87 300D Turbo purchased from CL - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

1987-300TD · #1 10-05-2014, 01:47 AM

Hello Everyone! I have updated my sig to include the newest member of our family, a 1987 300D Turbo Sedan.

I found her for sale in CA for $799 one night whilst trolling CL. I am going to be recovering from the drive there and back in one night for the next week!

The listing explained that the sunroof does not work; A/C does not work; turbo is shot but has been serving well as a local driver. I am both excited and fearful.

Excited because I can see the potential in this gal! Her body is in good shape. A new paint job would be great but that is not going to happen for quite some time.

Fearful because she is a bear to start and does not like getting into gear very much. There is some light gray smoke at startup or high RPM. Opening the hood shows soot near the turbo. Exhaust is coming from the pipes after the turbo.

I believe she has a #14 head but shows no signs of oil in the antifreeze. The primary fuel filter (the clear one) appears to be old but clean. I am intending to start by replacing the primary and secondary fuel filters just to be safe.

The previous owner believes that I am owner #5. I will try to post pictures of our new family member late Sunday afternoon.

Any thoughts or advise are welcome! I have learned a great deal from these forums. They are an invaluable resource!!! :-)

Otherwise, I am planning to start a list of priorities to get this gal running properly again! Do Euro headlights count as a priority? ;-)

Have a Great Sunday!

glenn

Wodnek · #2 10-05-2014, 10:30 AM

Some sort of lighting upgrade is a must on these!
on my Sedan, I have the Hellas, with vac adjust.
On my wagon, I just paid 200 for the Depos.

Both are good and cant tell them apart.
both of mine have the 14 head.

BenzEnthusiast · #3 10-05-2014, 05:23 PM

Is the previous owner assuming the turbo is "shot" because the car is slow or is the turbo leaking oil into the intake or exhaust?

If it is slow it just may be a plugged or leaking vacuum line going to the ALDA, however, if the turbo is leaking a lot of oil into the intake it is probably time to rebuild and reseal it.

capflya · #4 10-06-2014, 12:49 AM

On these cars the slowness could also just be a plugged cat converter (DOC actually since it's a diesel but at any rate...)

Mine was slow when I first got it, gutted the exhaust and it's a whole new car. If this one is slow I would almost bet it's plugged exhaust. Do your self a favor and gut it ASAP, there's a bunch of threads about this issue on the 87's.

BenzEnthusiast · #5 10-06-2014, 06:47 AM

+1 on the exhaust getting plugged. Had that problem on my 300SDL.

winmutt · #6 10-06-2014, 07:07 AM

I believe that is a ~4hr drive on a car of unknown suitability. Make sure you have all the necessary tools, spare filters and fuel return lines.

scottmcphee · #7 10-06-2014, 12:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1987-300TD

Fearful because she is a bear to start and does not like getting into gear very much. There is some light gray smoke at startup or high RPM. Opening the hood shows soot near the turbo. Exhaust is coming from the pipes after the turbo.
glenn

Can do all these in 2 hours, to see if you want the car / help get you home better.

Check tranny fluid level.

Hard start:

Plugs not all working, not all glowing? Test continuity at the glow plug relay harness, pull the GP harness from the relay... each GP line should give you about an 1 ohm to ground. Open is shot. High resistance is shot. If you find 2 or 3 poor, could explain the hard starts. Does the relay click with key on?

Fuel filters... change em. Main and the little one. Do one at a time, start between each. pre-Fill the main filter with diesel. Only change main when the car is warm after a run, it will take a lot of cranking to get air out. Have a battery charger booster ready. Crank only for 30 seconds maximum, let rest several minutes (10) between cranks until started.

Grey smoke:

Timing may be off (worn timing chain) you can compensate for this a little by adjusting timing on the IP. You can do this quite easily before your drive home. Three bolts at the front of IP and one at the back, slack them all off, then adjust the timing nut which twists the IP. I suggest advancing timing, tipping the top of the IP toward the valve cover. This can cause springing a leak in the O-ring interface between IP and block.. But this is more prone to happen if you don't loosen the nut at the rear of the IP before twisting it. Ask me how I know.

You might also be getting a lot of exhaust into the intake via EGR valve, especially if the "cat" is plugged. Block that off... unbolt the EGR slip in a shim of any thin metal with two holes made for the bolts to go back through.. and bolt the EGR back on.

Give the cat relief by taking out the bolt you see on the exhaust manifold, seemingly doing nothing, not holding anything on, near front of car. That will give relief to exhaust pressure and help prove out the plugging theory. It will putt putt loudly.. but again.. may give power you need to get home.

Also check the blowby. Take the oil filler cap half off, leaving it sit there over the hole but unscrewed... if it flies off and lots of wind is coming out of there... skip the car and take another.

Turbo? Pull the wastegate hose off at one end, just let it dangle... the wastegate spring might be soft and this test will "cure" that issue. You might find boost restored. If so, put a cheap $20 manual boost controller on the wastegate hose line. And dial in 1 bar or about 14psi max, use a boost gauge to set.

