Urgent! Weird Problem

fishmidi

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Dec 14, 2012
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Your Mercedes
190e/1993/2.3 8 valve
Hi guys,

I bought a 1993 2.3 L, 4 cylinder, 190e a few months back. It has 94k miles on the original motor. Since I owned it, it had an issue with starting when warm. Cold start is really fast generally. Yet the car drives really well once you get it started. Did a complete tune up, changed Oxygen sensor. Then I decided to do a compression test and a leak down test and surprisingly got these results:

1st cyl - 105 lbs; 25 % leak
2nd cyl - 80 lbs; 85 % leak
3rd cyl - 75 lbs; 85% leak
4th cyl - 50 lbs; 85% leak

How could this be possible, given the car runs so well? Some history on the car: owned by an old couple; always dealer-maintained, no major service done to it. It was stored in a barn for about 5 years, by their son, since they passed away. Any way there are just some stuck valves/rings that some good old additives can fix?! Or am I just being delusional here. Could this engine just crap out this soon (94k)?

It has poor idle. While driving however, cannot even tell that anything is wrong with it, other than a bit of loss of power up hills. Driving along the other day, pulled over to the side of the road to wait for my friend behind me (that is how well it drives! :)) and the car crapped out. I got stuck there; it didn't want to restart. Even after 6 hours of waiting for it to cool (after the tow home), didn't want to start. Any thoughts would sure be appreciated.

S
 
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television

Always remembered RIP
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Daventry
Your Mercedes
2002 SL500, 216 CL500, all fully loaded
2 things come to mind, dizzy cap and rotor wet with condensation or OVP relay missing an output
 

teddycatkin

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cheshire cheese country
Your Mercedes
W107-SL W124-220te W123-230e W201 2.0
2 things come to mind, dizzy cap and rotor wet with condensation or OVP relay missing an output

As tv says---OVP 1st then all the usual checks -dizzy leads ect.,-milage is not a problem!
If you are keeping the car -I would remove head --clean it all out skim and fit a new head gasket?
 

spock500

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Your Mercedes
300TD, 1998
If the timing is out for any length of time they will burn the valve seats out.

A good way to free up stuck rings is to use a wall paper stripper or similar. Lot's of threads on the veggie forums but in essence you let steam vapour into the inlet while running at 1,500 ish.

This idea came about when mechanics removed the heads off engines with gasket leaks. They found the piston nearest the leak spotlessly clean, devoid of all carbon.
 

Pathfinder

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63
Location
Gourock
Your Mercedes
CLC 220 CDi Sport Diesel Year 2008
Going by your compression readings, piston rings and valve seats need an overhlaul as a minimum.
 

Gary Hanson

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Your Mercedes
A Jag. Jags are my favourite.
Going by your compression readings, piston rings and valve seats need an overhaul as a minimum.
I bought a ford 1.6 crossflow engine with poor compression once many years ago to make a MK2 Fiesta 1 litre more interesting (and give it the ability to actually overtake other cars that were moving). The seller swore it ran well and didn't have any faults, but he lied.
I tried to improve it by pouring Redex down the bores and leaving it for a few days, but it made no difference. It turned out it was the piston rings which were stuck. ie the compression ring grooves were gummed up so the rings couldn't expand and prevent compression leaks like they're meant to. I took the old rings out, cleaned out the grooves and bought a new set of rings which I fitted. The piston skirts were quite scored, but I didn't bother replacing the pistons, because I'd already spent quite a lot on that engine, (new oil pump, head gasket set and big end bearing shells).
The bad news is that if you have to replace rings, you have to take off the sump to unbolt the bearing caps, and take the head off to get the pistons out.
 

kth286

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Your Mercedes
E320 Coupe 95
pouring some oil into bores and testing again will prove whether rings or not.
 

kth286

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Your Mercedes
E320 Coupe 95
what is engine vacuum like ?

Attach a vacuum gauge and give us the readings - can gain lots of info.
 

spock500

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Milton Keynes
Your Mercedes
300TD, 1998
..when you say URGENT
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