Author Topic: 230sl injection pump issues (Read 6133 times)

swithland · « **on:** February 05, 2018, 19:11:39 »

Good evening all :-) I bought my 230SL a year ago but it has driven like a bag of Pooh ever since buying it.

The dealer that ‘brokered’ the sale assured me he would get it running right when I signed the agreement and paid the deposit. He assured me the car had been sorted out and delivered it on a trailer....sadly he had not got it sorted out and the same issues arose as were during the test drive.....popping, backfiring when pushing the car between gears on acceleration.

So I sent it to a local garage who said the points and condenser were jiggered.....fair enough I thought. When I got the car back it still popped and backfired on acceleration.....urghhhhh.

I bought a new 123 distributor thinking that may solve the issues and set all the timing meticulously.....but it still ran poorly.

I changed the big fuel filter a few days ago thinking it may be a starvation issue and also put new plugs in. Now it won’t start at all and there is no sign of life when turning the engine.

I removed the return fuel hose and placed into a bucket and turned up n the ignition.....fuel gushes out. I also blew through the return pipe and that is not blocked.

I removed a few plugs and they were dry !!! I also removed an injector pipe and turned over the engine and no fuel came out.....so I guessed it must be a problem with the injection pump.... but it seems odd this happened after changing the big fuel filter...

I wondered if there could be an air blockage or something like that inside the pump but could not find any info in my manual or online about purging air from the injection pump....

Frankly I feel a bit useless and an idiot too. I’ve had the car a year and have not been able to drive it.

Does anyone have any idea how I could solve this problem ? Is it possibly a fuel air lock in the pump ( or not !!! ) or is there something I’m not doing right ?

Many thanks in advance for any advice other than telling me what a fool I was to trust the dealer I bought the car through..... :-(

stickandrudderman · « **Reply #1 on:** February 05, 2018, 20:43:50 »

Send it to me and I’ll sort it for you.

Pawel66 · « **Reply #2 on:** February 05, 2018, 20:53:49 »

A couple of years ago I was in a very similar situation as you are now. I turned to this forum for help. Nobody neither laughed at me nor called me a fool (officially

).
I had one disadvantage - I had no mechanic at hand to help me who would know these cars (my mechanic restores 190Sls and Pontons so that they get 1 - 1.2 grades, but it was his first Pagoda). You have some of the fellow members there in the UK who could take a look.
In my case the engine hesitation on acceleration was wrong timing and too rich mixture.
Honestly: if I were you, I would pack the car and go to one of the guys from this forum if I had them within 500km range to look at my car from A to Z.
I would have the important stuff sorted and cosmetics to have fun doing.

swithland · « **Reply #3 on:** February 05, 2018, 21:41:43 »

I read from another persons post that there is a gauze filter at the end of the pipe connecting to the cold start valve. So I disconnected the pipe and took out the bit with the mesh gauze inside and cleaned it up. The little monster has now started up !!!!

I’m going to take your advice and pack it up and send it down to the SL Centre in Staffordshire and let them straighten out the running issues. I’ve done most of the chrome work, some interior stuff and a load of dashboard work plus sorted out the exhaust and some suspension rubbers. So the car looks amazing ..... but I think I will have to get it running right by the experts.

swithland · « **Reply #4 on:** February 05, 2018, 22:01:00 »

Here is a pic

swithland · « **Reply #5 on:** February 05, 2018, 22:03:36 »

And one more..

Pawel66 · « **Reply #6 on:** February 05, 2018, 23:12:20 »

Nice car!

stickandrudderman · « **Reply #7 on:** February 05, 2018, 23:15:01 »

I’ve never heard of “The SL centre” in Staffordshire. I hope you don’t mean “The SL Shop”?

mistertj · « **Reply #8 on:** February 05, 2018, 23:31:29 »

If the timing is correct and no one has the wires crossed and going to the wrong plugs it does sound like the fuel mixture is too lean or you could have a vacuum leak. I like the suggestion of finding someone that is familiar with 230SLs. They do act different from 250's and 280's.

ja17 · « **Reply #9 on:** February 06, 2018, 04:31:56 »

Checking to make sure that the WRD is not stuck, is a good place to start sorting. In your case it would be stuck in the "down" or lean position.

swithland · « **Reply #10 on:** February 08, 2018, 11:35:26 »

Sorry, yes the Sl Shop. I called them this morning and they are booked solid until March. Then I called Roger Edwards in London and they are booked solid until the 26th March !! The Sl shop guys said that it could take them quite some time to tune up the car and cost as much as £2000 assuming its just a case of tuning. Seems a lot of money and time for tuning.....I will search around and see what other options are available.

swithland · « **Reply #11 on:** February 08, 2018, 11:36:48 »

That is a very good idea and I will take it out and check that it is not stuck. After I got the car started and took it out down the road, it stopped after just 200 meters. Took about ten minutes before it kicked back into life.

Pawel66 · « **Reply #12 on:** February 08, 2018, 11:46:25 »

GBP 2000 and quite some time to tune the car?

For GBP 1500 and wifi access I can jump on the plane and with the use of this forum's expertise, learning on the way (as I am not a mechanic and in my life I tuned just one car, I hope) and making a lot of mistakes I can tune it in 2 weeks.

