I am helping a neighbour, Christian, to get his 1965 230SL back on the road. The car has been stored for about 15 years, and Christian has finally decided the time has come to recommission the car. The car is in the Eastern Townships, about an hour out of Montreal. I visited it a couple of weeks ago and there's a lot of work to be done. Christian has hired a mechanic to do the work, who has a lot of experience working on cars (various, British, American), but not specific to Mercedes. He's already done a lot of reading on the Pagoda group and he's a full member. He's asked me to post some questions since he's more comfortable in French than in English.
The first question relates to the fuel system. It sounds like the car still has its early tall fuel pump, and the fuel tank may (or may not) have beeen changed to the larger tank. He's measuring only about 5 psi fuel pressure, though he's done a volume flow rate test and he seems to be getting sufficient flow rate (about 3 liter per min).
- is there a way to visually check whether the tank is 65 liters or 80 liters?
- did the early pumps have lower pressure than the later pumps, or were they all expected to produce 15 psi?
- how should the bypass be set up and could this affect the fuel pressure if it's not correctly set up?
We're essentially trying to figure out whether the low pressure being measured is normal; or maybe due to an incorrect setup; or indicative of the need to change the pump.
Thanks