240D has been smoking like a bandit since we got it. Power steering belt wore a hole through one of the oil cooler lines 2 weeks ago. Leaked oil through the temporary patch until I got a new line from Phil (thanks ). Told son to watch oil pressure and level closely for a while. Apparently it was overfilled by quite a bit as he was checking the oil after it was just shut down and it hadn't accumulated at the dipstick yet.

He called today to tell me that the engine ran away (while parked) and smoke going everywhere. The people in the paint store next to him came running out with fire extinguishers and across the street they called the fire department. It ran for about a minute before it shut down. He didn't know it could run at that high rpm. He also didn't think to press the stop lever on the IP or block the air cleaner. But I would have been suprised if he did anyway.

I got there and found the engine 4 quarts over. He also told me that the breather hose came off and oil was spraying all over. I believe that the engine may have been feeding itself from the breather hose and shut down after it came off.

I sucked out 4 quarts of oil and was able to crank the engine. After quite a bit of coaxing, it began to fire. Only one 1 cylinder and with quite a bit of smoke. It finally began to fire and soon was on all four. But I have a rod knock that comes and goes. And the smoke is embarassing.

What to do now? I towed it home. I don't have a garage yet. (I have batter boards and strings up to mark the foundation though) I am quite willing to rebuild it, in the driveway.

It's an '80 240D with manual. Mileage unknown. It shows 111k, but it must have at least 100k more than that. I have about $2000 in this car. Cost plus euro lights, bilsteins in front, clutch slave, timing chain, and starter.

It looks like I'll need at least:

Main bearings
Rings
Timing chain link
Timing chain rail & guide
Rod beaarings
Sleeves
Crank seal - rear
Crank seal - front

That's about $550 plus machining. That assumes I can use standard size bearing and not have to have the crank reground for next over.

__________________
Michael LaFleur

'05 E320 CDI - 86,000 miles
'86 300SDL - 360,000 miles
'85 300SD - 150,000 miles (sold)
'89 190D - 120,000 miles (sold)
'85 300SD - 317,000 miles (sold)
'98 ML320 - 270,000 miles (sold)
'75 300D - 170,000 miles (sold)
'83 Harley Davidson FLTC (Broken again) :-(
'61 Plymouth Valiant - 60k mikes
2004 Papillon (Oliver)
2005 Tzitzu (Griffon)
2009 Welsh Corgi (Buba)