'88 W124 Ex- Berlin Taxi - suddenly a millionaire

[DarrenW]

I kept seeing this driving around whilst in Garmisch-Partenkirchen a week or so ago, took me six days of cycling past the main taxi rank at the railway station to catch it parked up for this thread


Mercedes Benz W124T Taxi - photo by Retro-Motoring


Mercedes Benz W124T Taxi - photo by Retro-Motoring

[TurboDieselWeasel]

Awesome! Thanks a lot!! Look how smal it appears nowadays

Fascinating to see that some are still in use

[TurboDieselWeasel]

Sooooo - today I payed a visit to Wolfi, to get the injector rebuilt. He'd just finished an engine swap on his W123 diesel-coupé and in the workshop. So we started by comparing some different pre-chambers, ztrying to figure out if there might be a wrong pre-chamber in my engine. The verdict was: very unlikely, the glow plug would not fit (which is does).


W124 straight injection, /8, MB100 (OM616) angled injection, W123 straight injection


W124 pre-chamber in W123 head

And just before I went to Wolfi's, Mr. postman broguht me - the genuine Mercedes pre-chamber sliding hammer attachement for both straight and angled injection. WOOHOO! This is a VERY rare tool!



When I retruned from Wolfi's a couple of hours later, with a freshly rebuild injector (jesus the old nozzle was DEAD! Toasted, BBQd and then burnt... As dead as Detroit.

So - guess my surprise when the genuine MB tool didn't fit the odd pre-chamber! FFFFUUUU!!!!!!111 Neither end did screw in - so I thought I'm screwed anyway and screwed in the bottom piece of a angled injection injector - with FORCE and violence. It didn't go in straight, I didn't care. Welded a M18 nut on top and attached the 4.5kg sliding hammer.

Took only two knocks and out it went.



And then - well, I found out about the issue! And had to laugh out loud, becaus this is so stupid! And actually it should be impossible for it to work. But somehow it did, more or less, for AT LEAST the 30.000km I put on it.



Can you see that? I didn't damage the thread, I just cleared if from carbonised soot (hard as a rock!). And what do we have here?

A pre-chamber for angled injection. Held by a locking ring for straight injection, with a straight injection injector on top of it. So - no surprise the heat shiled didn't work. Angled injection has the injectors bolted directly into the pre-chamber. Straight injection has them bolted to the locking-ring.

And this explains why my straight-injection injector didn't seal to the - angled - pre-chamber bottom...



Such a stupid thing to do - and actually it should not work at all! But somehow - it did. With OLD nozzles at least. The new ones have to tight tolerances and started to stick due to the increaed heat. Because angled like this, the heat shiled could not do it's job. The contact face on the pre-chamber is at an angle whilst the injector is held upright by the locking nut... No surprise this didn't last.

So - I put in the new - correct! - pre-chamber with a new locking ring, put everything together and started the engine.



And boy does it run well now! No more *tick tick tick* - smooth and quiet (*cought*)



It was actually no hard job to chnage the pre-chamber. But without the correct tools - it's impossible to do... And getting/fabricating the correct tools took the longest part of it all. The hardest bit is removing & installing the glow-plug...

Some people... This was the LAST thing I was expecting...

Cheers,
Jan

[TurboDieselWeasel]

I think thjis does a better job of explaining...

Straight injection / angled injection:

[TurboDieselWeasel]

FÜCK!!! I'm somewhat fed up with this piece of sh!t right now... Wilst idle sounds a lot better, it still knocks when coasting to slow speed and accelerating again. It's a loud rattling/knocking noise that sounds like it's related to combustion. Also the engine shakes if if you let it idle out of a knocking phase... I'm losing the will to keep on fettling with this, I need the car tomorrow and I need it to last and be reliable - which I don't think it is right now.

Big thumbs down...

