Hi,

I've got a '84 300D turbo with 200,000 miles. The history of the car is it was involved in an accident and repaired by competent mechanic but I believe the air cleaner and parts of the engine cooling system were scavenged off other merc models. In addition the car sat for a time with the hood off so many of the plastic hoses and fitting started to deteriorate from sun exposure.

When I got the car it still started and ran fine but one day I couldn't get it to start. It would turn over but none of the cylinders would catch. It was low on fuel when this happened so I tried adding fresh diesel. Next I tried replacing both the inline and spin on fuel filters as well as replacing the deteriorated hoses to the injection pump. Currently the car has been sitting for 18 months since it last ran. I haven't checked the plugs but it was over 90 out yesterday (this is oklahoma) and I figured it should be hot enough to start.

I'm hoping their is just air in the fuel lines but I'm afraid the injection pump is bad. Is there a way to check the pump and test that it's getting fuel to the engine. Any help would be welcome.

 

Update

I bled the air out of the lines going to each injector and noticed the first two lines (toward the front of the engine) had little or no fuel flow going to the injectors. I blew those two out with compressed air and used a syringe to fill them with fuel injector cleaner. I also put some injector cleaner into the first and second outlets on the pump housing and let it sit for a few hours. When I tried to start it I noticed fuel flowing from the second injector line but nothing from the first. However I was able to get it started with fuel flow to only four cylinders (leaving the 1st injector line disconnected) and after it idled for a few minutes the fuel started flowing through the first line as well. Once I reconnected the 1st line I was able to get it started after a couple of cranks.

Only issue now is there seems to be a lot of fuel leaking from the fuel return lines on top of the engine. Also I was wanting to eventually convert to running bio-diesel. Anyone have any suggestions where to get good replacements for the fuel return lines that are bio-diesel safe?

 

have you replaced the fuel lines that are now leaking? and if you have did you use diesel fuel lines?