Hi, Im a new member. Just wanted to post a few pics of my baby and a few stats.

350,000 miles, 8 supplementary gauges, two aux fuel tank levels, two fuel temps, turbo boost, EGT, Lift pump outlet pressure. Twin trunk mounted fuel tanks, 800 mile total range. Tow package/continental style spare (depending on trip), roof mounted toy carriers.

1985 300SD 2.88 Rear end (bright blue powdercoat under all the oil)
1981 240D 4-speed manual
3 inch exhaust with glass pack (they made me put it on)
Blocked off EGR.
EMPI aluminum shifter, stock boot, custom shaft to work with both.

Basically, Ive tried to rig this car up to be as fast as possible top speed for highway cruising. I make a lot of road trips, for work and pleasure. Other than that, Ive added gauges so I can watch everything, added tanks so I don't have to stop, and added places to take all my toys with me on the road.

Jeebus! Thats a lot a gauges. You must be king dick over the ricers. I must say that's a badass car.

Looking nice!

(04-20-2009 09:38 PM)dropnosky Wrote:  8 supplementary gauges, two aux fuel tank levels, two fuel temps, turbo boost, EGT, Lift pump outlet pressure.

You described 7 gauges, whats the 8th?

Thanks! Im slowly trying to make it impossible to see outside! whoops, the 8th is fuel restriction before lift pump. What id really like to do at one point is make an actual A-pillar multi gauge pod. A friend of mine has a pretty decent home made vacu-form machine rigged up; I need to carve a gauge pod, or make one out of clay, then we can make some styrene test pieces.

It wasn't fifteen minutes since I had all those gauges tentatively rigged on the pillar when I caught the topmost one with my head and ripped it off! Hence the closeness of it to the next one down. I think the center of the dash, or up above are far less risky locations and look nice.

Here are some archive pictures of one that might help you along.

Sold!
(as of quite a few months ago)

The car was starting to rot quite alarmingly fast with daily use in a high salt area. That, and other reasons caused me to sell her and look for a wagon. It has moved on to a garaged existence with a pampering new owner who may decide to fully restore the rust and damage.

so, little bit of additional data for whomever as regards to tranny longevity.

The 4-speed on this car just blew, tranny shop friend of mine called to give me a ration of shit because he has been given the job of repairing the car, and has no idea where I got that tranny!

At any rate, When I sold the vehicle, it had about 360,000 miles on it. I put about 50,000-60,000 miles on the car in total, and about 35-40,000 miles on the 4-speed if I remember correctly. The new owner put another 30,000 miles on the car.

The donor vehicle was a 1981 240 with about 280,000 miles on it, meaning that the tranny survived to a total of 350,000 miles, with the last 70,000 behind the turbo application, and during my use, some definite abuse with trailers and such.

Failure was the rear bearing and rear seal. My understanding from the phone call was the seal blew, and the current owner probably never noticed until it was too late, at which point he toasted other components, but mostly the bearing evidently.