my 87 seems to have died once again. Wife when out to start it and it just turns over and will not fire. Black smoke pours out of tail pipe as it cranks. Took off valve cover and managed to break the crossover tube while freeing a stripped bolt... everything looks ok as far at cam and lifters... noticed a fair amount of oil in the crossover tube, so thinking that the turbo oil seal is shot, (have been seeing blue smoke and using more oil than it should) I know the lifters need to be replaced due to them making noise and I also know that the belt tensioner etc needs to be replaced.

As to this starting issue I'm thinking the timing has jumped... chain seems tight and I don't see any damage to the chain guides but engine has felt underpowered the last few weeks.

Wife said is was making more noise than normal then stopped, she shut it off and restarted it several times yesterday and drove car home fine and partied it then this. it's too cold this morning to really play with it. I'll check the timing marks later or this weekend and see if there is and issue there.

Air filter?

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John HAUL AWAY, OR CRUSHED CARS!!! HELP ME keep the cars out of the crusher! A/C Thread
"as I ride with my a/c on... I have fond memories of sweaty oily saturdays and spewing R12 into the air. THANKS for all you do!

My drivers:
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5-5SPEED!!!

1987 300TD
1987 300TD
1994GMC 2500 6.5Turbo truck... I had to put the ladder somewhere!

Try disconnecting the exhaust pipe where it meets the turbo. You may have an obstructed exhaust.

Maybe glow plugs are out?

Black smoke indicates it's burning, but not completely. I'm guessing you have a removed or severely backed-off ALDA to push that much fuel when cranking? Could be late injection timing, but a chain loose enough to skip a tooth? Did the vacuum-pump drop a bearing?

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Alda is off. Never an issue before. Car has always started on first rotation. will check vacuum pump.

Ill also check out the exhaust.

Weird... So I went back out to look it over and car started right up as normal!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Li5WjwJrLJg&feature=youtu.be

Thats the video of it starting... made a huge mess of oil under car since I had the valve cover loose, and let the car reach operation temp so I could check out the lifters... you can hear them clicking away in video... noisy little engine.

Agree, hollow out that oxidation catalyst under there. I have fixed two 300D and one SDL that had that thing plugged up.



Motor sounds okay to me. Better than a few 603s I looked to purchase in the past.

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I'm not a doctor, but I'll have a look.

'85 300SD 245k
'87 300SDL 251k
'90 300SEL 326k

Six others from BMW, GM, and Ford.

Liberty will not descend to a people; a people must raise themselves to liberty.[/IMG]

There is no Oxidation catalyst, I replaced with some straight pipe.

Check the glo plug relay fuse? Cold might have opened the crack as the fuse metal contracted, then later when things warmed up the connection was good enough. If you don't get a decent glo these alloy head diesels can be very difficult get turning.