[rr69h]

I'm sure you've already checked this, but just in case: the throttle cable assembly has a little damper with rubber mountings at each end. If these rubbers perish you a) have an engine that sounds like the main bearings are shot and b) the cable movement to the throttle body becomes inconsistent causing a lumpy idle. Had this problem with my old 190D many moons ago and maybe it's a thing worth thinking about.

I can't imagine with what you've already gone through and the knowledge and 'mechanical empathy' you've acquired along the way that you won't be able to trace the fault and make mincemeat out of it. Long live the Vorkammerdiesel!

[TurboDieselWeasel]

Whilst my 'mechanical empathy' might be high, my 'mechanical patience' is exhausted for now... And from now on I just don't have the time for long-ish repairs or extensive fault tracking... It has to work, and it needs to work. And if it breaks - I need another/a working car quick. I'll be much more involved with my job from now on - and that's that. Neither will the Coupé see any progress this year I fear, I'm having thought of selling it "as is" again... Makes no sense to let it rot without using it with all the new parts thrown at it. They don't get better from standing idle in the barn...

I'm probably at THAT point in life, where you need to decide if you have the wrong car or the wrong job. And to be perfectly honest; I think my job suits me quite well.

I don't know. Call it mid-car-crisis or something like that. But the endless tinkering can't go on for much longer. That's how I think now, maybe I'm thinking different next week, maybe not - I don't know.

At least I got a cloth bag instead of the usual plastic bags at MB's today, being a "regular customer"....

[sciclone]

I don't know how it is over there, but here, if you don't have a reliable car, you're stuffed, as public transport isn't reliable enough and sometimes the distances are too far.

Unfortunately, I'm going to get a spray of boos and hisses here, but get a modern, reliable car you can use day-in day-out that provides a little fun (eg a proper 4WD or a 4 door RWD sports saloon), and leave the tinkering for a car that you don't mind sitting in the shed til you have the patience back.

[THE_Liam]

I think I know how you feel. I lost patience with old cars after my woes with my 300D, and decided on a cheap, boring daily that would do a zillion to the gallon, tow my caravan, lug my dog around and basically get on with the boring daily grind. Bought my 406 HDI, and it's been brilliant, £250 off eBay with 151k and in 6 months and 10k it's cost me a coil spring, a drop link, 2 tyres and an exhaust clamp, averaged 45mpg round town and 60mpg on a run, even 40mpg pulling the caravan which it does easily, even went up the hill climb at Prescott! However it's very, very, very boring and will soon be joined by a retro.

Basically, I gave myself a break from constant tinkering and modifying, had 6 months of wallet recovery and free weekends, and now I've got my enthusiasm back. Working on old cars can be hard work if you lose the bug, giving yourself a break brings it back. Worked for me anyway...

[TurboDieselWeasel]

Well, as long as it doesn't fall apart, I can't be arsed to start from scratch with something else. And so far it didn't. I still don't know the issue, but it seems to have quiten down bit. Maybe it's just a stuck delivery valve or injection nozzle. Or a clogged lifter? Who knows what weird stuff can happen to an engine with this mileage...

Anyway, it's the engine's problem and not mine. ;-)

Cheers,
Jan

[Deleted]

Sept 5, 2015 8:22:26 GMT TurboDieselWeasel said:

Well, as long as it doesn't fall apart, I can't be arsed to start from scratch with something else. And so far it didn't. I still don't know the issue, but it seems to have quiten down bit. Maybe it's just a stuck delivery valve or injection nozzle. Or a clogged lifter? Who knows what weird stuff can happen to an engine with this mileage...

Anyway, it's the engine's problem and not mine. ;-)

Cheers,
Jan

I like the way you think , hahaha

I once rebuilt a Toyota engine as I bought it with a knock. Knock still there after rebuild. Out again, stiripped, couldn't find anything. Rebuilt. Knock still there. Lost patience and decided to drive it till it died. Which it never did. Noise went when I replaced the spark plugs 15000km later.... Ceramic insulator was loose in one, lol

[georgeb]

Got to love random knocks. Had a Subaru L series which developed one. Middle to back of the engine. Everyone who heard agreed and some were predicting dire consequences.

