To ALDA or not to ALDA That is the question. When I inspected the 1987 300TDt, down on Old Cape Cod, it was running OK. So I bought it and with Luke’s help drove it home. It drove on the highway at about 60 mph all the way home with no problems other that Luke’s report of massive black smoke at take off and when accelerating. This latest jewel was reluctant to go much over 65 mph, almost as if the turbo, um wasn’t, even though it was. Inspection of my new treasure revealed that the ALDA had been deleted and the IP was oozing a little oil from the uncovered pin. EBAY etc. was not showing any ALDA on their lists without the rest of the IP tagging along, so I stole the part from my spare 602 IP, pristine and un-buggered with. At this time there developed an exhaust leak in the front pipe between the cat converter and the flange. A guy in Connecticut had an original spare for not too much money and the problem was dealt with. The old pipe/cat converter dribbled a pint of very fine soot when I up-ended it to bring it inside, the center muffler was also sooty. The rear muffler was recent and reasonably clean. Over the next 4 plus months the car has been subjected to the lead-foot/Italian tune up routine and it now runs very well and quite fast enough. On hard acceleration there is a small puff of black smoke and if booted on the highway it will burp a small amount of smoke as it wails. Fuel economy has not been checked accurately as the odometer is kaput. My impression is that it has improved. My opinion, everyone has one, is that the people at MB and Bosch put the ALDA in the circuit for good and sufficient reason, and, anyone daft enough to remove it is a damn fool. YMMV !!
Fred Moir Lynn MA Diesel preferred. _______________________________________ http://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
