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Project 240D:
That’s 240D, as in the slowest car ever sold but still hella sweet. 35mpg and eats up the miles in comfort and safety. As most of you already know, I have a car problem and it revolves around saving old Benzes from the trash heap the way that some people rescue dogs. Like Doris Day, actually.
I’ve had a few of these 240D manual cars and they were not only the cheapest car that MB sold at the time but by some measures, the best. They were the lightest and simplest, for starters. Lowest maintenance by far. Best fuel economy and built every bit as well as the top S-class. Definitely a momentum car but a great handling one with the light 4-cylinder engine over the wheels. I bought this one sight unseen up in Tacoma, WA, a couple of years ago. A classic case of late night CL browsing, it was advertised as having a bad engine but looked clean and in a fairly rare color that I cannot resist, Pastel Beige. To make a long story long, the guy wasn’t in a big hurry to have it picked up and weeks turned into months into years. After a couple of months, I started paying storage and it kind of became a running joke between us. I simply never had the chance to go and get it. I have a PU and car trailer and occasionally haul cars for people but nothing ever came up going that way. Having it shipped down occurred to me but it’s expensive and I was already fairly upside down in the car with all of the storage. I also had storage issues, in the intervening time I was given 2 free cars and got 3 back that I used to own like boomerangs, (including one of the free ones). Everyone knows that I have this strange “dog rescue” thing with cars and they just find me. Anyhow, I finally made it up to get the 240D earlier this year and got it over to the shop to evaluate. It was definitely running on less than 4 cylinders but sometimes you get lucky and it’s just a bad injector. Not this time…a compression test revealed one dead cylinder. Ok, I bargained for that when I bought it so off came the head today. Nothing really apparent visually but I did not inspect closely. It’s hard to do the old soapy water and compressed air test on a diesel head because they don’t have a dish in the compression area, they are just flat. At this point, I’m going to pull the block and tear it down, ridges in cylinders do not seem bad so maybe just a good hone and new rings plus all bearings and seals. The machine shop will measure everything and then I will know for sure. One problem is that repair size pistons are no longer available through normal channels, which is weird since they sold a zillion of these cars worldwide. I found a guy on eBay who has a few but I really need them for my 5-cylinder car that needs rebuilding, so I’m hoping to be able to reuse these ones. The other cylinders had good compression, so I’m thinking it will work out well. The car is fairly clean, though it does have some paint and body work that has been done on the LH rear quarter at some point. It’s hard to really see them from 1000 miles away and CL of course is not exactly BaT when it comes to photos. The interior is fantastic with a very nice dash, that is what made me buy it in the first place. I’ll update the thread with progress posts, should not take long. Here was today: |
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Reminds me of my son's first car which was donated to him by his uncle (my brother).
Looked just like yours, except for the wheels. It had hub caps w/beauty rings. My son learned to appreciate a momentum style of driving and became very proficient with a stick because of it. |
man I love it!!!! and a manual? sheesh that is cool.
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Looks like the one I picked up a few years ago for $250 that was sitting since 93'. Owner had a stroke and said he was going to get better and drive it. Never did and died in 2021, so his daughter sold it when cleaning out the house. Needed a good polishing and new master and slave cyl. for the clutch. Had no keys, so she broke a window to see if there was anything any good in it. I cleaned it up, got it running and sold it for $5800.
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Had a good talk with my long time MB machinist yesterday, he's going to look at the head for me. He is 82 years old and very retired but still does limited work for good customers. He used to be the guy for Hollywood MB, (long gone dealer that was a rare factory owned store), did hundreds of heads for them. He graduated from Hollywood High School in 1960 and until recently lived in the house he grew up in a short walk from his shop! Looks like he's in ZZ Top...what a character.
I've built a LOT of engines and have a long relationship with the guy. Anyhow, he told me to do some simple at home tests to the head and block and I'm about 95% sure that all I have is a burned valve or two, most likely from improper valve adjustment. When I checked them, they were all super tight, as in no clearance. Someone did not know what they were doing and wrecked the guy's car. Everyone likes to say on the internet that these cars, "run forever!" and, "just getting broken in @ 250k miles," but that's only true with proper maintenance, which almost no one does once they get old and fall into the hands of dumb hippies. I have a collection of blown MB diesel engines sitting out in the desert that could be used to to anchor a very large barge. It is true that the engines, as well as the rest of the cars, are made with amazing steel and can last an incredibly long time with proper maintenance, which includes regular valve adjustments, correct oil and filters changed on time. I'll update the thread when I know more in the coming days! :cool: |
I'm pretty sure I test drove a 1980 240D when it was new and remember the MSRP/selling price was $20,000. It was more than I wanted to spend or should have spent, but in the long run it would have been worth it. The salesman said it was built to the same standard as all of their cars, and I believe that to be true. I remember my dad saying it "wouldn't pull a string out of a wildcat's ass."
