I got all the vaccum issues straightened out on my 300 TDT. It was beginning to run great, but then the second day it was working well a valve stuck and then I realized that that has been the source of the starting problem.
This time it stuck open long enough to get hammered by the piston, so it is remanufacture time for the engine. At least I have practically everything in the engine compartment other than the long block renewed already in trying to get the thing to run right.
Paul Fretheim
Those reliable diesels just last forever eh!
I bought my 1982 300 TDT from the original owner for $9000 US in June of 1993. It had 144,000 miles on it when I got it. I don't think it was poorly maintained, but not as well I like to keep my cars. This engine still had great power when I bent a valve last week, and would probably last a long time more than the 252,000 miles I have driven it if I did a valve job (engine has 396,000 miles in total on it), but I am tired of chasing problems with the engine and want a complete remanufacture. Yes I will spend $6000 and have a few days of work taking the engine out and putting it back in after remanufacture, but then I will have a like new running Mercedes. It would be $75,000 to drive away with a new Benz "E" Class wagon, and I don't like them as much as mine. I have sat in one more than once thinking it over at the dealer in Pasadena, but they feel cramped compared to my TDT.
Plus I have realized that the Marxist concept of alienation comes in to play here for me. I would rather work on my own car than do alienated work for wages so I can buy another car.
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