1988 W124 300 TurboD Coupé ''Gold'nBrown'' - intercooling it

You really are a man of action, Diesel Weasel!
Everything I ever plan gets locked in the procrastination phase for months...

David

Cool! Looking forward to see this conversion. A lot of job to do this. Looking forward to see it :-D

A Diesel-Coupe - you are the man!!! Awesome - bring it on

Kai

They'r missing a cylinder, though ;D A W126 Coupé - that's quit high on my list... Realy, realy awesome cruisers!

The first bit arrived, collected it yesterday when I examined the 300TDT Taxi we have at work.



This is the fluid reservoir for the rear suspension and for the locking diff. And I need to install this, and do away with the one currently fitted to my car.

From this:



To this, with the new reservoir:



It's neccesary, because the turbo's air filter takes all the space between headlight & coolant expansion tank:



Now I hear you say "just install a different airfilter"! Yes, I have thought about that. And I came to the conclusion, that I don'twant one. I want it silent and 'factory' looking. Plus I think it's a neat setup.

Re-routing isn't that hard, the hard lines run on the passenger side on all cars, only on those with the reservoir behind the ABS block, they are routed along the engine crossmember. I'll see if I can get all the hoses coming from the dual pump, should be no problem.

And whilst I was taking these snaps, cleaned the windscreen drains and installed a new OVP relais... I found my coolant leak.

And disaster happened. Argh!



The neck for the heater input is a push-fit and sealed with an O-ring. And it'S welded to the engine lifting brackets. When you look a few pages back; I installed a new temperature sensor. Not knowing about this construction, I took out a screw and bent the bracket back a bit to gain access...

But worst of all: the hose was so tight on the neck that I ripped it, trying to pull it off....... ARGH! And this on a friday afternoon - of course!

My MB dealer had the O-ring, bot not the hose... Which is 21€. That's acceptable - but will take untill monday to be delivered. I'll try to find a fix tomorrow... It'S freezing cold and snow falls. Great! Just great! ;D



Cheers,
Jan

The front wing/fender is very good news!

Nothing more annothing than cheap, nasty hose clamps. I've found Jubilee branded clips excellent.

Good evening!

Today was the day I collected the Turbodiesel donor car. Actually, my journey started yesterday. I slept over at friend's - my train went on 6:19 in the morning. The neighbours one floor above my bedroom decided to have a death metal party at 3:00 in the morning. I wentto bed in 1:00 - had to wake up 5:45... Erm - I can't get no sleep. Insomnia. Deedeedeedeeeeedede...

Anyway. I was brought to the tran station so I didn't have to leave the CE in a suspect area. This time I took the luxurious and fast ICE - booking early it was cheaper than the normal train - 25€.



I mostly slept, but was greated with this very large morning star when the train left Manheim.



A nap & some time later I arrived in Saarbrücken where I was picked up by the seller and his wife in a 300-24V W124 convertible. Arriving in style! At the seller's I was invited for breakfast, we looked at the car, agreed on a price, drank coffee and I started my journey back.

First stop: a fuel station. And realising what I just did ;D Filled the car with a bit of diesel - and took some snaps of the car.





And the smoothly idling, surprisingly quiet turbochraged straight six pre-chamber four stroke diesel engine, the reason I bought the car:



Black leather inside, but badly worn driver's seat - no wonder, as the odometer shows 535.000km (332k miles).



And so I took the route home, the exact same route I took the 300CE home



Arrived in the Pfalz, where I met up with Wolfi for a chat about the project - and took a snap at some of the last german crude oil pumps (same spot I photographed the 300CE - but a different pump this time). And of course had another two coffee ;D



Some hours later I waved good bye and went on the Autobahn, direction amost-home. Passed this used & abused but awesome Mk1:



And arrived at the place I started 9 hours ago. Since I have 4 days left on the temporary plates, we took the CE to work, where I will swap it with the 300TDT. Which will be stored there untill I can start the conversion.

First time I actually saw the CE driving from the outside. Such an elegant car!





Left the CE in good company...

...and got cought in a snow blizzard on the way home; temperatures dropped by 10°C in like 3 minutes! Crazy!!



I got some stuff with the car; like a pan for the boot, a rubber mat for that pan, an original fuel canister and the auxilliary gearbox oil cooler with electric fan which was only fitted to TDTs with air con & tow bar ;D



And: a FULL history of the car!! Incredible. Even the original buyer's contract from the first owner who ordered the car is present. Up untill the last TÜV report from 2010.



And a invoice from 2002 of 10.000€ for a brand new engine. ;D

That's it for today. I'm totaly knackered, tired but happy - as this engine is totaly, über, mega super-awesome! I love it - and it was the right decision to go for it!

Cheers,
Jan