1983 Mercedes-Benz HELP!
 

About 2 weeks ago, I bought a 1983 Mercedes-Benz (gasoline) and it's giving me tons of problems.My first concern is power:

The car will barely reach 80km/hour.It accelerates very slowly and makes a lot of noise.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.Thank you.

Need more info, what model or engine do you have? What is the nature of the noise? Exhaust or mechanical clattering? Try to be more descriptive and hopefully we can help. If you don't think the car is in imminent danger of grenading you may consider the following.

You might start with running a couple of cans of seafoam through it to start the process of getting it up to speed. That will help condition the fuel system. Its also relatively cheap to swap out the plugs/rotor/cap and ignition wires that is a typical service that is often overlooked and can have a dramatic impact on driveability.

Did cars of that era come with cats? Possibly a clogged one...

The engine is 6 cilinders and the model is 230.The noise is just the regular engine noise but a lot louder then normal.
If by seafoam you mean that stuff that you add to the gas to clean the carb then I've used tons of it.

Please bear with me as I really know very little about cars.The spark plugs are in perfect state but what's cap/rotor?

Thank you very much for your help.

The cap is the top of the distributor identified by all six ignition wires - plus the coil wire - running to it. The rotor is just inside the cap and distributes the high voltage to the spark plugs.

Ok, I have just been told that somehow adjusting the cap would give the car power.Is there any truth to this?

Adjusting the distributor (timing adjustment), upon which the cap sits, will give or take away power. However, it's best to adjust it to specs and then search for the reason of lack of power, as the possibilities are various.

Any way to do this at home?Or do I need a mechanic?

Ok, so I did some diggin around and found out all about adjusting the distributor.Now my question is:

Do I have to adjust it to specs?Would adjusting it any other way give it more power?If so, should I make it retard it or advance it?

Thank you.

ADV or RET
 

If you advance it a couple of degrees it will give more power and use more gas,if you retard it,it will slow it down and make the motor heat up.

Ok, so I want to advance it then since the car really,really needs some power.I've seen guides and videos online on how to do it, but the never show where the actual screw is so that I can turn the distributor.A picture of such screw in a mercedes would be extremely helpful.

Thank You.

Before fiddling with too much, you need to go over it and basically make sure everything is up to snuff. Vacuum lines, plugs, wires, cap, rotor, etc....

Don't go adjusting the timing without knowing why you are doing it. Have you hooked it up to a timing light yet to see where it's set?

It's time to start a thorough diagnosis, not just turn adjustment screws. That will likely lead to more problems, because adjustment is rarely the cause of trouble like this.

If you aren't up to the challenge, then take it to the mechanic now before you make any issues more expensive or harder to trace by masking them with adjustments.....

Start with the basics.... Fresh plugs and wires, rotor, cap, etc.... Find any old vacuum hoses and fix them. Spend a weekend under the hood looking for obvious stuff. If no luck, then see a mechanic.....

You know what?**** trying to fix it.This car has driven me crazy.I'm gonna take it to a mechanic period.I'm not a mechanic, nor do I know **** about cars, so I really don't think this is gonna work out for me...

thanks anyways,

Robo

You were so close. :)