Well, i'm steadily making progress with the repairs on my new 85 190e 2.3. I replaced the drivers side motor mount and cured a lot of the clunk going into reverse but it still engages pretty harshly. Found out my valve noise was coming from a flattened cam lobe on #3 intake, luckily I was able to pick up a new cam on ebay real cheap so I'll stick that in when it gets here. Belt tensioner shock is blown but I got one of those coming off ebay too. Thermostat cover is cracked and leaking, still gotta find one.
But now that I can drive it around a little I see that it puts out a LOT of smoke when you gas it, it even smokes faintly at idle. Starts great hot or cold (no pedal cold, a little pedal hot), idles steady at 750 warm, doesn't overheat, runs strong but smokes.
Compression was 150# across the board warm and a cylinder leak down test showed 20% +/- 2% with #3 leaking the most at 22%. I've seen motors with higher #s than this that didn't smoke. The car shows 187k. The tailpipe is sooty not oily which to me indicates excess fuel but it just runs so damn good I can't believe a mixture rich enough to smoke wouldn't hurt performance or driveability.
Any ideas out there ?
Thanks