i don't have a garage and work on mine in the street in the middle of the city. Hasn't been a big problem for me.

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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

He lives and works in SF. The affordable "country" w/ acres to work is at least 60 miles away in the very hot Central Valley. I don't think anyone loves an old car enough to relocate where they can baby it. On the flipside, last time I was walking in SF, there was a beautiful 80's 300D in silver on the street, down from the Coit Tower. My son said if I painted our 84 like that, he would feel a lot better driving it. Other people probably enjoy seeing that classic M-B on the street. It makes SF better.

The noises described sound like good noises to me. High-pitch, raspy noises are usually external to the engine, like something in the belt system - bad bearing, fan clutch, something hitting the fans. Loosen the belts and spin each accessory. I found my similar noise that way. Worst might be the vaccum pump and he could easily change that on the street. Sometimes tinny noises come from under the valve cover, but usually more of a tapping sound. A bad injector can also sound like that, and that could be swapped on the street. A cracked flexplate can make a sheet-metal sound (my 02 T&C). Major damage to the block would usually be a deep, thuddy sound. When my 85 300D engine failed, it sounded like a ball bearing was bouncing around, but it was a deep sound, not raspy. It actually made this sound twice, 6 months apart. When I pulled the head, something had been bouncing around in the #1 cylinder, leaving deep marks and a few chunks were missing from the top edge of the piston.

I am sure that many, including myself are rooting for you, Brickton, and are sitting a little on the edge of the seat as we follow your updates.

In my experience, sometimes you need to do a lot more than you were ever planning with an old car (or other esoteric project), before you reach that critical mass consisting of diagnostics, repairs and analysis, from which you finally reach your goal.

The key is to be doggedly systematic in your approach - something you seem to be doing well. For all the armchair MB diagnosticians out there, this is why your posts/thread/quest is a compelling draw, i.e. you are doing it the right way. You suffer, but its cathartic for the rest of us. Sorry.

As for HF compression tester, you can have it overnighted for not too much, or second dayd (I know, not a word) for less. The 14 piece HF kit is reported to work well on 617s and costs a reasonable $30 or so. Their 20% coupons are always on line. In fact I just bought the kit with a 25% off coupon I found on the internet.

If I were in your situation I don't think I'd abandon the thought of doing a compression test. The quick and easy repair or even a moderately strenuous one, both of those thresholds have been long passed in your quest, which is now something else entirely. That being the case the situation needs to be evaluated on its own merits ...and I think you are very close to reaching that "critical mass" I mentioned earlier.

Stay with it!

That could be a bit risky with the compression tester... it took me three tries to get a good one. First one the pressure wouldn't release, second one the pressure wouldn't hold, third one has been fine. Going through that process by mail would have been a real ugly situation. Others have reported similar results.

Mail order would be fine for wrenches, drills, blades, pliers and so forth, but risky for something like this.

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Current Stable

• 380SL (diesel)
• Corvette C5
• Manx
• Baja Bug
• F350 Powerstroke
• Auburn Boattail Speedster replica

hi folks!

paul: we all deal with having only a partial set of tools and skills at home. i won't abandon the project over this, i just reached a point where paying for help was the best option.

bostonmish: i really appreciate your supportive note.

i really have to clean my garage, because i couldn't put the car indoors. i had AAA tow the car to aotohaus schmid in burlingame. i am a low priority at the shop: during december and january they have only done injector and compression tests. after the latter dude told me that cylinder 5 held < 100psi. he reported that most pressure seemed to be escaping on the exhaust side and said that as it hadn't taken the quoted 2 hours yet, he'd also check for a valve stuck open. no word on that. i have really enjoyed my time away from the project, so i have just been driving my 1991 F-150 in the meantime and building a hot tub.

1. removing, rebuilding, and reinstalling the head got quoted at $1650.

2. the shop will match the warranty on a scrap engine they source ($600-$1900). swap labor would be $1200.

what are the odds that the problem could be found and fixed in the head?

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'77 240D, 504H, OM617.952, etc.

Unless I've missed it you haven't determined what the problem is yet.

The option of replacing everything can work but it is usually wasteful and expensive.

__________________
1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

stretch, quite right. i have the impression that there are no further worthwhile diagnostics to be done with the head on. the two options are thus: remove the head, hope to find the problem, and rebuild it while it's off; or replace the engine. if the former were like 1/3 the price of the latter it would be a no-brainer, but it's actually 2/3 the price and only may solve the problem.

do you think there is something else i should ask the shop to do?

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'77 240D, 504H, OM617.952, etc.

Yeah but no but yeah but - to be fair all of your diagnostics haven't worked out for you I'll give you that - but you didn't actually do a compression test in the end did you?

When you were doing the failed compression test => did you hear the noise again?

Can you get a video of the sound it makes?

Have you made a visual inspection of the valve train?

How about some pictures?


######

Look chap the choice is yours - we're all here to help and if you provide the information we might be able to point you in the right direction but you have have to help us to help you. We might be able to save you some money - particularly looking at the prices you've quoted so far - we might not; but as you've let this go on for as long as you have with out a solution I'm guessing time isn't too much of a big deal. At the risk of being a bit rude it strikes me that the biggest problem is an emotional one - you've convinced yourself that it is all doom and gloom...

...and you could be right...

...but then again if you don't check you'll not know. And in my experience it is always better to know about something when you employ someone else to fix it for you. And who knows it might be an easy fix you can do yourself.

__________________
1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

Just read this thread and it don't smell good. It sounds like your engine was running perfectly fine then you start to hear this racket while driving. Oil is full and coolant is fine. Why are you suspecting a broken piston ring? Low compression in one cylinder or a broken piston ring would not make the noise you described.

Did you start the engine with all the belts removed and see if the noise is still there or not? You can run the engine without belts safely for less than 15 seconds. Were you there witnessing the compression test? Shops are there to make money and 75% of auto repair shops are dishonest. Can you trust your shop?

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85 300D turbo pristine w 157k when purchased 161K now
83 300 D turbo 297K runs great. SOLD!
83 240D 4 spd manual- parted out then junked

Well the poor exhaust valve in number five is probably not what made the noise you heard initially. I would have thought the garage would have started it up to identify the noise or at least to give themselves some ideal of where and what it might be.

A major problem in the block does not heal itself. The milage after the engine change may be about right for something to have loosened up as I think you changed a flexplate for a flywheel for the conversion. Even random starter gear contact noise is possible.

This is the problem here as there are many possibilities. Did you ever verify oil pressure is present for certain? Even just cranking with a gauge installed would verify it .Funola unfortunately is right. Far too many shops are either dishonest in general or unskilled or incompetent in their trade.. Or have some combination of qualities mentioned. Has anyone dissected the oil filter to see if anything is in it?