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rkhelladi86

New Member
Joined
Aug 15, 2011
Messages
2
Car
Mercedes 230CE
Hello,

I wonder if anyone can help me.

I have a 1989 230 CE that started to misfire after a couple of years. the mechanic I use, said that the engine was dying and needed replacing. I bought a 1987 230 mercecedes with full service history and replaced the engine. the car was absolutely fine and run sweet, but once again a year on, the problems have started again.

I am now told that the reason for this is bacause these engines should run on 4 star leaded petrol and not unleaded and that I should convert the engine to run on unleaded to avoid this problem.

has anyone experienced this and if so how and where can I convert the engine to take unleaded.

anyone got any ideas. is this true or have I just been unlucky with this car.
Thank you
 
nonsense, your car will run fine on Unleaded.

You need a proper diagnosis. What is the exact issue? Low compression maybe?
 
Hi and welcome to the forum,as Jay say's ^ the car should run fine on unleaded
 
It's possible that what is failing is your cylinder head gasket. Its a very common fault on these engines. All it possibly needs is the cylinder head skimmed and a new head gasket. Engines of that age should have hardened valve seats and should run on on unleaded provided the ignition timing is set correctly. There is often a small dial near the second bulkhead which allows a change in ignition timing for lower octane fuel. It is rumoured that running these engines slightly retarded like this on lower 95 octane fuel makes them run SLIGHTLY hot and this can cause CHG failure. Having said that the solution is to run them on the higher 98 octane premium petrol with their factory timing after replacing the CHG.
PERSONALLY I WOULD SEEK A SECOND OPINION on what the problem is.
 
Thank you guys for all your help and advice. I have now booked the car with a merc specialist to diagnose the problem for me and I've shared with him what you guys have told me.
cheers
 

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