Yes, it's done. All hooked up, and rattling like a paint shaker! Well, maybe not quite that much, but my G is back on the road with it's fancy new turbo-diesel. It took me 6 hours at a muffler shop to get the new exhaust system in place using the stock route & 2-1/2" pipe, but it's quiet as a mouse now and ready for the next 25 years (I hope).
Final work included throttle linkage modifications (I joined linkages from the 280GE and 300SD), installing the previously missing front drive-shaft (all seems okay with the axle & T-case so far), connecting various wires (Coolant temp is still inop, and I have no glow light yet), and installing the last 3/4" elbow for my valve cover breather - the hose arrived just in time!
The test drive was great, albeit without an exhaust system, but the turbo makes exhaust noise surprisingly quiet. No adjustment have been needed yet, but I'll go through and change fluids, adjust valves, purge injectors, change filters, etc next week.
One thing I noticed was that the rear end seemed to sag a little, and the drive quality was very mushy, like a top-heavy bus. Since I had my new set of springs in the garage I decided to install the rears just for kicks. Wow, it's a really good thing that I did. Those old springs had rusted so badly that the thinner tops and bottoms had broken through, and each spring came out in 3 pieces! The new ones popped right in and gave me a mild lift (~2") and much better ride.
The fronts are more involved to install so they'll have to wait until next week when I have more time. I know my front panhard bar is bent so when I remove it for the springs, I'll install a replacement at the same time. It's also a good time to replace the 4 flexible brake lines in front since they have to be removed anyway. That and some DOT-5 fluid will round out most of my scheduled upgrades. At some point my brush-bar will go on, but I'd really like to get it powder-coated first... more time... more money...
Sometime in the next year I'll think about painting my G, but that's another big project I have no time for at the moment. I want to just drive for now!
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Details, details...
Whew, that last 10% is killing me! I thought for sure I'd get her running today, but there really are so many small details that need attention. It's better to take your time and make sure everything is right than to rush through and forget things. Well, let's not assume I remembered everything!
Today I installed an in-line fuel filter close to the fuel tank. I couldn't tell if there was an in-tank filter, and I couldn't use the 280GE filter, so a nice clear 5/16" universal type did the trick. I like to see the junk coming out of my tank!
Next I installed the vacuum bypass valve from a 617.950 engine. I hope it works for the .951 I have, but it's the only one I could find anyway. While I was at it I also installed the 300GD ignition switch & vacuum lines for the shut off valve. Finally, I fabricated a custom vacuum supply line from the vac-pump to the brake booster using a combination of the 300GD and 300TD lines. A little boiling water and those plastic lines get just soft enough to slip onto those steel fittings. Now it even looks stock!
I had to modify my heater return hard line again, and install the 300GD return hose from the heater core to the heater valve in the engine bay. It looks like there are variations on valve placement and hose routing so this will likely be a custom job on any conversion.
The 280 engine required a lot of wiring that I will no longer need but mixed in there are a few important wires. I spent some time tracing and trying to figure out the important ones, but I'm not sure I'm done yet. Specifically, I need the glow-plug light wire, and glow sensor wire. It's not yet clear how I'm going to figure those out. I can always tap into the harness behind the instrument cluster for the light, but the sensor is completely unknown to me as of yet.
The radiator is fully in, along with it's shroud & oil cooler. I was told it'd have to be trimmed a bit due to the modified engine position, but everything seems okay for now. The lower radiator support and vertical crossbar also went in, but I'm waiting on the upper support until I install a new hood release cable - the old one was broken and the hood could not latch any more.
Well, tomorrow will be wiring and putting the last parts of the grille together. Amazingly, I just might be nearing the end of the conversion! I need to take some photos too!
Today I installed an in-line fuel filter close to the fuel tank. I couldn't tell if there was an in-tank filter, and I couldn't use the 280GE filter, so a nice clear 5/16" universal type did the trick. I like to see the junk coming out of my tank!
Next I installed the vacuum bypass valve from a 617.950 engine. I hope it works for the .951 I have, but it's the only one I could find anyway. While I was at it I also installed the 300GD ignition switch & vacuum lines for the shut off valve. Finally, I fabricated a custom vacuum supply line from the vac-pump to the brake booster using a combination of the 300GD and 300TD lines. A little boiling water and those plastic lines get just soft enough to slip onto those steel fittings. Now it even looks stock!
I had to modify my heater return hard line again, and install the 300GD return hose from the heater core to the heater valve in the engine bay. It looks like there are variations on valve placement and hose routing so this will likely be a custom job on any conversion.
