May have found the problem, lift pump leaks like a sieve

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Current: 1975 450SEL, 83 300D, 88 Yugo GVX, 90 300D OM603 swap, 91 F150 4.6 4v swap, 93 190E Sportline LE 3.0L M104 swap, 93 190E Sportline LE Megasquirt, 03 Sprinter, 06 E500 4Matic wagon.

That cannot help.

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

Some beauty shots of the valve train








Cleanest 617 valve train I've ever seen. Maybe rebuilt?

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Current: 1975 450SEL, 83 300D, 88 Yugo GVX, 90 300D OM603 swap, 91 F150 4.6 4v swap, 93 190E Sportline LE 3.0L M104 swap, 93 190E Sportline LE Megasquirt, 03 Sprinter, 06 E500 4Matic wagon.

Not really sure what the history of this motor is. My friend said he measured 7 degrees of stretch in the timing chain, so that suggests it's had some mile put on it.

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Current: 1975 450SEL, 83 300D, 88 Yugo GVX, 90 300D OM603 swap, 91 F150 4.6 4v swap, 93 190E Sportline LE 3.0L M104 swap, 93 190E Sportline LE Megasquirt, 03 Sprinter, 06 E500 4Matic wagon.

The valve trains look similarly clean in my 1984 and 1985. Probably the PO just kept up with oil changes. One (1984?) had 4 deg timing chain stretch (at camshaft), which I corrected with an offset key. The 1985 has a used engine (ca 1982) which looked rebuilt because >400 psig compression all and the camshaft had a bright green paint stripe.

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1984 & 1985 CA 300D's
1964 & 65 Mopar's - Valiant, Dart, Newport
1996 & 2002 Chrysler minivans

Bought a compression tester kit to use the injector adapter out of it for my leak down tester but turns out it had the wrong connector on it.

Anyway, my friend says he thinks he found the rough running issues. One of the injectors was loose and causing a compression leak and all 5 of the injectors tested very poorly on the pop tester, one would pop at 500PSI... Fortunately, one of my brother's parts cars had a set of injectors rebuilt by a Bosch service center so he pulled them and they tested perfectly. He's gotta get everything back together in order to test if it runs correctly.

I was able to find the correct procedure for checking the timing chain stretch and he said that wasn't how he did it so the 7-8 degrees figure might be incorrect. We found out that the engine was a factory replacement so might really not have too many miles on it anyway.

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Current: 1975 450SEL, 83 300D, 88 Yugo GVX, 90 300D OM603 swap, 91 F150 4.6 4v swap, 93 190E Sportline LE 3.0L M104 swap, 93 190E Sportline LE Megasquirt, 03 Sprinter, 06 E500 4Matic wagon.

Sounds like very good news!

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

He went and bought a better compression tester and got 395-400 PSI on all but one cylinder, which tested at 380 but said he reused the same injector heat shield each time instead of a new one so it's likely it wasn't sealing 100%. He's doing a proper chain stretch test now, but we'll probably be installing the engine soon anyway since the chain can be done while the engine is in the car almost as easily.

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Current: 1975 450SEL, 83 300D, 88 Yugo GVX, 90 300D OM603 swap, 91 F150 4.6 4v swap, 93 190E Sportline LE 3.0L M104 swap, 93 190E Sportline LE Megasquirt, 03 Sprinter, 06 E500 4Matic wagon.

that is excellent compression results.

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

He said that the chain stretch was around 11 degrees but wasn't sure because the specs listed on the DIY Wiki didn't cover the #11 cam which this engine has.

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Current: 1975 450SEL, 83 300D, 88 Yugo GVX, 90 300D OM603 swap, 91 F150 4.6 4v swap, 93 190E Sportline LE 3.0L M104 swap, 93 190E Sportline LE Megasquirt, 03 Sprinter, 06 E500 4Matic wagon.