Whats your 40 mph to 60 mph time,surprising different on my 2 cars
 

Both reports are without using the kickdown switch .
Ive owned and driven the 85 300d for the last 18 months ,its has a very poor 40 to 60 speed at 17 secs.
The 83 300cd is very good considering its a diesel at 7 sec., a lighter car but shouldnt change the overall speed improvement by much.I will say Ive cleaned the intake which made a big difference in perfomance ,I might have to consider this now on the 300d and soon.Vrooom Vrooom.

82 Benz 240D, 82 benz 300TD, NA. 40-60 is definitely same day, for both of them.

Turbo or NA? Don't know what my 40-60 time is but my 0-60 time last time I checked was around 14 seconds in my 300D turbocharged OM603. Are the OM617s really that slow?

Damn that is a little slow for an om603. Mine will run 11 seconds with a tired trans.

I always wondered if it was my elevation, about 2,200 feet.

That's slow for a W124. My SDL does right around 12 with the A/C running.

17 seconds to go from 40-60mph is APPALLINGLY slow. I'd be willing to bet that's about what it takes a Renault Dauphine to do the same task!

It seems to be 240 slow ,have to dig into it and get to the remedy .What I like is its dependable and cheapness to maintain .The 60 to 80 seems much better ,It has a new rebuilt trans and a healthy motor ,something holding things up abit in this passing range of speed .May start with new injectors as a start.

Just checked. My 83 300CD is around 7 seconds.

Any chance you have an algae issue in the tanks

Possible ,I do know this car sat for 4 yrs.Every w123 seems to have a few slumber yrs over their history.The primary seems to do fine without needing a change at around 10k miles.Since Ive come to want it to be the intake Ill try this first ,then recheck the 40 to 60 speed time.Speed being used here lightley.

Tested my '82 CD today - leveled off at 40 in S, shifted to D and put the hammer down but it held 3rd until close to 55, without the pedal all the way down. Somewhere between 13 and 14 seconds. If 7 secs. is possible I have more tuning to do than I thought!

Will try and check my 40-60 time this weekend.....will have to wrestle the Benz away from the wife..she prefers it to the Infiniti. Normally I only get the Benz when it needs fuel or work.

Out of curiosity.....speaking of 0-60 times, do most of you go from a dead stop at idle to the floor, or do you do a "launch" by power braking first?

I tested the SDL doing the 40-60 run and found some interesting results:

Engine not up to temp A/C running: ~8.5 seconds
Engine not up to temp A/C off: ~7.5 seconds

Engine up to temp A/C running: ~7.5 seconds
Engine up to temp A/C off: ~7 seconds

Obviously this is a different engine in a different chassis, but still valid. It's interesting to note that a cool engine and the A/C both cost about a second.

Not to be outdone, I decided to nail it hard and force a downshift. It was actually SLOWER than just letting the torque do the work. A/C running, I came in ~9 seconds! Just goes to show, more noise doesn't always mean more speed.

I clearly have too much free time...

I'm not surprised you lost time with the downshift. From just the ~2,000 mi. I've driven mine it's obvious the best acceleration is up to about 3,500 RPM. It'll flat move out if I tip into it at 55 or above, but D>S and flooring it just belches a black cloud and makes some noise.

Incidentally - are we talking time from when the needle passes 40 on its way up, or from a steady, sustained 40 on up?

Are you doing this whole test in 4th gear with both cars?