W124 300D Engine and box.

[TVRTASMIN]

I recently bought a 1993 300D engine and gearbox complete and was wondering if i could run it up out of the car.

I was going to make a frame to fasten the engine and box to plus bracketry for a radiator etc.

What would i need other than a battery, fuel, a capillary oil pressure guage to monitor the oil pressure and some means of running the glow plugs on for a period.
The engine has manifolds but obviously no other pipework or silencer so ear defenders will be in order too.

Stopping the engine is my main concern, would i just need to pull the shut off lever?

 

[230K]

Hey

Sounds like fun, u would need her well secured for when she fires and stops. Stop lever will stop it but they dont stop quick if u know what i mean.
Used to have a Marina engine and box set up one time to drive a saw but never got round to getting her cutting but she sat alone on the square of her own sump on the ground but a different beast entirely.

Good Luck

230K

 

[grober]

You may find that the standard engine cooling fan/ radiator combination is not enough to cool the engine if its running continuously at high rpm. Its amazing the extra cooling afforded by a cars movement thro the air which you wont have in a static setup. A cheap solution is a massive increase in the volume of coolant via a very large supplementary tank if you can rig this up. This might also require a supplementary positive displacement pump such as a JABSCO beloved of marine engineeers. You could rig it up to run off the ancillary pulleys on the front of the engine. If you just want to run the engine for a few minutes at a time then this would be unnecessary of course.

 

[bolide]

Multivalves sound great without an exhaust. Just make sure the torque reaction doesn't make it fall over

You won't need a radiator for a quick run-up. Just bypass it. The heat exchanger dumps heat from the water into the oil on startup then, when the oil temp exceeds that of the water, heat passes the other way

You might be well-advised to take the serpentine belt off so the pumps don't run. Not sure about that

Nick Froome
www.w124.co.uk

 

[TVRTASMIN]

The engine is a 12 Valve Nick.
I was only going to run it up until the engine was to working temperature.
Would i get gearbox oil pumping out all over the place, or could i run it dry. Obviously it would be in neutral for the run up.

 

[bolide]

Gearbox oil cooler. I wonder what pressure that runs at? I wouldn't like to run the box when dry

Nick Froome
www.w124.co.uk

 

[Parrot of Doom]

You could just disconnect the gearbox though couldn't you? Or do you need that to run as well?

 

[TVRTASMIN]

I'd like to keep the box connected up as that is how i bought it and how it should be shoe horned into the car.
I've a 3 month warranty on it so as there is no rush anymore to fit it, i need to check it is going to run well or get my money back.
It is a 1993 engine with only 117K on it so it should be OK.

I bought it to replace the engine i have in the car at the moment, as at the time the engine sounded terminal having filled up with a contaminated batch of biodiesel.
The supplier has since gone into liquidation, just after several other people also suffered hundreds of pounds of damage to their engines!

 

[Dieselman]

Just connect any cooler lines back round to themselves as it isn't going to get hot because it won't be under load.
Loop the rad hoses round as well for the same reason. If really bothered put them in a bucket of water.

Connect diesel flow and return to a can and manually apply power to the stop solenoid, glowplugs and starter motor.
Do a semi permenant connection to the stop solenoid, touch the glowplug lead for 10 secs then short the starter solenoid with a spanner to the small connection with a good connection on the main +ve feed.

Don't forget an earth connection.

For oil pressure guage connect a test lamp to the pressure switch and /or a mechanical gauge to check pressure.

Just rest teh motor on the ground and have someone hold it when starting.

We did this to a friends ex-combine harvester 5.7 litre straight six with no problems. What a glorious noise.

 

[TVRTASMIN]

Would i just get away with using the lever to stop the engine or does the stop solenoid need to be powered up?

Cheers

 

[bolide]

Just use the lever

Nick Froome
www.w124.co.uk