300 SD

[Lone Star 1]

Hey guys my dad just gave me his 20 year old Mercedes 300 SD turbo diesel. This car only has 93K mile and except for hail damage on the trunk looks new. From a dead stop acc is slow but picks up after the turbo spools up. Just would like to know if there is any way to up the boost on one of these old cars.

Does any one make performace part for turbo diesels. Or my its LS1 time. PS: I looked under the rear of this car today and it has an IRS and uses CV's, and the Diff looks alot like my Z's Diff. Any one ever looked into a Mercedes rear end swap?

 

[ July 23, 2001: Message edited by: Lone Star 1 ]

[DavyZ]

Actually, there is a lot you can do with the diesel engines. From what I have been told (I used to own a Volvo 760 TD), the injectors are the biggest thing you can swap to improve the performance on a diesel. Obviously, more boost can help and so can a bigger turbo. If you really want to have fun with the car, check out the web and search for diesel performance--you'll be surprised at what you find.

 

Davy

[DAW]

Is it intercooled? An intercooler and a compressor bypass valve are always good to have. External wastegate? Once you've intercooled, it's too easy to bump up the boost by playing with the wastegate. See Corky Bell's book: "Maximun Boost".

DAW

[randy 77zt]

best bet for performance is to have injectors cleaned & tested.if you advance the injector pump timing it helps some.you can also have the fuel rate on pump recalibrated.i worked on a 300 mercedes a long time ago and we cleaned injectors-it ran like a new car.bmw has a european 5 series diesel car that is speed limited to 155 mph.i had a ford diesel truck that i turned up fuel rate and advanced timing and people thouht it was turbocharged.there is nothing wrong with diesel engines-it is just a learning thing.i wouldnt mind putting a maxima diesel in a z to use for a work car.

[Guest Anonymous]

I used to hang out with the truckers where I worked, even got to drive a few of the big rigs around the yard (ok, big deal, but hey it was fun!) and diesels can be pretty darn powerful. The trucks they had there were cummins 350's (350hp at the wheels! Torque is something to rock the world at like way over 1200 ft/lbs or more). A favorite trick of the truckers was to have the mechanics when it went in for work, sneak in a pill or 'button' as they used to say, basically those trucks were mechanically injected. The pill or button was basically a way of bumping the injectors output so in essence, more fuel, and more power! It was REALLY noticable, I rode with them several times up the hill (even to tahoe at 7000 plus feet) and those jokers would go when they'd be tweeked a bit.

The fundamentals are the same in Diesels, more fuel in, more power. Pretty simple. Probably larger injectors (if its a electronic system) and tweaking the wastegate so it puts a bit more boost and you'll be motoring.

 

Good luck,

 

Lone

[Ray]

Mercedes are great, The car you have should get 30+ mpg and will run 85 no problem. As for performance the 84's and later had a lousy exhaust, other than that clean the injectors and have the pump worked over and it will go forever 250k is normal before even a valve job. The reason it is a dog out of the hole is to help the drivetrain last forever... MB even does this on the gas cars with throtle tip in. Basicly they delay fuel delivery so the shock on the drivetrain is very minimal.... It may not be a V8 Z but these are great cars, just drive it into the ground

[BLKMGK]

Worse comes to worse JTR DOES make a swap manual for the Mercedes I believe Since it's a diesel I beleive you'll be able to avoid emissions too. This is what they recommend for the Volvo sawp - buy a diesel! Seems when they lose compression they're VERY hard to start in the winter when cold. Pick one up cheap cheap and drop in a V8 Havng seen a TPI Volvo hauling butt down the road I can tell you it's pretty weird. It just doesn't look right (lol).