Raptelan's 1980 300SD

[Casey]

Picked up the 300CD Turbo today.

Pictures and further discussion on this car here:
http://forum.w116.org/auto-torque/raptelan's-1982-300cd

[jbrasile]

Casey,

400lbs is a lot!

Yes, you can probably swap transmissions but I would not do it. The pedal linkages are not the same, then you have the bowden cable to deal with, etc...

I have seen some waste gate adjustments that can be done to improve performance but I would be afraid to try  since if you generate too much boost the consequences could be disastrous.

Tks,

Joe

[Squiggle Dog]

You can turn up the boost, you just have to research how much you can safely have. The factory was conservative and you can get more power doing this if you don't overdo it. You hook up a vacuum gauge and drive the car in second gear with the brakes on to see how much your max boost is. You have to open up the wastegate and do one adjustment at a time until you achieve max boost. It's a pain, but probably worth it. I will be doing this at some point. I've seen articles before on PeachParts.

[Casey]

You can turn up the boost, you just have to research how much you can safely have. The factory was conservative and you can get more power doing this if you don't overdo it. You hook up a vacuum gauge and drive the car in second gear with the brakes on to see how much your max boost is. You have to open up the wastegate and do one adjustment at a time until you achieve max boost. It's a pain, but probably worth it. I will be doing this at some point. I've seen articles before on PeachParts.

I think once I've got some spare dollars, I'm going to try out this kit:
http://mercedessource.com/node/9042
Video here:
https://mercedessource.com/node/8557

Then might see about adjusting the waste gate too.

[Casey]

You can turn up the boost, you just have to research how much you can safely have. The factory was conservative and you can get more power doing this if you don't overdo it. You hook up a vacuum gauge and drive the car in second gear with the brakes on to see how much your max boost is. You have to open up the wastegate and do one adjustment at a time until you achieve max boost. It's a pain, but probably worth it. I will be doing this at some point. I've seen articles before on PeachParts.

I also found this - looks like a quite reasonably-priced kit for monitoring the turbo PSI and nice video on the page as well:
https://mercedessource.com/node/8025

[Casey]

After I got the 300CD looking so good, I decided a thorough clean/wax job was in order for the 300SD.

Naturally, this meant disassembling the bumpers, A-pillars, trim pieces, and anything else that might get in my way:









Some might say this was a little overambitious...but me, I'd say...okay, damn, it was overambitious.  Spent the majority of the weekend working on the car and was up until after 3am Monday morning getting it all reassembled correctly.  Been so tired I haven't even had time to take pictures now, but it's looking nice.  Not a big drastic difference like with the red paint on the 300CD as Ivory hides oxidation pretty well, but you can definitely tell by the feel of the paint.  Just didn't feel very rewarding to work on.  And the car's a bigger chassis, so it took longer.  A lot of little niggles that were there like stains along the trim lines, are now gone.  At least now I know where there's some various hiding rust spots that will need dealt with at some point.  The bit under the front bumper looks the worst.

Replaced the A-pillar trim pieces in the process.

Also replaced the tail lights that I had shipped over from England.  This was a huge debacle...  Upon taking the taillights apart, I realized that in England, they apparently did not have side marker lights, as there is a plastic piece inside that blacks them out, and the exterior of the lense is orange there instead of red as well.  I also realized that for some reason the "extra reflective" portions inside the tail lights were reversed - the US versions had an the two outer bulb places extra-reflective, whereas the european ones had the two inner ones extra-reflective.  Decided to use my original reflectors with the european lenses, as the old ones were leaking.  Then discovered that the leak was at least in large part because I'd overtightened the corner screws in the past, and there was a gap between the lens and the seal as a result.  Moved the seals over to the european ones and installed the full european taillight kit, temporarily removing my side marker bulbs for now.  I'm not happy with this setup as I find them uglier and now have useless portions of my taillight lenses but at least they don't leak.

I guess at some point I should tear the whole thing down and take it to a body shop to have all the minor rust spots and dents corrected, then do a repainting to have it looking like new.  I think I could probably manage the repainting myself but imagine it will still be rather expensive.

I also ran a can of diesel purge through the engine, which caused my primary fuel filter to fill with particles freed from the engine.  I'll be doing this again once I can order some more, and then replacing both fuel filters (already replaced the primary).  It seems to have increased the performance somewhat,  but what is much more impressive is the sound of the engine driving down the road.  It shakes/vibrates far less and has a lovely deep grumble to it now, running very smooth.  So yes, there will be another can or two of diesel purge coming soon, and I'll be doing a valve adjustment, and then rebuilding the turbocharger.  Hopefully I can manage to get the remaining motor mount and engine shocks replaced as well.  Having a hell of a time getting the old adhesive and gunk off of the underside of the hood, but once that's done will be installing the new hood pad as well.

More pictures to come later.

[1980sdga]

Wow, you have been busy!  How hard was it to remove the A pillar wings?

[Casey]

Wow, you have been busy!
How hard was it to remove the A pillar wings?

Very easy.
You just slide in a plastic chisel under the top of the painted part, and it snaps off the clip underneath.
There are 3 clips actually, but the bottom one does not snap off, so don't try it.
After getting the top loose, slide it upward and it comes off the bottom clip.
Reinstallation is sliding it down onto the bottom clip, then pressing it to snap it onto the upper two clips.  You can get an idea of the clip position by looking where the bolt holes are in my picture.

I actually have two broken clips (I didn't break them!) that I need to replace.
One of the painted parts was a bit loose at the top for that reason.
I relocated the broken clips to the center position and you can't really tell.
I'll be ordering new ones via jbrasile along with a bunch of bolts to replace all the rusty ones I found (or maybe I'll hunt up stainless versions - or is brass rustproof?).
Probably will get me some new bumper shocks too and see about getting them
painted or treated or something before installing them as those seem prone to rusting.
I hate rust!!

Anyways, tangent aside, once you have the painted piece off it's just a matter of unbolting clips and the one extra retaining bolt at the bottom.
Then there are screws at the top of the door frame.
All 3 chrome pieces of this trim are held together by little steel joints (also rusty, damnit!!), so once you have the screws and bolts out, just slide it forward out of the other chrome piece above the driver door.

BTW anybody know of any good products to restore the chrome finish?
I tried a Turtle Wax brand chrome polish, which did absolutely nothing.
I understand getting the pieces replated is an option, but I think that's rather expensive...

P.S.  There are rubber blocking strips covering the middle two holes in the back pillar (what is this pillar called?).  What is their purpose?  I don't understand why MB would put holes there just to plug some of them up.  I forgot to reinstall one and was wondering if it wouldn't be a bad idea to remove both as this (I'm guessing) would lead to better ventilation in the vehicle?

[Type17]

The pillars are called A - B - C - D: A is beside windshield, B between doors, C behind rear doors, and D before tailgate on station wagon/estate.

Chrome finish around A-pillars is actually anodized aluminium (aluminum!), so chrome polishes aren't appropriate. Not sure what the best polish is, though.

Rubber blocking strips: possibly blocking holes that aren't used on your car, but which are used in other markets?

[koan]

Wow, you have been busy!  How hard was it to remove the A pillar wings?

There are two versions, read the manual.

koan

[Casey]

There are two versions, read the manual.

We both have 1980 300SD's, I think it's safe to say they're the same version.

[Casey]

Pictures as promised:

[1980sdga]

Very sharp!

116's are the best...

[KenM]

Looking very nice Casey, has come up extremely well I'd say, worth all the effort. Bonus that you got all that trim off and on again without breaking anything.

[Type17]

Looks gorgeous, well done to you!