If you need a turbo, I can sell you the whole unit complete. It's in the classifieds posts. With pix. Whole unit with exhaust parts attached. Came off a 300D that was boosting fine.

winmutt · #8 10-06-2014, 01:26 PM

I would change as little as possible until the car is in your own garage. Breaking brittle object around the areas you are working on is a common issue until you've broken and replaced them all. Something like the master brake line would ruin a trip back.

1987-300TD · #9 10-07-2014, 12:44 AM

You are All Awesome! Thanks for the input.

My apologies for not being more clear, I purchased the car over the weekend. Towed it from Oxnard to Vegas. Left Friday 6PM returned Saturday 8:45AM. I am still trying to recover...

I have not gotten around to any of your suggestions yet. Probably will not have the opportunity before the weekend. (Plus, my wife's new rear shocks just came in for the Honda Odyssey.)

The only minor update I have is that the locks all seem to work with the car turned off.

Pictures are high on my list as is a degreasing of the engine. Then the fun begins! :-)

I will report back more as time permits.

glenn

Gregory · #10 10-07-2014, 12:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by scottmcphee

Turbo? Pull the wastegate hose off at one end, just let it dangle... the wastegate spring might be soft and this test will "cure" that issue. You might find boost restored. If so, put a cheap $20 manual boost controller on the wastegate hose line. And dial in 1 bar or about 14psi max, use a boost gauge to set.

I just got back from a test drive to try this test.

Before, it was sluggish, ran too many RPMs for the speed, and just didn't seem right. I listened carefully and couldn't hear the turbo whine when it should have been there.

What a difference! With the wastegate hose disco'd the power kicks in at about 2300 rpm, I can hear the turbo whine and the car kicks ass now.

Now, on to see about getting the manual boost controller.

THANK YOU!

scottmcphee · #11 10-08-2014, 02:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gregory

I just got back from a test drive to try this test.

Before, it was sluggish, ran too many RPMs for the speed, and just didn't seem right. I listened carefully and couldn't hear the turbo whine when it should have been there.

What a difference! With the wastegate hose disco'd the power kicks in at about 2300 rpm, I can hear the turbo whine and the car kicks ass now.

Now, on to see about getting the manual boost controller.

THANK YOU!

You're welcome.

Careful driving w/o a wastegate. Don't put too much load on the car.
Get a boost gauge to see what you're pushing, as you dial in the manual boost controller. You actually have to drive the car to set the controller and get the right boost response. You won't generate boost just by revving the car in the driveway. I put a temporary boost gauge on my dash with hose out the window to under hood intake manifold when doing this procedure. Later, I mounted a digital boost gauge in car properly. You don't need to set anything more than about (12psi) maximum boost for this car with stock IP elements. It's just a waste of heating the intake air for no power return beyond that 12 or so. I set mine to 1 bar (14.psi).

To be sure you're getting the most power from the IP, you might want to pop the ALDA off the top. Completely unscrew it from the mount and just let it rattle there, or completely remove it. Now, pressing the pedal might give you puffs of black smoke out the back. But when the turbo spools up >2300 there will be no more black as enough air is mixed to burn it completely. Then, you know you're getting max power out of the car! There is no more mechanical adjustments to deliver more fuel if you're getting black smoke... that's more fuel that the car can burn. However, you could put new injector nozzles in, I put Monarks in and set pop pressure to 2000 psi and these are doing great. Make sure you have new clean fuel filters... Then play a little with the timing IP adjustment I mentioned. Go by the seat of your pants, dial the IP timing to a point that you like (makes you grin the most) just by trial and error with several short runs. You'll know when you've over advanced, it will start dropping off in power.

Careful, don't burn the back tires off all in one day. :-)

Gregory · #12 10-12-2014, 03:31 PM

I got a boost gauge from Harbor Freight and set it up temp. With the engine set up as usual, the max boost was 8 psi at 4000 rpm, pushing it.

With the homemade manual boost controller installed and adjusted, its now maxing out at 13-13.5 psi boost at 4000 rpm, pushing it.

Is that too much boost?

I didn't mess with the ALDA yet, one step at a time.

EDIT: I turned the alda screw out as far as it would go today, it only went another 1/3rd turn before it stopped. No black smoke, maybe made a slight increase in power. I guess I'll see about putting a shim under the alda and see what that does.

1987-300TD · #13 10-15-2014, 02:37 AM

So I started the sedan over the weekend after changing the shocks in my Wife's Honda. After letting it warm up, I still had some white smoke coming out the tailpipe. Also 1st gear was not working quite properly. I needed to start in 3 or 2 to get her rolling. Then I could shift.

My plan at this point is to pull the catalytic converter. Once I have it removed, I will see if she runs better. There presently is a lot of exhaust under the hood! She idle's weakly but seems to rev nicely.

My Wife loved the rear head rest button. She wanted to know if there was a way to make the head rests snap forward and whack the kids in the head if they are misbehaving. I told her I would ask the question. ;-)

Thank you all for the sage wisdom. I am still working on pictures. It gets dark too early...

glenn

capflya · #14 10-16-2014, 10:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1987-300TD

My Wife loved the rear head rest button. She wanted to know if there was a way to make the head rests snap forward and whack the kids in the head if they are misbehaving. I told her I would ask the question. ;-)

glenn

Not that I know of, but thats a great idea! Get an SLS pump and a couple small hydraulic rams and you might have something there..