The 280 engine required a lot of wiring that I will no longer need but mixed in there are a few important wires. I spent some time tracing and trying to figure out the important ones, but I'm not sure I'm done yet. Specifically, I need the glow-plug light wire, and glow sensor wire. It's not yet clear how I'm going to figure those out. I can always tap into the harness behind the instrument cluster for the light, but the sensor is completely unknown to me as of yet.
The radiator is fully in, along with it's shroud & oil cooler. I was told it'd have to be trimmed a bit due to the modified engine position, but everything seems okay for now. The lower radiator support and vertical crossbar also went in, but I'm waiting on the upper support until I install a new hood release cable - the old one was broken and the hood could not latch any more.
Well, tomorrow will be wiring and putting the last parts of the grille together. Amazingly, I just might be nearing the end of the conversion! I need to take some photos too!
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Nuts!
Lots & lots of drive-shaft nuts. Yep, the drive-shaft went back in today, and those self-locking nuts are a pain in the south side. There are just so many of them! Of course, I made sure the two halves of the drive shaft were aligned with the arrows pointing at each other.
While I was under there I also re-adjusted the shifter-rods to 3/4" longer. This is to compensate for the modified engine position when using the G-Wagen Preserve engine mounts. Everything seems to work fine so far.
I was also able to gut all of the 280GE fuel system junk from under the car. A fuel pump, filter, and accumulator are now gone, and all of the fuel lines are routed with much-simplified new hoses. Even the supply line at the engine was a breeze, but the return will require a double-ended nipple to join the cigar hose to the rubber return. No big deal.
The fan shroud & radiator are next - I put them in place but have to do a bit of massaging to get the shroud to fit past the oil cooler lines. The radiator appears to be recently installed NEW from Behr - a stroke of luck.
It will take a bit of creativity to route the heater valve & its hoses, and to make a bracket that will keep the heater return pipe from getting too close to the turbo. Those things are next, as is the ignition switch, and wiring.
Moving along...
While I was under there I also re-adjusted the shifter-rods to 3/4" longer. This is to compensate for the modified engine position when using the G-Wagen Preserve engine mounts. Everything seems to work fine so far.
I was also able to gut all of the 280GE fuel system junk from under the car. A fuel pump, filter, and accumulator are now gone, and all of the fuel lines are routed with much-simplified new hoses. Even the supply line at the engine was a breeze, but the return will require a double-ended nipple to join the cigar hose to the rubber return. No big deal.
The fan shroud & radiator are next - I put them in place but have to do a bit of massaging to get the shroud to fit past the oil cooler lines. The radiator appears to be recently installed NEW from Behr - a stroke of luck.
It will take a bit of creativity to route the heater valve & its hoses, and to make a bracket that will keep the heater return pipe from getting too close to the turbo. Those things are next, as is the ignition switch, and wiring.
Moving along...
Friday, May 6, 2011
Superpower Planted!
YES! The engine is IN. Everything went smoothly... almost.
After swapping the oil cooler lines from the 300GD onto my 300TD engine, discovering they don't fit, and swapping back again, I realized (thanks to Mike Serpe) that the oil cooler and upper cooler line still needed to be swapped. It's a little tricky with these lines. Whatever came on my 300TD engine seemed fine, but, apparently the TD upper oil cooler line can interfere with the power steering pump pulley nut. On the 300GD the nut is avoided by routing the hard-line around it diagonally. The oil cooler is also needed from the 300GD as it is 2-rows narrower than what came on the TD engine. I suspect my 280GE oil cooler would have worked fine also.
The bracket that supports these lines is also important - the TD bracket ended up being a good fit for both lines going under the engine mount; the 300GD bracket is for one over and one under, which will not work. I think the 300D engine has a shorter injection pump that allows more freedom for oil line routing.
Before dropping the engine in, I attached the belts, adjusted them, and prepared the intake hoses. The heater return pipe that I fabricated needed an adjustment, but the rest was fine.
Double-triple check everything... okay, lower it in! My cherry-picker is a light-duty fold-able unit from Harbor Freight. It may be a cheap tool at $125 but I have to say that it worked beautifully. I used a load leveler to do this, but it certainly was not necessary, and it's adjustment crank became blocked by the crane arm anyway. If I were to do this again I'd just use a chain to hold the engine.
Dipping the transmission in a bit lower than the engine, the whole assembly went in easily and with plenty of room to spare. I lowered the engine lightly onto the frame sockets and bolted the mounts and transmission up loosely. Once secure, I lowered the hoist completely and tightened everything up. It seemed like this should be a huge task but it went quickly and without trouble. All was done within an hour. What a relief!
