procedure to start 280SL after 7 years?

[bkaiser51]

A little background: I have a 1968 280SL that I bought about 8 years ago. I took a bus to South Carolina and drove it home to upstate NY. Probably pretty stupid, but it was fun (except for the 17 bus ride). It's a European version bought new by an American Serviceman and shipped home. It's very solid and complete. I have receipts for an engine rebuild by the PO. The previous owner cautioned me that the injection pump lost pressure on 2 cylinders and it ran a little rough when first started. Other than that it ran great back to NY and I drove it that summer. It never ran as good as the trip home though. Seamed to idle rough and be down on power. I adjusted the valves and noticed some lobe wear on the rear cylinders and suspect it's a lubrication problem. I found an O-Ring missing in the oil filter and wonder if the oil was being filtered at all. That winter on a very cold day, I started it to move out of the garage. I started hard and ran very rough and quit and wouldn't start. That summer I got it to start, but it never ran well enough to drive and other car projects took precedence, so it just sat and hasn't run since.

I would like to get it running this spring and have been reading and printing relevant posts and articles from the tech manual. I have years of experience with rebuilding and restoring American stuff and have done most everything on my 300CE, but I think I'm a little intimidated by this thing.

What would be a good logical process to bring this back to life? Probably start with draining and flushing the fuel tank, lines?

Thanks in advance,

Bruce
   

[Jonny B]

I just did a quick search and found this

Look here
http://www.sl113.org/wiki/Maintenance/Start
start reading at "Tinkering Tips"

There is a lot of information about getting a car back on the road after setting for a while.

Try a little poking around to learn the search function, it will be your friend.

BTW - WELCOME to the group.

[ja17]

Clean fuel , oil  and a fresh set of spark plugs is a good place to start. Remove the fuel sender in the trunk first and inspect the inside of the fuel tank for debris, rust, water etc. If the tank is full of contamination, deal with this first.

Yes, when that upper oil filter seal is missing, the oil does not get filtered. Sludge forms and the small pin-holes in the cam oil tube get plugged. Worn cam lobes and worn rockers result.

Keep us up to date. If you want to learn a lot in a short time, join us at  the "PUB" event later in the year. 

[ctaylor738]

What Joe said, but maybe treat it to a new set of points and condenser as well? 

Might be a good idea to:

- take the oil tube off the cam towers and clean it out or replace it

- take the warm-running device apart and make sure the plunger moves

Good luck!

[bkaiser51]

Thanks everybody for the replies. When I commented to the previous owner about the cam lobe wear, he said that's why the engine was rebuilt and was surprised by the new wear. I mentioned the missing o-ring in the filter housing and he'd never heard of it, so that's not a good sign. My only hope is that it wasn't driven enough to do a lot of damage (other than the cam lobes) I'll start at the tank and work my way forward and let you know what I find. I've had some shoulder surgery that should be good enough by spring to get going on it.  The car is so pretty sitting in the garage, it's killing me not to be able to use it. It's a project, that needs paint, interior and a top, but it's almost rust free and complete down to the tool kit and it was still a lot of fun driving it in that condition.

I'm fascinated by the mechanical fuel injection and it's link to the 300SL and 30s grand prix race cars. I'd like to learn enough about it to get it right, but am torn between spending the money on it or starting over with EFI or a later 3.2 six swap, but I think it be would be much more satisfying to master the mechanical system, though.

Also considering the Porsche Michael J Burgess book.

Joe, I've read about your event for years and would love to bring the car. Maybe next year.