240D dancing oil cap

Kent, Hope all is well. Ran the purge and installed the new Monark injector tips and boy what an improvement! As is always the case, fix one thing and find another... Got your Diesel performance book (with the tips order), went thru the various tests and find a moderately dancing oil cap. Being a noob now hindsight is 20/20 but my question is this - assuming I need to do an overhaul, what is the typical needed parts list, cost for same and "ballpark" labor charge for doing an overhaul. Before I had it shipped from CA I had a Mercedes mechanic replace the timing chain, now the new injector tips and really the car is running fine. So, do I tolerate it and just live with it and wait for the inevitable or be proactive? What actions can I do to reduce blow-by in the interim? Thanks as always! Best, Ben in Detroit

Forums

Diesel Engine Specific Aid

Chassis Model Number

W123

Only part of the equation

Hi Ben, remember when dealing with these older diesel engines none of them are going to be perfect. Blow by is only one part of the equation when determining the health of your engine. Compression readings, oil consumption, and starting characteristics when cold are the other key factors. If have send these engines go for a couple hundred thousand miles with excessive blowby. When they start burning a quart of oil every 300 miles and won't start on cold mornings - that it the time to really being worrying about an overhaul. Kent

hey guys. i too have a 240d

hey guys. i too have a 240d with the dancing oil cap. i wouldnt worry either. i have been checking out a 300d with 173ish on the odometer with no dance whatsoever. my 240 has less than 100k. and my cap does the macherina. however it fires up on one cycle of the key when its in the teens outside. maybe on the 3rd or 4th turn of the starter . as opposed to the 1st or second turn of the started in nice weather. i have heard a lot of stories of these 240d's with the dancing cap and, i can not help but wonder if its "just the way it was designed" i have gobbs of power and i am impressed with its cruising speed. very little smoke as well. a good runner. just my 2 cents ASP

I was kind of hoping you

I was kind of hoping you would say that so thanks for both replies. The car runs great and is a little particular on sub 20 mornings but if I glow it twice it is fine. I have a weird deal with the idle adjustor that I set to max when I start up the run inside to get the rest of my shiznit and hear the car racing wildly in the driveway, I run out and turn the idle down and all is well. It doesn't leak any oil nor smoke at all so I guess it will be ok afterall! I'll just pay really good attention to it and hopefully drag it out a while.

yea the old idle adjust ..

yea the old idle adjust .. what year is your 240d? mine is the 1981 manual shift, manual windows, no sunroof, bare bones model. its a keeper for sure . my idle adjust doesnt work anymore that little plastic thing is busted where it goes into the throttle linkage. i havent gotten around to making a new one yet. i figure i can make it out of brass in my jewelry studio. im just too lazy... im no expert but i think that your engine still has a lot of life to it. have you adjusted the valves recently?

Well to be honest I'm not

Well to be honest I'm not sure. I'm the 4th owner. I bought the car, a 1980 that sounds almost like yours except I have an electric sunroof, (Ebay deal) from a pilot for US Air who lived in Oxnard and used it to commute to LAX and Phoenix. He got it from a guy who got it for his kid but didn't want it because it was too slow (sounds like the perfect car for a teenager!). That ownership was shortlived - like 6 mos. The original owners had it from day one - a lifelong Santa Barbara car. So when I bought it I had it taken down to Huntington Beach (we have an office there) and had Beach Benz do a few things including installing the complete 2 tank Greasecar kit and replacing the timing chain. Then I had the car shipped here to Detroit. (Before I knew Kent existed!) So, long answer to short question is unless a valve adjustment is part of a timing chain replacement then I do not know.