Next I attached all of the intake ducts (3 blue silicone 90-degree fittings) and the crankcase breather & drain (Two 90-degree blue silicone fittings & my home-made oil separator/drain).
Next I have to figure out the wiring & sensors, and hook up the drive shafts! I hope to get that done this weekend and start tearing up the turf :)
After swapping the oil cooler lines from the 300GD onto my 300TD engine, discovering they don't fit, and swapping back again, I realized (thanks to Mike Serpe) that the oil cooler and upper cooler line still needed to be swapped. It's a little tricky with these lines. Whatever came on my 300TD engine seemed fine, but, apparently the TD upper oil cooler line can interfere with the power steering pump pulley nut. On the 300GD the nut is avoided by routing the hard-line around it diagonally. The oil cooler is also needed from the 300GD as it is 2-rows narrower than what came on the TD engine. I suspect my 280GE oil cooler would have worked fine also.
The bracket that supports these lines is also important - the TD bracket ended up being a good fit for both lines going under the engine mount; the 300GD bracket is for one over and one under, which will not work. I think the 300D engine has a shorter injection pump that allows more freedom for oil line routing.
Before dropping the engine in, I attached the belts, adjusted them, and prepared the intake hoses. The heater return pipe that I fabricated needed an adjustment, but the rest was fine.
Double-triple check everything... okay, lower it in! My cherry-picker is a light-duty fold-able unit from Harbor Freight. It may be a cheap tool at $125 but I have to say that it worked beautifully. I used a load leveler to do this, but it certainly was not necessary, and it's adjustment crank became blocked by the crane arm anyway. If I were to do this again I'd just use a chain to hold the engine.
Dipping the transmission in a bit lower than the engine, the whole assembly went in easily and with plenty of room to spare. I lowered the engine lightly onto the frame sockets and bolted the mounts and transmission up loosely. Once secure, I lowered the hoist completely and tightened everything up. It seemed like this should be a huge task but it went quickly and without trouble. All was done within an hour. What a relief!
Next I attached all of the intake ducts (3 blue silicone 90-degree fittings) and the crankcase breather & drain (Two 90-degree blue silicone fittings & my home-made oil separator/drain).
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Back In Black
Whoa, yep, that was a bit of a break I took. Well, actually I've been working on small details that ended up taking much more time than I had anticipated. Here are the updates so far:
The vacuum bypass valve between the intake & IP was obtained from a 617.950 engine. It looks good and like it should work, but I don't know enough about these valves yet to be sure. Is there a difference in vacuum levels or turbo performance as compared to the 617.951? We'll see. To my surprise, these things have been missing from every junkyard car I've come accross - that's why I went for this one since it was the only one I could find.
I now have a cruise control amplifier from a 1983 300SD. It's the 14-pin digital type, and I've got a diagram of all of the pin-outs to try to make this work later. I also found a very informative site that basically tells you how to troubleshoot these systems.
My previously feared heater return hard-line and valve-cover breather tubes are now fabricated! I used some 3/4" tubing and a manual ratcheting bender to make these each in one piece. I also fabricated my own oil separator and welded it to the breather, including a nipple cut off a steel air cleaner so I can use the stock oil drain near the turbo. The oil separator has a 1-1/2" tube extension on it to mate to the air cleaner via some silicone elbows ordered from www.siliconeintakes.com. The air cleaner previously had a water/debris drain with a rubber bulb attached to it at the rear; I'm removing that and hooking up the vent in it's place. If I suck up some water or leaves I'll have to remove them manually I guess - I don't really plan to get that crazy.
I FINALLY got my pilot bearing. The vendor was fairly local but - jimminy-cricket - took 2 weeks to send my part. Wah! Anyway, now I need to have the exterior of the bearing ground about 4 thousandths so I can press it into the existing crankshaft opening - MB made 2 out of the 3 necessary machining steps on these cranks so the opening is not a true 35mm. Mine measured 34.85mm and there should only be about a thousandth overlap for an interference fit (sorry to be switching units but...). I hope to find a grinding shop to modify my bearing tomorrow.
None of my door locks worked with the ignition key, so I found a complete set plus a diesel ignition switch on a 300GD parts car - 4 keys included!!! Score! One seems to be fused onto the door though... I might need a torch.
The same 300GD had a really cool bracket to replace the A/C pump mount on my 300TD motor. It's a stamped sheet-metal part that allows you to remove that massive A/C mount, and still have a place to bolt down the oil line brace. So simple!
I've also received a new pair of fog lights to replace the one broken one I had. After some eBay browsing, I also ended up repairing one of my "E-code" headlight that has the 2ndary "city" bulbs too. One assembly came apart such that the lens separated cleanly from the housing. A little gorillla-glue and life is good again.