But jokes aside: I think that the investment in the Full Membership was one of the best investments I made in my life. And you really have on this forum guys who are professionals in the UK, they know our cars and they know what they talk about.

ja17 · « **Reply #13 on:** February 08, 2018, 15:05:46 »

Seems you have the "classic fuel delivery problem" also. A contaminated fuel tank causes fuel supply to clog after a few minutes of running. (engine restarts after a few minutes of rest) Monitor the fuel pressure during running to verify or remove the sender in the trunk and view the inside of the fuel tank. Do check the WRD also.

Pawel66 · « **Reply #14 on:** February 08, 2018, 16:37:22 »

If the suspect is fuel delivery, if I remember correctly as I was going through this a couple of years back:

1. There should be certain pressure and certain steady volume delivered through the fuel line to the injection pump. Please check these numbers via search, but as I recall it should be a range of 15l/min (?) and steady. When it is half of it, the car will not run. Return hose needs to be clean (you checked that).

As Joe suggest - measuring the pressure while running is the best way if it cloggs from time to time.

2. If 230 is like 280 in this respect - there are 3 filters on the fuel way - at the bottom of the fuel tank, in the fuel pump and the big one (you replaced). Those other two may need to be checked (again, it is all here on the forum). The filter in the tank is easier to remove, the one in the fuel pump - I would have my mechanic do as I am afraid of those pumps.

Nobody knows what other ideas about fuel filters POs had - there maybe something else somewhere.

It is indeed easy to look inside the tank from the trunk through the sender hole as Joe is suggesting. You may want to get a gasket for the sender if you intend to remove it to look inside.

Then if fuel delivery is ok, there are other suspects to be checked (as you figured out) - the WRD and the barometric compensator - the usual way for this one to stick is in lean condition. Needless to say mine was stuck in rich condition...

Then there may be "illegal air" coming in, as stated above.

Then there may be linkage adjustment, e.g. throttle and FIP levers are not moving together, to start with. You are full member now, you have the access to Linkage Tour, which is a must to go through. Please do not ignore any step there, no matter how strange they seem.

If I am messing anything up, someone will correct me, I hear 230 work differently...

I am not sure what is your skill level. I did it all myslef with fairly low skills, but the only reason for it is that I did not have anybody experienced at hand or within 500km away. Otherwise I would have somone help me. On the other hand it is a lot of fun...

450sl · « **Reply #15 on:** February 08, 2018, 17:35:59 »

If i were you i would sent it to Stickandrudderman.

Pawel66 · « **Reply #16 on:** February 08, 2018, 19:38:26 »

Honestly, that is exactly what I would do.

Bonnyboy · « **Reply #17 on:** February 09, 2018, 00:09:42 »

I agree - sounds like fuel delivery. I followed the advice in the archives and even though I had convinced myself that I was getting enough fuel (I wasn't) and I convinced myself that the fuel tank was clean (it wasn't) after the one and only trip on the back of a flat deck truck I dove deeper and discovered my fuel delivery trifecta.. The pump was almost giving the correct amount of fuel delivery and the fuel tank had a fine coating of varnish restricting the flow out of the tank. A local rad shop boiled the tank after taking the flower pot out and a guitar wire on a drill cleaned out the orfices.

The big issue though turned out to be a kinked fuel return line that I discovered by accident as it was hidden under a glob of undercoating. The pipe got kinked but the undercoating covering the kink bounced back hiding the problem.

Check the volume in the fuel pump output and compare with the flow back into the tank and if they are not the same start chasing it backwards.

BE CAREFUL WORKING WITH FUEL AND HAVE A FIRE EXTINGUISHER HANDY

swithland · « **Reply #18 on:** April 10, 2019, 05:16:47 »

In the end I sent it to a chap at R H Classics near Melton Mowbray. He went through everything and got it purring beautifully. As advised by others, im messing around with the easier stuff on the car such as chrome, interior, fittings etc. Im going to rebuild the window winder mechanisms next as the windows dont go up properly and are are strange angles.

The car was very badly put together by the previous owner, and the guy that sold it to me was a real crook. Anyway, at least its running nice now. Many thanks to all the comments on this forum.

Jordan · « **Reply #19 on:** April 10, 2019, 11:32:03 »

It's great that you got your car sorted out and you can now enjoy it. It would help others if you could tell us what RH Classics did or found that caused the car to run so poorly. It may be written up on your invoice.

swithland · « **Reply #20 on:** April 15, 2019, 06:38:26 »

Cant post more than 4 pics at a time, so have just attached four parts that were rebuilt during the works including the power steering box. Im amazed that every part they had out, they totally rebuilt to pristine condition.

swithland · « **Reply #21 on:** April 15, 2019, 06:49:29 »

And this is everything that got done to the car.....

Pawel66 · « **Reply #22 on:** April 15, 2019, 08:46:25 »

Again, I wish I had a shop I could leave my car and be sure they would know what to do...

Shvegel · « **Reply #23 on:** April 18, 2019, 13:54:00 »

Pawel, As detail oriented as you and I are we are the kind of customers I would run from If I had a shop. It is near impossible to make money with customers that have that level of expectation. Challenging? Yes. Money making? No. When I had my own business I refused to work for engineers and architects. I had had bad experiences with both and learned to stay away. I once watched an architect trying to tell a concrete crew that he had measured all the thicknesses of the floor coverings for his home and he needed the floors in each room to be po

Pawel66 · « **Reply #24 on:** April 18, 2019, 14:30:59 »

Absolutely true!

But sometimes I know how to behave.

I saw price lists in shops saying

"Service with customer watching - extra charge of 25%"
"Service with a help/advise from customer help - extra charge of 50%".

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Author Topic: 230sl injection pump issues (Read 6133 times)

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