I have tried craigslist. Now that you brought it up it is worth mentioning for anyone interested, that on Craigslist there are way more sellers than buyers, which make it a great place to get some super deals. For me, I have sold things on ebay that sat for months on Craigslist. All and all,in my experience, not a good place to try to sell something.

That's strange. I sell stuff there all the time.

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1979 240D- 316K miles - VGT Turbo, Intercooler, Stick Shift, Many Other Mods - Daily Driver

1982 300SD - 232K miles - Wife's Daily Driver

1986 560SL - Wife's red speed machine

It's your car, but I'm not even close to thinking you have a significant engine issue yet. It would require significant abuse to hurt that engine in 150K miles. Someone needs to systematically go through it, starting with the simplest stuff first. Are the valves adjusted correctly, is the IP timing correct, what is the timing chain stretch, are you SURE you don't have any air leaks in the fuel system (all the way back to the tank), etc. Once the engine is sorted out, the rest of the car should be evaluated to determine what you really have. From what you've described I have no idea if this is a $500 car or a $5000 car.

First thing I would do is pull the cyl head and inspect the bores. Could just need rings. At just 148k miles pistons and wristpins gotta be fine. Crankshaft bearings and seals, no problemo. Nevermind messin with valves and cylinder head neither. Timing chain caint be stretched out for another 60k miles. Condition of bores is the only question, depending how long its been driven with frozen rings, cracked rings on #2? Classic problem for old cars that spent too much time off the road. Condensing moisture and rusting away inside undriven, its always the rings that go to hell.

Heck, backyard/project mechanic on shoestring budget lookin to squeeze another cheap 100k miles outa the classic 115 would probly just pull the engine and toss in a fresh set of rings, lightly scrubbing the bores at bit only if they looked horrible. Add $600 for rebuilt bosch IP and the entire project done yerself could be roughly $1000 from nuts to soup.

(edit: Yeah the car sounds like a project, but you'll never see a simpler vehicle with an easier engine to pull than what you've got with the 115 240D.

I've had my car for 3 years. It has an oil bath for certain, it's in the manual The oil you are seeing is due to blowby causing oil to come out of the crankcase and it gets sucked back into the intake there is some residual oil that dribbles down the intake tube back to the oil batch but not enough to fill it. I fabricated a catch can to capture the oil that comes out of the breather since I have had that problem for years.

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1974 240D 3.0L 4(M) - 250K -OM617.910 + 300D FW + Rajay turbo power!
1977 6.9 3(A) - 84k

I owned the car for two weeks before it died so I don't know how badly abused it was before that and being that it was my first diesel I didn't look it over enough (wouldn't have known what to look for at that point).

I think the key to figuring it out is to look at the long winded post above. "After it stopped running for several weeks I was finally able to get it running after messing around with lots of things. Once I finally got it started again, it restarted fairly easy several times over the next several weeks, but only when cold".

Unless there are multiple marginal factors, i.e., stretched chain, IP timing slightly off, compression marginal, that would tend to rule out the IP timing, the valve adjustment, or the timing chain. Do you agree? It is important to mention that when it starts, it starts fairly easily.

I have the clear fuel filter (two inches from the IP) tilted downwards so that the air in the filter is at the intake end of the filter and the output end is always covered with fuel, that way I know ,with enough bleeding and cranking the air MUST be bled out. When I crack the fittings at the injectors fuel pumps out continuously, but logic would tell you that if the IP needs to produce 20 PSI to make fuel ooze out of the fittings, but 300 PSI to make a injectors pop, seeing the flow of fuel proves nothing. That is why I wish there was a way to test the pump pressure. Perhaps I will unscrew the injectors from the head and assemble the to their lines, crank the engine, and check for stray. Hey that's the ticket: I guess it you talk about it long enough an idea will pop up.

As for value, I have "in progress" photos of a shop welding in new inner fender, so someone put some cash into this car. That being said, although the interior is nearly showroom, there is some rust through on the floors (at least drivers side) and rear quarters where some older body repairs are failing. I used to earn a living doing body work and I can say the body could be restored: On a scale from 1 to 10,ten being the worst, I would say rust damage is about a 3.

Based on what I have seen selling on ebay, I would say that if this car had 148k without abuse, in the condition many people here have said a 148k engine should be in, I would say the car MIGHT be worth $2000. If running consistently, with the engine in it actual condition, I think it may be worth the $1200 I paid. This is a auto trans car, I have not seen a 240D of this vintage with an auto trans and similar mileage going for anything near $5000 even with a great body.

What I discovered from this post is that the people who restore them love them, because there is no financial incentive to do so, and with a 1976 240D auto, there probably never will be. They seem far to common in numbers and design to ever be a collectible. I can say I never did love them and certainly don't now. My goal was only to get a reliable diesel car. Even if I did love the car, I cannot disconnect the restore cost from the market value of the car because there have been too many times where I have had to sell a car I didn't want to: I need to know that if I need to sell it, it will have a value near my investment. Because I do not buy new cars and have paid $1500 combined purchase price for all the cars i mention below, and have spent less that $3000 to maintain those cars in 4 years, owning cars is a very cheap proposition for me compared to most people.