The fancy new engine mounts from Mike Serpe at Gwagen-Preserve went on nicely. They couldn't be simpler! I hope things line up when the engine goes in this weekend!
I placed a painful order at Eurotruck for a set of red-front, white-rear suspension springs, plus various rubber parts, shift-linkage bushings, brake hoses, etc. I'll have a lot of this stuff apart anyway so now is the time to do them!
After reading about some brake bleeding tricks I ended up making my own pressure bleeder using a $9 bug sprayer from Home Depot, and a spare reservoir cap I picked up at Pick-n-pull. I drilled a hole in the center of the cap and epoxied in a plastic nipple to attach the sprayer line to. I decided not to install a pressure gauge just because there seems to be adequate feedback when pumping up the bottle. I expect about 10lbs to be plenty to make the fluid flow. I'm also using mil-spec silicone brake fluid that I purchased by the gallon on eBay. It's the good stuff, and only about $35 a gallon plus shipping. I plan to convert all of the hydraulic systems after the new hoses go on.
Well, I'll take & post more photos soon, but that's the update.
The vacuum bypass valve between the intake & IP was obtained from a 617.950 engine. It looks good and like it should work, but I don't know enough about these valves yet to be sure. Is there a difference in vacuum levels or turbo performance as compared to the 617.951? We'll see. To my surprise, these things have been missing from every junkyard car I've come accross - that's why I went for this one since it was the only one I could find.
I now have a cruise control amplifier from a 1983 300SD. It's the 14-pin digital type, and I've got a diagram of all of the pin-outs to try to make this work later. I also found a very informative site that basically tells you how to troubleshoot these systems.
My previously feared heater return hard-line and valve-cover breather tubes are now fabricated! I used some 3/4" tubing and a manual ratcheting bender to make these each in one piece. I also fabricated my own oil separator and welded it to the breather, including a nipple cut off a steel air cleaner so I can use the stock oil drain near the turbo. The oil separator has a 1-1/2" tube extension on it to mate to the air cleaner via some silicone elbows ordered from www.siliconeintakes.com. The air cleaner previously had a water/debris drain with a rubber bulb attached to it at the rear; I'm removing that and hooking up the vent in it's place. If I suck up some water or leaves I'll have to remove them manually I guess - I don't really plan to get that crazy.
I FINALLY got my pilot bearing. The vendor was fairly local but - jimminy-cricket - took 2 weeks to send my part. Wah! Anyway, now I need to have the exterior of the bearing ground about 4 thousandths so I can press it into the existing crankshaft opening - MB made 2 out of the 3 necessary machining steps on these cranks so the opening is not a true 35mm. Mine measured 34.85mm and there should only be about a thousandth overlap for an interference fit (sorry to be switching units but...). I hope to find a grinding shop to modify my bearing tomorrow.
None of my door locks worked with the ignition key, so I found a complete set plus a diesel ignition switch on a 300GD parts car - 4 keys included!!! Score! One seems to be fused onto the door though... I might need a torch.
The same 300GD had a really cool bracket to replace the A/C pump mount on my 300TD motor. It's a stamped sheet-metal part that allows you to remove that massive A/C mount, and still have a place to bolt down the oil line brace. So simple!
I've also received a new pair of fog lights to replace the one broken one I had. After some eBay browsing, I also ended up repairing one of my "E-code" headlight that has the 2ndary "city" bulbs too. One assembly came apart such that the lens separated cleanly from the housing. A little gorillla-glue and life is good again.
The fancy new engine mounts from Mike Serpe at Gwagen-Preserve went on nicely. They couldn't be simpler! I hope things line up when the engine goes in this weekend!
I placed a painful order at Eurotruck for a set of red-front, white-rear suspension springs, plus various rubber parts, shift-linkage bushings, brake hoses, etc. I'll have a lot of this stuff apart anyway so now is the time to do them!
After reading about some brake bleeding tricks I ended up making my own pressure bleeder using a $9 bug sprayer from Home Depot, and a spare reservoir cap I picked up at Pick-n-pull. I drilled a hole in the center of the cap and epoxied in a plastic nipple to attach the sprayer line to. I decided not to install a pressure gauge just because there seems to be adequate feedback when pumping up the bottle. I expect about 10lbs to be plenty to make the fluid flow. I'm also using mil-spec silicone brake fluid that I purchased by the gallon on eBay. It's the good stuff, and only about $35 a gallon plus shipping. I plan to convert all of the hydraulic systems after the new hoses go on.
Well, I'll take & post more photos soon, but that's the update.
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