Clint, Those who tell you not to bother with repair are letting the odometer influence them.
I like to tell people that these cars will run as long someone is willing to maintain and repair them. And they can be indefinitely repaired. Its when people start cutting corners and making compromises that things start to turn sour. Find yourself a mechanic who understands and have a valve job done. Its a small investment into a car that have already given you so much. Its likely your engine doesn't need any bottom end work since its been well maintained. It takes a special dedication to do what you've done. Keep up the good work! Jaime On Tue, Mar 27, 2012 at 11:40 PM, Rolling Hills Farm < rollinghillsma...@yahoo.com> wrote: > Hi all, > > My beloved 1984 W126 300SD, as of today, has 698,883 miles on it. Still > going on the original engine, with no overhaul since new. Majority of the > miles are highway miles, and just like tractor-trailers that typically run > a million miles with no sweat due to the fact that they stay on the > highway, the engine is still running like a champ. About 6 or so years > back, it started using oil, somewhere around 640K miles or so. Before > then, it didn't even use oil between 3K-mile oil changes! Determined that > the valve guides are leaky, thus the extra smoking and oil consumption. > Just in the past couple months, the smoking has gotten worse. My goal > since the day I bought the car 13 years or so ago, was to see just how many > miles it would go without an overhaul before it absolutely gave up the > ghost and puked. I have a parts car with a perfectly-running engine > (unfortunately unknown mileage), which will be replacing the engine in the > SD once it > finally dies (car itself is rust-free and still in unbelievably great > condition and a pure joy to drive, and after a cosmetic restoration about > 10 years ago, is still GORGEOUS). > > Just wondering if anyone has any ideas on valve guide replacement. I've > had 5 different people tell me that I should just leave well-enough alone, > and not replace the valve guides, but rather just keep driving it, adding > oil, and put up with the smoking. Something about replacing valve guides > that might screw up something else and make things worse than they are. As > I said, I want to see just how far I can push this original engine before > it dies. I don't abuse the car; I very,very seldom drive it over 65 mph, > and religiously do oil changes every 3K miles. It's using around 1.5 > quarts between oil changes, which to me, is incredible given the fact that > the engine has never been into since the day it was built. > > Any ideas? Smoking issue is worse than before. Every time I take off > from a stoplight, I have a lot of blue smoke (burning oil), and when I > start it the first time every day, it belches smoke like you wouldn't > believe. Just in regular driving though, there's no visible smoke. Engine > still sounds awesome (that opinion coming from comparing it to the other 20 > or so 2.4L and 3.0L cars I've owned over the years). Power isn't what it > used to be, but that's to be expected. I use Marvel Mystery Oil every > other oil change, don't know if that's any help or not, but I use it. > Someone recommended that I use some Lucas oil additive, maybe a half-quart > every other oil change. Any advice as to how I can keep this old girl > going as long as possible, and stretching out the miles as long as I can > would be MOST appreciated!!! My wife jokingly tells people that I love > that old car more than I love her, but ya know that isn't true, lol!! It's > certainly a > part of me, like family. I am determined to reach one million miles > eventually, although I know there's a snowball's chance in Purgatory that > it will happen with this original engine. > > Thanks in advance, > > Clint Lowe > Rolling Hills Farm > > Nothing will make a driver more faithful to a car > than a car that is faithful to its driver. > Life is too short, and the road too long, > to drive anything less than a Mercedes-Benz. > > www.facebook.com/rollinghillsfarm > _______________________________________ > http://www.okiebenz.com > For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com > To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ > > To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: > http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com > -- Jaime Kopchinski http://www.jaimekop.com/ _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