I don't know about anyone elses 240D, but I found out after the PO sent me the meticulous maintenance records, that this car was a POS out of the box (which is probably why he didn't show me all the receipt before I purchased it). Records show that this car was in the shop over and over for repairs starting at 30K. The file folder is an inch thick. The daily drivers I really put the miles on (I drive about 36,000 miles a year) are a 1989 Dodge Van with 318, a 95 Buick with 2.8, and a Ford Ranger with 4 cyl. These cars were bought used and I have put about 150,000 miles on them combined. Combined I have put in no where near the repairs that were done to this MB. My repair costs on the three cars I mentioned were no more than $3000 over about 4 years. I haven't added them up but the receipts for this MB easily exceed $10,000 which does not include the inner fender replacements, nor did the records show any engine or trans replacements. If this is common for a 76 240D, this is another reason I don't think it will ever be a collector car. I don't expect this car to increase in value, I expected to drive it like the other cars until it died at 300K and put in a several moderate repairs in the process.

My 240D has a beautifully smooth ride even for a newer car, let alone a 30 year old one, but is it worth the maintenance costs the previous owner's paid. IMO, no way in hell. Not to mention, it is a classy car, but I know from the nature of repairs done by the POs, that this car likely left them on the side of the road far more often than the average car would in its lifetime: Nothing classy about being broke down on he side of the road.

Well, I guess it could be a matter of location: I am in Detroit which is in a depression (not recession!), which would explain why there are few buyers here.

I ran the car low on oil once and thought that is what killed it, but after seeing of amount of oil (tons) in the air cleaner, I know this thing had several blowby the day I bought it.

What I'm still hearing is that you don't have a clue why it's not running and you didn't understand what you were getting into when you bought it. I'm sure this car has a lot more than $10K into it over the last 30 years, probably more than twice that amount, judging buy my stack of receipts. If that amount was a surprise to you, you really do not want to own this car. To give you another data point, I just payed over $1400 to have a minor AC leak fixed on my 83 240D (including a $500 hose that's only available from the dealer). Parts for a W115 are going to be harder to find and more expensive.

The good news is you are only into it for $1200, you just need to figure out how to get out without losing your shirt on the deal. The best/easiest answer is to get it running and sell it locally (or on ebay), if you are lucky you will break even. Honestly, I would be much more concerned with the rust than whatever glitch is keeping it from starting at the moment. Most of us would not touch a rusty car for any price.

If it starts OK cold, I do not believe you have a significant compression problem (pistons, rings, sleeves), these engines are pretty difficult to start cold when they are low on compression; something else is going on. Did you say that you adjusted the valves yet (if you did, I missed it)? Tight valves would tend to cause more of a compression loss hot than cold. These engines have a 15,000 mile valve adjustment interval and they will get tight if not adjusted. That would be my next task.

Personally, I have a hard time believing these things die. I have well over 300k on my daily and would head cross country tomorrow without a second thought. There is an old man here in Tarpon Springs that is a MB mechanic. born in 1939, he escaped from communist Germany at the age of 15, crossed the border to free Germany and restarted his life. Going to school for MB. At 21 he came to NY and worked for MB/RR of Long Island. In the 70's he came to FL and started a MB shop in Tarpon Springs. His son still runs it. I just sold my w126 to him for parts and I asked him later if he had started it yet, he may have a good motor. His reply.......I have never needed to replace one yet. Yep, these old diesels were made for a lifetime

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81 Mercedes 300SD 289k.......SOLD
82 Mercedes 300CD 252k......slow ride

82 mercedes 300 SD...mi Unknown
83 Mercedes 300D ????ksniff..gone too
84 Mercedes 300D 148k........SOLD
85 Mercedes 300TD 386k and holding some one elses project

I have a receipt saying the valves were adjusted shortly before buying it.

The other point is that it is no longer starting cold. Whatever the problem is, it is something that causes an intermittent problem. Starting cold leads me to believe it is not compression, plus the only time I have ever seen bad compression causing an intermittent no start problem was in a pontiac v8, where flooding would cause the cylinder wall to be washed of oil dropping compression below the threshhold: I don't know if that is what is happening here but I think it is possible. I am leaning toward a lack of fuel getting to the engine, but if the clear filter is always full, even when I am cranking the engine and the fuel is seeping out of the loosened injector fittings at a pretty good clip, it can't be a problem with an air leak between the filter and the tank. That leaves the IP sucking air through it's own structure, or it means the IP is not pumping the fuel at sufficient pressure to make the injectors pop. The IP could work intermittent if its oil supply is compromised, I would think.

I am leaning toward the IP because it is the only component, besides glow plugs, that I can see causing an intermittent problem. I believe that I also have a separate problem with the hot starting and it is caused by the starter getting hot, because it is cranking pretty slow when hot. The slow cranking is not the battery because the same battery cranks the engine fine after the car cools. I have also had the same symptom with another battery. Also temp gauge seems fine.

I know where to get some spare injector lines. I am going to buy them, connect the injectors, crank the engine. If I don't get them to pop I will know I have an IP issue and will buy the one offered by someone here and hope it is good. He wants $100 bucks and I was going to buy a new primer pump anyways. I feel better about spending the money that way than giving it to a mechanic so he can shrug his shoulders at me.

BTW, Thanks for all your input on this.

I have never encountered more flakes anywhere, except maybe in a box of corn flakes, then on CL. I have tried to sell a set of wheels there for over a year. I have had countless responses yet no one ever came as promised.
OTH, I have found fantastic deals over and over, including this Sony 2.8 Ghz P4 laptop I use daily while here on this forum, for only $350.

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DJ


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