MBDiesel.net - An Owner's Journey

Just finished uploading the engine install pics for the 240D to the server. The car's build date is 03/81 - I can't think of a better 25th birthday present, can you? Click here for more pictures.

Changing the website color scheme became priority one today. I've gotta do something with that header bar, though...

Friday, March 24th, 2006 at around 10:45pm, the 240D ran.

I spent nearly all day wirebrushing parts, bolts, washer, nuts, etc. I installed and aligned the clutch, then attached the transmission to the motor. Next I attached the oil filter housing to the block and ran the oil cooler lines. Then late in the evening, Mat and I decided that the night wasn't over until that motor was back in the car.

240Ds are great - we literally had the motor bolted into the car in under 20 minutes. I've got a lot of pictures that I need to resize and sort through, then I'll be posting them to the site. Hopefully this will happen before the weekend is out.

Also, I've started this new blog on the site so that visitors can feel free to comment on the latest goings on. What that means now is that I will be once again re-vamping the site. I'm sick of the yellow on black, even though it does make it easy to read. This probably won't happen this weekend, but will be in transition over the next 1-2 weeks as time permits.

Donna and I had a good run at the junkyard today - lots of good door checks, even found a replacement seat bottom for the wagon's driver's seat. I'm going to try and get the 240D buttoned up this week, but that's going to take a lot of time after work. Still need to install the tie rods in the 280S, too, and finally get her aligned.

The motor is in, the injectors are in, the injection pump is in, and we are slowly but surely piecing things back together. Won't be long now and the 240D will be back on the road! Also, I put a set of tires on the 280S - no more dry rotted tires plus Euro-sized snow tire in the front. A little bit of the excitement in driving that car is gone now, but the reward is a little more safety and road stability.

Power steering pump in the 300TD self-destructed on the Florida Turnpike this past weekend. Shuffle steering is a good thing. I hope to get some work done on the 240D motor this week as well, but I'm really lacking the energy to do it. We'll see what happens. Still awaiting the injection pump and injectors from the injection shop, too.

Installed replacement CD player in the wagon. Music is good! With luck, the replacement engine for the 240D should arrive this week.

240D engine was removed and torn down this past week, pictures on the 240D page. In other news, the 300SD is chugging right along, and the radio in the 300TD bought the farm. I disassembled it and removed my CD from it's clutches yesterday.

Bridget the 240D finally broke a ring in cylinder 4. You can hear the metal tinging in the hole. I was taking her out for a spin since she's sat for a few weeks. Running hard up a hill in 3rd, I started hearing the sound of a million tiny men with a million tiny hammers hitting a million iron spikes into a million railroad ties. Oh well, time to get the engine rebuilt now. Not bad, though, lasting 6 months like that.

Added a rant/how-to page about the break-in that occured this week to the 240D.

Alright, all the links are offically fixed and routing to the proper pages. They also link back to the linking page that got you there so navigating back and forth is fairly simple. Now I think I'll go back to researching parts I'll need to rebuild the 240D motor this Fall...