Please sell me your catalyst!

Mine rusted out (124.131), I decided to kludge together an aftermarket catalyst rather than pay $1600 or more for a star-marked part from the dealer. My entire exhaust system had holes, so now I've got all aftermarket parts in there, and they do a terrible job of keeping the engine noise down. The car really sounds like it has an exhaust leak, but neither I nor my Indy could find one, so I blame the non-factory exhaust system.

While trying to decide on a solution, I drove the car for several months with no cat. I could not detect any increase in power or MPG. MB put some work into designing these, keep the cat and be happy.

__________________
Respectfully,
/s/
M. Dillon
'87 124.193 (300TD) "White Whale", ~392k miles, 3.5l IP fitted
'95 124.131 (E300) "Sapphire", 380k miles
'73 Balboa 20 "Sanctification"
Charleston SC

Interesting. I've read people who've dumped the ox-cats on these exact cars have had great luck doing so, both from power and MPG, while adding very little exhaust noise over the stock configuration. I may give it a try this summer, but I do plan on keeping my stocker in case I have to re-install it. My car was a biodiesel victim before I got it, of course since I've had it it's been nothing but pump diesel with regular doses of Diesel Kleen sprinkled in for good measure.

I've read here-and-there that "home brewed" biodiesel (which my car had) is a gamble and can clog up diesel cats, at least that was the case with the 7.3 Powerstroke boards I used to frequent, so I applied the same logic to the MBZ diesel cats (although I do suspect they are slightly better engineered). I did have good luck ditching the cat on my 7.3; ZERO increase in emissions with the annual snap tests and it ran lower EGT's towing and definitely picked up some HP and MPG's.

Only one way to find out.

I've worked on a few Mercedes diesels over the past few years. I've seen a lot of nasty, oily, cruddy messes. I've owned 5 buses. Two MCI's and three Silver Eagles. All 5 had Detroit 6v92 Turbo engines. I've been covered in oil and crud from them BUT I have NEVER seen anything as messy as this engine with oil mixed into the coolant. It's like jelly. I drained the coolant tonight and it just "globbed" out. This is gonna be fun trying to keep my garage floor clean. It'll take forever to flush the system free of the oil. Here we go!

Thats a high nickle block, why would it need replacement? A slghtly warped head can be milled flat no issue, but you will undoubtedly need a valve job, and maybe even some new valves.

Gasket set, machine work and a few valves will easily run you $1000. btdt.

BTW, shutting down the EGR defintely keeps the intake tract cleaner, yet increases NoX emissions.

And lastly, I almost kept a totaled '96 for the well running 606.910 engine, but realized they're a dime a dozen on Ebay ( $500 all day long). So, a used engine is an alternative.

Thought I'd post a few pics.

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It was a 50 mile trip from the seller's residence back to my house. I didn't push the engine. Played it safe. I think I may have hit 60mph twice. Anyway, the car never overheated for the duration of the trip. I didn't have the radiator cap locked so the system didnt pressurize. It did get up to 100*C when I was about 5 miles from home but I was in stop and go traffic but it went right back down to 85*C once I was moving along. I could feel it stumble when I would stop at a traffic light. The stumble wasn't as bad when I'd accelerate but it was there. It drives very well so I think I'll take my time and get her up to par. I hope I won't have to find a head. I think I'll find an entire engine if I have to go too deep into it. I'm okay with the $750 I paid for it.

You can see from the pics that there is no doubt there's black oil in the coolant.

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Because of the potential damage done by failed rings? Failed bearings? Might not be any issues, but....

Bingo, I'd try to find a decent engine in a rusted or totaled body and swap that in, save a LOT of time and effort IF you can find a good donor.

I've R/R'd the head twice on my OM603 in my wagon, takes way too much of my time and if I could source a donor when the risk of deeper damage or wear is an issue, I'd try that route. Of course, that's easy to say when I've never done an engine swap, so take all this with a nice big grain of salt.

__________________
Respectfully,
/s/
M. Dillon
'87 124.193 (300TD) "White Whale", ~392k miles, 3.5l IP fitted
'95 124.131 (E300) "Sapphire", 380k miles
'73 Balboa 20 "Sanctification"
Charleston SC

I would have bought it in a heartbeat for $750 as well. Nice steal

__________________
2004 F150 4.6L -My Daily
2007 Volvo XC70 -Wife's Daily
1998 Ford F150 -Rear ended
1989 J-spec 420SEL -passed onto its new keeper
1982 BMW 733i -fixed and traded for the 420SEL
2003 Volvo V70 5 Speed -scrapped
1997 E290 Turbo Diesel Wagon -traded for above
1992 BMW 525i -traded in
1990 Silver 300TE -hated the M103
1985 Grey 380SE Diesel Conversion, 2.47 rear end, ABS -Sold, really should have kept this one
1979 Silver 300D "The Silver Slug" -Sold

Congrats . . . looks just like mine . . . white/gray.

__________________

"Buster" in the '95

Our all-Diesel family
1996 E300D (W210) . .338,000 miles Wife's car
2005 E320 CDI . . 113,000 miles My car
Santa Rosa population 176,762 (2022)
Total. . . . . . . . . . . . 627,762
"Oh lord won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz."
-- Janis Joplin, October 1, 1970

100*c in stop-and-go is normal, unless it's very cold out.

Ditto. We have triplets.

__________________
'85 300TD "Puff The Magic Wagon" - Rolling Resto
'19 Mazda CX-9 Signature - Wife's sled
'21 Morgan 3-Wheeler P101 Edition
'95 E300d - SOLD
'84 300TD "Brown Betty" - Miss this one
'81 240D "China Baby" - Farm grocery getter

Thanks for all the encouragement. My wife doesn't see it as encouragement. She says that you guys are enablers. LOL!

Oilslick, congrats on the car! What options does it have? ASD, heated seats, headlight wipers?

__________________
Respectfully,
/s/
M. Dillon
'87 124.193 (300TD) "White Whale", ~392k miles, 3.5l IP fitted
'95 124.131 (E300) "Sapphire", 380k miles
'73 Balboa 20 "Sanctification"
Charleston SC

I figured a pic of the window sticker would give all the info about options/standard equipment. Pretty basic car.

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Seems to me the cam bearing nuts need to be slacked off gradually since there is a risk of snapping the cam if you loosen some more than others. There is a tightening series in the manual, I don't remember off-hand how it goes. Let me check my manual.

Jeremy

__________________

"Buster" in the '95

Our all-Diesel family
1996 E300D (W210) . .338,000 miles Wife's car
2005 E320 CDI . . 113,000 miles My car
Santa Rosa population 176,762 (2022)
Total. . . . . . . . . . . . 627,762
"Oh lord won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz."
-- Janis Joplin, October 1, 1970