Has anyone tried starting a diesel engine while it was out of the car? I'm looking into trying to get the engine started before I try putting it back into the car. I figure while it's out, I could easily fix what may be wrong with it. I've got ideas how to set it up and I don't think there's anything electronic other than the starter and glow plugs that need hooking up. I could run fuel straight out of a can with both hoses running into it. The radiator is also out of the car so I can hook that up too. I have a spare header pipe as well. I'll build a stand out of wood to put the engine on.
I think its worth a try.

__________________
DJ


84 300D Turbodiesel 190K with 4 speed manual sold in 03/2012

put it on some form of stand, hook up a radiator, oil cooler, fuel tank and a throttle and shut off and you should be game. I think someone here uses the bottom half of a shopping cart as an engine stand. Slightly modified as well

Unless you plan on running it for longer than a few minutes, looping the radiator hoses back to the engine will be fine. Make some jumper wires for the glowplug harness connector and connect it to the battery for 5 seconds. A 24oz coke bottle will do fine for fuel. Don't worry about the exhaust, it won't hurt it to run without it.

I figured it should be relatively easy. I'll probably hook up the radiator. Thanks for reminding me about the oil cooler. I would have had a big mess on the ground.

__________________
DJ


84 300D Turbodiesel 190K with 4 speed manual sold in 03/2012

Never done it.
Never needed to.
Never will I don't imagine.
Can't imagine any real benefit, other than to say I did it......

__________________
Jimmy L.
'05 Acura TL 6MT
2001 ML430 My Spare

Gone:
'95 E300 188K "Batmobile" Texas Unfriendly Black
'85 300TD 235K "The Wagon" Texas Friendly White
'80 240D 154K "China" Scar engine installed
'81 300TD 240K "Smash"
'80 240D 230K "The Squash"
'81 240D 293K"Scar" Rear ended harder than Elton John

Might be handy if you have an engine of unknown or questionable history and you want to make sure it's good before installing it.

Exactly the idea here. It's the engine that originally was in my car that I just got. The PO pulled it because he couldn't get it started when he got the car. It's supposed to only have 168K miles on it. I can't really imagine something drastically wrong with it but I'd like to make sure before putting it back into the car.
I've got another engine that's disassembled that has a bad cylinder and another with a hole in the block. I'm figuring I can "Frankenstein" a good engine or two out of all the parts I now have.
I liked the idea of using the lower part of a shopping cart as part of a stand.

__________________
DJ


84 300D Turbodiesel 190K with 4 speed manual sold in 03/2012

I thought of this too when I bought my engine, but never dared to do that. Though that the violent shaking of a diesel engine desperately trying to start up could overturn whatever stand it was attached to.. Ended up mounting the engine of unknown condition in my car and it started up finely.

If you do this please report on how it came out, just out of curiosity I'd like to know.

Regards

__________________
Tomas, Sweden
1966 Mercedes Benz 230S with OM617.912, automatic. Disk brakes from W108
1983 Mercedes Benz 300TD grey, OM617.912 and 5-speed manual
1983 Mercedes Benz 300TD blue 7-seater, OM617.912 and 5-speed manual

I do plan to but it's not going to happen any time soon though. I've got a long honey-do list so working on the engine is going to be a sporadic thing for the time being.
I am hoping to have the car running before summer ends.

__________________
DJ


84 300D Turbodiesel 190K with 4 speed manual sold in 03/2012

i make a cradle of 4x 4's and have started boat engines out on deck during rebilds

__________________
commercial fisherman diesel in my blood in my boats trucks and Dear old Dad has had me drivin them since i got my first license in 1968
1986 300 SDL 427654
1999 Chevy Crew Cab Dually 225423
1986 300 SDL 287000 Dad's
1987 190 Turbo 158000 Mom's (my inheritance)

Probably in reference to me? lol. I do use them for rollable stands, but would not even think of trying to run one on it, theyre barely stable as it is. (they flex a lot). I have an old 70's camaro subframe clip I was going to put in an old ford truck I had years ago, never did, sold the truck, now I plan to add casters to the rear horns so it rolls, mount a radiator to it, battery, fuel tank,
and a throttle control of sorts, making it universal, and will custom fab mounting sets to fit the various factory motor mount holes tapped into the frame as needed. First up on it will probably be the orig motor out of the 82, the PO said it ran great before the trans died, it sat 2 yrs, I did get it to run, labored and with several pumps of the hand primer and multiple glow cycles, lots of black crud in the filters so I think it might be growth related, won't know until I get it set up and start testing things. This is just for play, I am going to put a known good 617 back in it with a manual trans when the body is ready.

__________________
Chris
64 190D R.I.P.
80 240D W/617 engine -for sale
82 240D -for sale

I guess I'll stick to building something out 4X4's.

__________________
DJ


84 300D Turbodiesel 190K with 4 speed manual sold in 03/2012

I started the engine from a '80 300D, NA, after removing it from a wrecked car.......while still attached to the Auto transmission......while it was sitting on dirt/gravel (very nice of those German engineers to provide a nice flat oil pan)........put Diesel in a used Gear Oil bottle (with the squirter neck) onto the fuel inlet hose where the pre-filter goes.......connected a battery's ground to the block with a jumper cable.....and attached a screwdriver into the jaws of the positive side of the jumper cables.....hit the starter with the screwdriver......and she fired right up......spewed oil all over the place (of course) due to the oil and tranny coolers being disconnected......shut it right back down.......just wanted to know if it ran, the car had been in a front end collision with a deer and a tree......

SB

AFIK...the engine/tranny is still in the barn of the owner of that car......

__________________

Diesels:
'85 300D, "Max, Blue Benz", 155K, 27.0 MPG
'84 190D 2.2, "Eva, Brown Benz", 142K, 40.2 MPG
'77 240D (parts car)
'67 Eicher ES 202 Tractor "Otto" (2cyl, Air Cooled, 30HP)
Gassers:
'94 Ford F-150, "Henry", 170K (300 Six) 17.5 MPG
'85 190E 2.3, 148K....Parts Car
'58 Dodge W300M Powerwagon (Flat Fenders) Less than 10 MPG

I ran a compression test on the engine I was planning to start and the best I got was 200 psi. The others were 100 psi or less. The valves were tight to start with so maybe there's carbon on the valve seats. The valves still had a little play between the cam and followers. I poured a mix of fluids into the cylinders hoping to unstick any stuck rings if there are any.
Could be bad news.

__________________
DJ


84 300D Turbodiesel 190K with 4 speed manual sold in 03/2012

Liet,

I saw a MB Diesel engine started just sitting on a wooden pallet.

It just sat there and ran OK.

I wouldn't accelerate it very fast, though. It might tip over.

Unlikely carbon on valve seats. The MB Diesel wear pattern for the valves is to pound into the head and get tighter (less clearance).

U should adjust the valves before a compression test.

Ring cleaners won't work instantly. THey have to be run in a hot working engine for thousands of miles.

P E H