ok, so i havn't had a chance to do anything with the car yet, but I thought I would post this question to see what you guys think.

Just bought a 1980 300sd, with the 5cy turbo in it. When I bought it the guy told me it didnt run, when I asked him what happened he said he was just driving along when it started to run rough, almost like it was missing on a cylinder, a couple of minutes later he said he noticed that there was some smoke out the tail pipe ( i dont know what color it was) then the car stoped running. He had it towed to the garage where they took the injector lines off and tested the pump. He said that the garage told him that there was no preasure off the last 2 injector outputs on the pump. (the weird thing is they were trying really hard to buy the car from him after this and they became angry when he told them it wasnt for sale) He towed it home and it has been sitting ever since (last registered in 2001). When I finally towed it home a couple of days ago, i threw a battery in it and turned the key, the battery i was using was pretty dead but had enough power to turn the glowlight on and all the other lights, but not enough to turn over the engine, now when i did this i noticed that the fuel guage went over to full, so now im thinking that he may have put gas in instead of diesel.

My question is, what do you guys think, I havnt smelt the fuel yet, but i will when i get home tomorrow, but other than that what do you guys think? i'm open to discussion, and would love to have a couple of different things i could try.

the motor has 144,000 miles on it, with an unknown service history. I hope it's nothing to big?

Thanks in advance.

It's possible to have merely a clogged fuel filter. First thing I would do is a purge, replace both filters. If it runs fine during purge, you're removing the tank as a fuel source so as to isolate the problem. Sure is low mileage, certainly check fuel. If the folks wanted to buy, you would think they would put correct fuel in, as would the PO. Problem does sound fuel related. Depending on your mechanical-ness, you can check behind, or have a different shop look at it.

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83 SD

84 CD

The problem is that i live in a small town in northwestern ontario, canada, and don't really have a shop that looks at mb's. Most of the people I talk to don't even know what a perge is, so they dont know what to order me. What can i use for that purge? any diesel fuel conditioner/cleaner just run full strength? Also, where are the fuel filters? I kbow where the spin on type one is, but the other? How can you tell if you have proper presure coming out of each line of the pump, without a guage? I have some mechanical background, but am limited with the proper tools available to me.

thanks for the help so far, these forums work great!!

Dieselgiant.com will sell you some Diesel Purge & you can order in-line (prefilters) and spin on main filters. He has various fuel "kits" that are all inclusive. Check it out. Also check out his MB maintence tips. He has a few pictorials & videos you can watch online. Good luck and I hope it was only a clogged fuel filter. Those things can mess ya up.

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1980 300SD (Mr. Sparkles), 1976 450SEL, 1982 300D turbo, 1989 VW Cabriolet morphing into a td cabriolet , 1997 TDI Passat, 1996 piece of Jeep,1993 F150, 1990 F250 7.3L...i think that's it, for now.

A number of mail order houses can help you. DG as mentioned. http://*************** http://**************.com http://*********************** or try at above "buy parts". If you would like to trouble shoot soon, you can use injector cleaner if available, straight diesel, or kerosene, to see if you can start. The primary filter is simply a clear plastic affair just before the primer pump. Usually, if you open the line to each injector and crank engine, you will see fuel weeping out, you should be able run. I can't help with pressures. I see it has been sitting for some time after the initial problem. Fuel will harbor slimmey stuff.

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83 SD

84 CD