a few other steps such as removing AC compressor or wires or hoses) Pull it out.

Even if you get another car, you should pull that engine just for the experience.

__________________
1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13