New guy here. I am looking at buying a 1973 220d and I have questions. I have had vw diesels in the past but no experience with mb. The engine seems strong but I noticed it produced a lot of black exhaust at all speeds. The owner says he adjusted the valves and had to replace a rocker arm. Is this normal exhaust for a 220d? It has 239k on the engine. I had a Ford that made a lot of black smoke and it sucked a valve so I am a little concerned. Also, the automatic tranny is hard shifting on the up and down shift. A definate jolt when it shifts gears. I am wondering if this is normal or should it be smooth. And the kick down is not consistent, the owner saying an adjustment of the lickage will fix it. He just replaced the fluid and filter in the AT. Any comments would be appreciated.

 

I had a 220D for 18 years, had 360,000 miles on it when I sold it to get a 560 SEC and a 300SDL. Kinda wish I still had it, was a very basic, reliable, tough car. I used synthetic motor oil, never had to add an oil between 20,000 mile oil changes (very extraordinary for a diesel, I admit). Could barely see black smoke out the rear window only when flooring it and accelerating very hard to get up to speed with the low horsepower engine.
A/C was tight and ran well, but had never changed from R12 refrigerant.
Only complaint I had about this car was Mercedes' coatings: they used then on the inside of the floor. These cars typically had problems with this hard coating coming loose and water condensing under it, causing hidden floor damage (check this closely). I replaced the rusted floor panels and lower rear quarter panels, which fixed and solved the problem (expensive). Rubber around windows and doors aged poorly on cars from this time period, look for cracks and leaks (and hidden rust).
John