So I've been keeping quiet about this because I didn't want to jinx myself but last weekend I retorqued the head bolts on my '78 240D. You'll remember thats the one where the exhaust was blowing the coolant back out of the engine. Some of the bolts were still tight but some needed a little more, some needed as much as 1/8 turn. With them all tightened to spec the engine seems content to keep the wet stuff inside where it belongs. I drove it a few miles to prove that worked and then parked it, the engine seemed to idle rough cold and some valves tapped threateningly.
Today I tried adjusting the valves, I'll not try that again until I get a proper set of wrenches... I found the intakes all slightly loose (0.13mm) except for one that was perfect. The exhausts were all slightly tight (0.25-0.28mm). Considering the rough adjustment I was capable of I decided I'd loosen the tight exhaust valves and leave the loose intakes where they were, even then the adjustment took me right on 2 hours, most of that was farting around not knowing what I was doing. Apparently the tight exhaust valves were the cause of my noise as its gone but the car still seems under powered even for a 240D. I took it for a 20 mile run at speeds up to 60mph with the AC blowing ice cold most of the time except when I didn't have power to climb hills. By the time I got home it was definitely running better and had more power but still not enough. When Angie got home I had her work the pedal while I observed the linkage. This car has a spring thing in the linkage from the pedal which I don't understand the point of. I guess its to stop from forcing a linkage thats stuck. Anyway it appears to have lost its sproing because it wasn't pushing the linkage sufficiently. With the pedal on the floor we were only getting about 1/2 travel to the stop, I suppose that explains why the car always felt down on power. I put a hose clamp on the moving bit so it can't move and that got about 1/2 the missing travel back. Then I found a pivot point that also levers out in the wrong direction. I guess it needs a new bushing. With no new bushing to put in but lots of pedal travel that doesn't do anything (the first 1/8 of travel accomplishes nothing) I adjusted the other linkages so that now the lever at the IP goes all the way to the stop. I've yet to make a test run but it seems like a reasonable idea... Anyway it looks like the Phoenix is rising once again. -Curt _______________________________________ 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://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
