Do you have the updated rack damper bolt? The new ones are gold
colored and are SIGNIFICANTLY stiffer than the silver ones.
You shouldn't have to mess with idle speed.
What about the primer pump? Do you see any air bubbles in the lines?
--
John W Reames
jwrea...@comcast.net
Home: +14106646986
Mobile: +14437915905
On May 8, 2010, at 10:18, Jaime Kopchinski <jaime...@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi everyone,
Allow me to share:
So, yesterday, I got to leave work a bit early. Since the weather was
really nice, I thought I'd drive my 82 300D home instead of the usual
company test car. I'd have a bit of time to explore why the fuel
gauge is
unreliable.
A little background: I bought this car two years ago because it
would be
the "perfect" guilt free daily driver I could leave sitting at work
for
weeks at a time and not feel bad. Just a bit of rust, but a one owner
garaged car with 140k miles. Trans flared, and it needed a bit of
sorting
out. The idle was crappy and it had no power. So, it make this email
shorter, I'll summarize: I cleaned up the lines the alda, replaced
the
injectors, and installed a manual trans from a 240D (and loads of
other
little repairs). Suddenly I had a car that I've always wanted. The
engine
runs great, has loads of power, doesn't consume oil. Its like my
old 240D
on steroids.
So, fast forward to yesterday. The car has been sitting for a
while... I'd
drive it home every few weeks in nice weather, I racked up a
whopping 2500
miles in 2009. And about 400 miles this year so far. (Including a
trip to
the shore last weekend, about 150 miles). I should mention the car
sits in
a heated and air conditioned warehouse when its parked... possibly
the best
conditions you could imagine for car storage. (Thanks to the
unfortunate
closing of Becker of North America)
I throughly enjoy the drive home... the car runs excellent.
Especially
memorable was the on-ramp to the Garden State Parkway, winding out
second,
shifting into third, and drifting sideways for the last few yards as I
"blast" onto the highway at a crazy 50mph. Wow, I remember how much
fun a 4
speed W123 is!
But, that uneven messy loud idle is still there... just like it was
two
years ago.
So after the hard run home, I set into work. I had ordered up a new
seal
for the tank sender a few weeks ago to be ready. I removed the
sender, took
it apart, and found it full of goo and crud. Yuck! I cleaned it
all up, re
soldered the reserve wire, and reinstalled. All is well. But the
crud got
me thinking... if all that stuff is also in the tank, it might
explain the
crappy idle. Perhaps there is alge, plugged filters, etc. I
remembered
back about a year ago when the car stalled out on me after taking a
(another) fast on ramp with only a bit of fuel in the tank. I
decided I
needed to replace the tank screen.
So this morning, with rain in the forecast, but the sun in the sky,
I went
to work. In the basement, in my collection of parts I never used, I
found a
new tank screen and the fuel hose that attaches to it. And some
nice german
hose clamps. I ran to the home-disappointment, picked up a yellow 5
gallon
diesel can for $10. I climbed under the car, and did the dirty deed
of
disconnecting the fuel line running from the strainer and feeding it
into my
new diesel can. The 5 gallon can wasn't enough, so an empty simple
green
bottle, and my oil drain pan collected the extra two gallons. Just
enough
diesel ran down my arms and on the driveway to make this job
especially
miserable. As I reached for a 19mm wrench to remove the fuel line
from the
strainer it started to rain.
So, the strainer came out with the hose and much to my surprise, it
was
perfectly clean. It looked about the same as the new part I had.
Disappointed with the effectiveness of this miserable job, I
installed the
new strainer, clamped up the hose, and poured the 5 gallons back
into the
tank, along with a can of diesel purge (just because I found it on
the shelf
too).
So, now I need some advice on how to continue with this idle problem
I have.
Here are the symptoms:
-Engine starts easily cold, but surges between 500-750 rpm at about 20
second cycles until it warms up a bit. It fires on all 5 cylinders
the
whole time. This is worse in the winter, when the car will
sometimes stall.
-At warm idle, the engine fires on all 5 cylinders evenly, but is
generally
loud and a bit naily. Its nothing like the smooth quiet idle in my 79
300SD.
And note:
-The engine gets a reliable 23-26mpg, despite my hard driving
-There is no blowby
-There is no oil comsuption
-There is no excessive smoke
-The injectors I installed two years ago were new from the MB
dealer, not
the questionable bosch rebuilds.
-This problem existed before the transmission swap, adla tweeking,
etc.
-Valves were recently adjusted, filters changed, etc.
My next step is to carefully check the timing chain for stretch, and
see
where all the adjustments that are possible are sitting. So, after
all this
writing, if anyone is still reading, here is my question. In what
order
should these adjustments be performed?
-Idle speed
-Rack damper bolt (which is old but seems good, but I'll replace it
anyway)
-Injection timing
I've adjusted the timing in the past, but I think the idle was too
high, and
adjusting that required adjustment of the rack damper bolt and keep
things
smoother. In other words, I feel like I could be adjusting all day
here.
But I still have my doubts that this is just a matter of
adjustment. Is
there some regulator in the injection pump that might need
repair/replacement that could cause this behavior?
Jaime
-wet and smells like diesel
_______________________________________
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_______________________________________
http://www.okiebenz.com
For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com
To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/
To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to:
http://okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
