Good morning. Well I went and did it. The 230sl now resides in my garage, but I can tell you that I am dismayed at the incredibly large oil leak that it deposited. This car is absolutely puking.
I cleaned the engine and undercarriage so that I can try to locate what in the heck is going on and it looks like the tach drive and maybe something near the harmonic balancer pulley, for starters. The tach had just been repaired by the previous owner, or should I say his "mechanic", or at least someone who pretends to be a mechanic. This car is even leaking oil onto my foot!
There is a rubber hose that is mated to what looks like the back of the instrument cluster and there is a leak back there as well. I have never had that happen in all my years of owning/driving. I must admit that the severity of the leaks(s) and the mess that has been made have made it difficult for me to rejoice in my purchase, at least yet.
The car pulls mightily and I can't see any smoke, however when I get the speed above 110kph there is significant smoke out of the exhaust that goes away again after coming down below that speed. Is there an oil pressure valve somewhere that may be causing this engine to be weeping/dripping from what seems like every orifice and blowing out the exhaust at upper speeds?
There also seems to be a small coolant leak as well, but I can’t tell exactly what is going on until I am able to lay under there without soaking my shirt in a large puddle of oil. I am looking through the search engine and the FAQ's right now, but I must admit that I need some moral/emotional support to help me through this initial shock. By the way, the oil pressure reads pegged at anything above idle, but I don’t know if I can trust any gauges yet.
The road wandering has been remedied by placing the proper air amount in the tires. Gee, 40psi in three and 30 in one sure made it squirrelly. Having the tires at 32psi reduced significantly the rattles and jolts when hitting small road imperfections.
I gave it a full grease job Saturday night, however, the king pin on the drivers side would not take any grease through either the upper or lower fitting even though I removed the upper zerk fitting and verified that it was free. Any ideas on what could be the culprit here?
I tightened the wheel bearings ever so slightly and lost that wobbly feel when moving the tire/wheel with hands at the 12 and 6 positions. It was very slight to begin with, but now is imperceptible. The front end is really very tight, and I must admit that the car handles quite well for 1960’s technology. Rather tight and sporty, which is refreshing as it matches the looks of the car.
I will replace the body mount to rear diff bushing later though, since I looked in the boot/trunk and it was kind of squished. I remember reading that it should be about a quarter of an inch and mine isn’t. Not metal to metal either though.
So, write one and all to tell me of oil leak stories and fixes so that I can quit wrestling with whether or not to put this car on ebay and try to get my money back. Believe it or not, this was to be a driver so that my wife and I could enjoy a convertible while the other car(s) are in phases of restoration. I really didn’t want to devote all available hours to massaging this poor little vehicle into road-worthiness. Actually, it is very road worthy, just not garage worthy…
Thanks,
Ed Fisher
P.S. Some really good news? I crawled over and under this car with flashlight, magnet, icepick, and with my best reading glasses on and there is no rust. I didn't think there would be, given that this is a North Texas car, but some of the postings had me worried, especially the one that said "these cars will rust on the moon".
We are hot and dry here and the cars are wonderfully well preserved. I once took the shocks off of a 65 Mustang by merely cracking the nuts and removing them the rest of the way with my fingers. In NE Ohio, where I grew up, shocks were removed only with a wrench that emits a blue flame. Also, the car has never been hit, the spot welds are all perfect and the panels show no signs of work anywhere. The horrid hood alignment is, I’m quite sure, the result of the “mechanic” and his radiator replacement.