I got a 1980 SAAB 900 Turbo 3-door for $13,xxx with a good discount in 1981. I really wanted the new 1981 4-door 900 Turbo, but it was over $15,000. |
As an absolute incurable Saab fanatic, I think you did well.
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I love these cars! My favorite is the 300 Turbo Diesel Coupe
My friend has a ‘(I think) ‘76 300D he custom ordered and took European delivery on. Still has it and drives it. I’m living vicariously through you |
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I had a 78 280CE. Loved that car.
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Back on track:
I'm about to head down to the shop and see how my pools of ATF on the pistons are doing. After some thought, I realized that all of the cylinders look the same, the head gasket and deck look fine and two of the cylinders had over 300 psi of compression, so I'm probably looking at a simple valve job, maybe a new exhaust valve or two...we'll see. Taking the head in to get it hot tanked today and then off to my machinist it goes.
New valve guides if needed and of course seals, should run like new. Might just take this car on a looong drive next month, I'll drive it up to Tahoe first and see how much I like it on the lonesome highway. It came from the factory with A/C, cruise control and an electric sunroof but roll-up windows. ATF pools when I left them Saturday: http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1718641213.jpg |
I'd think you'd be able to 'see' a burned valve. Maybe all it really needed was a valve adjustment.
I know when my BMW 1600 burned a valve it had a pie section missing from one of the exhaust valves that was pretty obvious to the naked eye. |
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I'll have an update very soon! Postscript: It is extremely important to use the right machine shop or guy with diesel heads...really any heads but diesel heads generally cannot be cut/shaved and there are specs for valve recession, (how deep the valve sits in the seat after being cut), that will affect CR. CR is critical on diesels, they are compression motors as opposed to spark motors. If the wrong monkey shaves a diesel head or cuts the valve seat too deep, the head is scrap metal. This spec matters on spark engines but it's a lot less critical. Back in the day, when high performance engines ran 11:1 and sometimes higher CR, I would read articles in Hot Rod magazine about engine building with the greats, (Keith Black, Smokey Yunick, Grumpy Jenkins, etc.), and I always remember them CC-ing the combustion chambers of the heads to blueprint a race engine. I totally geek out on that stuff. :cool: I take the time to make these posts hoping that the thread can be of use to other people doing similar repairs down the line as opposed to a thread fall of random pictures of old Mercedes cars. If someone wants to start that thread, I will spam the living daylights out of it with photos of Benzes. I have thousands! :) |
Took the head to the machine shop today to get it hot tanked and then to my retired machinist's house where we took it apart and inspected it. A couple of valves had some pitting on the seats and the exhaust valve on the really bad cylinder had a tiny piece of carbon on the seat that was apparently preventing it from closing all the way, all of this was caused by the improper valve adjustment with zero clearance. I cleaned the valves up on a spinning wire wheel and he sent me home with some lapping compound to lap all of the valves tomorrow.
If any of them do not lap in completely, I will replace that valve with a new one. The seats in the head look fine. Like I said before, you really do not want to cut them on these heads. I will of course replace the head gasket and possibly the head bolts if they do not check out. More to follow. :cool: http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1718693430.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1718693430.jpg |
I lapped all of the valves yesterday and I will reassemble it today. Fingers crossed but I think it will be fixed! :)
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Also spent some time cleaning the radiator and fixing bent fins...there was an incredible amount of dirt between them from 40 years and ~250k miles of driving, that can really affect the efficiency of the cooling system. I also tried to fix bent fins on the condenser because of course, all air has to pass through it before it even reaches the radiator.
The A/C system is going to get completely refreshed including a new compressor and maybe a new condenser, my parts guy has a similar car and put an upgraded condenser in it, swears by the results with R134. I am a bit OCD: http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1718818704.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1718818704.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1718818704.jpg |
Yea, throw out that condenser and just replace it with a new one, also a Sanden compressor will make a huge difference with R134. I did it in both of my two "keepers" W123's. Its nice to have cold AC with no issues, just like a modern car.
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