Wow, what a night. Thanks to 79mercy for the great wrenching tonight on my newly acquired 1981 Non turbo China Blue 300D.

The car started out a couple months ago as a dead dog in the back of a local indies lot as the owner was told it had a bad bearing. I stopped by to pick up some parts for another one of my MB's and noticed it back there...a couple hours later, a couple phone calls with the owner, a pittance exchanged and the car was mine. A major score was that it had the light weight steel look a like alloy wheels with china blue hub caps. Basically bought the wheels and the car was free

79Mercy has a video of the car being driven with the bad bearing....wow it was obnoxious...


I had already lined up a non turbo engine for another project but decided to drop it in China Blue instead. I had a good buddy at a local shop do a low budget motor swap as my time was tight, the price was good, the temp was scorching and the logistics just worked out better for them to do the work instead of myself and 79Mercy. We were set and psyched to do the swap but looking back on it, it was the right decision....near 100 degree temps . The deal was do the swap and I'll address any issues after the swap.

I should have sprung for new motor mounts up front but didn't have the foresight to have them in time for the swap. So I found a new set sitting on a shelf in my garage from a previous project a few years ago. After the swap the car was running a bit rough. Chalk it up to a donor engine that sat for 2-4 years????? Basically unknown history but I bought from another buddy who said it ran strong when he pulled it. So, somewhat rought idle, exhaust leak at egr flex tube, shot motor mounts, pump timing needed adjustment.

All the items were addressed tonight and she drives like a totally different car. So much quieter, idle is rock solid, almost sounds and drives like a gasser.

Also added a passenger side door mirror, swapped in a good overhead interior door switched light assembly, adjusted throttle linkage. The egr exhaust leak was addresses by fabricating a intake block plate and exhaust manifold tube port cover. Also fixed a rubber mount for the air cleaner assembly and replaced a missing piece of door trim.

Next on the list is chase down why the blower motor won't kick on, fix gauge cluster rheostat, buff the paint and see why the transmission is shifting late. I can massage the pedal to get it to shift and but we think there is a vacuum issue somewhere.

79Mercy will be posting some pics later tonight . Check out the pics of the new and old motor mounts side by side. The egr valve and tube were totally blocked by carbon soot..... Das was a good night!!!!

China Blue was much improved tonight, slightly advanced timing, new Mercedes engine mounts, and repairing the exhaust leak from cracked EGR hose made for a huge improvement. Engine runs smooth and quiet.

Snapped this picture which shows my 1979 280CE, Neumanns 1980 300D and his 1981 300D



These motor mounts were years past the time they should have been replaced



The EGR inlet and flex tube were fully blocked with carbon. Neumann fabricated a block off plate for the intake and a disc for the exhaust port tonight, however i didnt get a chance to take a picture.

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1985 300TD Turbo Euro-wagon
1979 280CE 225,200 miles
1985 300D Turbo 264,000 miles
1976 240D 190,000 miles
1979 300TD 220,000

GONE but not forgotten
1976 300D 195,300 miles
1983 300D Turbo 175,000 miles

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3...e485-1-2-1.jpg

My EGR Port in the Manifold looked the same; plugged. So in a sesnse it had deleted the EGR all by itself.

Valve adjustment?

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

I'll add the valve adjustment to the list of future work.

Same year, same color as mine. I wasn't sure about the China Blue at very first, but now I am a China Blue fan.

Interesting, from the picture from the back, the DIESEL emblem on the trunk seems to have the same misalignment slant angle as mine does.

Any ideas why that would be? Seems they are pinned into holes with inserts.

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2012 B Class

1981 300D - Now with greazzer

So far so good,running nice the last couple of days. One of smoothest w123 I have driven.