Cure? New cam belt!

[TurboDieselWeasel]

Sept 5, 2015 9:42:26 GMT @johnnybravo said:

I like the way you think , hahaha

I once rebuilt a Toyota engine as I bought it with a knock. Knock still there after rebuild. Out again, stiripped, couldn't find anything. Rebuilt. Knock still there. Lost patience and decided to drive it till it died. Which it never did. Noise went when I replaced the spark plugs 15000km later.... Ceramic insulator was loose in one, lol

And guess what; it worked! Engine solved it's problem all on it's own. The death-rattle has dissapperaed again. All I id was trashing it real hard, some 40km of full throttle on the autobahn. And that was that. Migt have been a coked up exhaust valve or something like that!? I don't know. But for now it's gone. And I hope it doesn't appear again.

Anyway... The only notable even was when we went deep into the Black Forrest to extract yet another Steinbock. And on the way back we did a quick chek on E's '85 300D who's lost some unknown fluids so we took a look. Soon to be brought back to live I think.



And the big lump of iron:



Yeah, I've allready got one of those "crabs" (mechanical gearbox jacks), but who knows - maybe I need two one day

Cheers,
Jan

[william123]

That "crab" is a work of art, I would keep it in the living room !!

[Deleted]

Great to hear engine settled down! You have a really interesting selection of jacks too!

[TurboDieselWeasel]

Hmmm. With a glas top it would certainly make for an interesting table

Soo - since the engine gave the impression of being healthy - I finally decided to take the car back to Berlin. At 7:30 on saturday. On 8:00 I headed north. Destination: Brandenburg, north of Berlin. Where basically no civilisation is left. Huge fields, avenues with huuuge age old trees and very few people and even lesser fuel stations or supermarkets. Ghosted houses - you get the picture.

And somewhere in this vast nothing, there was a BBQ and so many people I wished to meet for a long time. I didn't take many pictures, I was too busy to enjoy the evening with overwhelmingly nice people.







POn the way back I took a route straight through Berlin, with the intention of giving the first owner a call, but when I listened to the traffic service, I thought it was better to head home straight away due to some huuge traffic jams. It was still nice to ride through Berlin with this car that has spent so much time there. I took me over 10.5h to get home (some 800km) on sunday. It was incredibly exhausting, being hung over like mad, but - it was worth it!

And the car rewarded it's visit to Berlin with a very surprising 36.7MPG! I was expecdting much worse, given that my route had some huge elevation chnages and I had speed in mind, not economy. So - wow! Not bad for a 4-spd. auto barge like that!

1698km and 130.6l of fuel, almost 19h of driving. Saturday morning to monday evening, the car has now done over 2000km Crazy!

Cheers,
Jan

[Battenberg]

Whats the total mileage on the body now Jan?

[TurboDieselWeasel]

~928.600km as of today.

[hario]

Aug 30, 2015 11:45:22 GMT TurboDieselWeasel said:

FÜCK!!! I'm somewhat fed up with this piece of sh!t right now... Wilst idle sounds a lot better, it still knocks when coasting to slow speed and accelerating again. It's a loud rattling/knocking noise that sounds like it's related to combustion. Also the engine shakes if if you let it idle out of a knocking phase... I'm losing the will to keep on fettling with this, I need the car tomorrow and I need it to last and be reliable - which I don't think it is right now.

Big thumbs down...

Sounds like a pumped-up hydraulic lifter? They clear themselves after a while for no reason.

Typically if an OM60X has been stood for a while they all do it, oil flush and change is the prescribed method to fix, happy to hear yours self-healed.

[TurboDieselWeasel]

I thought about this, but the car or better engine did not stand still for very long when it first appeared, a night or so

However, it's not entirely unlikely that I put in engine oil with higher content of detergents which may have freed some dirt in the engine. Which might have clogged the lifter? This could be a possible explanation too.