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1981 300SD alternative air intake
Many of us with older turbodiesels are just plain tired of having to replace the air cleaner bracket, and especially the mounts that hold the air cleaner in place. I've found a possible alternative that COMPLETELY REPLACES THE ENGINE MOUNTED FILTER HOUSING AND BRACKET with a K&N filter on the end of an intake tube attached directly to the turbo inlet.
The rules prevent me from including a link to another website, but I suppose the rules do not prevent stating the other source. It's Wade Performance Products.
I like the idea of ridding my car of the stock air cleaner, just on reliability grounds. My question would be: is that K&N filter rigidly attached to the turbo inlet going to break something (like the turbo housing) as the vibration shakes it to and fro? Or is there some other fatal flaw? Has anyone else out there tried the Wade Performance kit and found it reliable? I'd like to try it but am afraid to.
(If MercedesSource was selling it, I wouldn't question the reliability!)
Wow! Really impressed with the upgrades I have made
Well I just got finished installing the fuel pump, new injectors, timing
chain, new glow plugs, all the fuel heaters, all new fuel lines, oil cooler
lines, and also adjusted the waste gate on my turbo 300D. WOW! I mean this thing is fast! Thanks for the parts!
David M.
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Non factory hot air intakes.
The stock intake is really a cold air,you can add a performance filter.Once I replaced rack damper pin,motor mounts,and welded my air cleaner bracket.No shake and lasted two years,and still going .I reinforced it with metal(a better grade).
I like Wade Performace intakes!
I had a Wade Performance intake with Level-2 oil separator on my WVO-powered 1983 300D-T, with surprisingly good results. Not only did it eliminate the problematic OEM air intake/filtration system with all its rattles and failure-prone mounts, but it yielded a relatively mild but distinctly noticable performance boost, which was unexpected. More off-the-line power, and a higher "comfortable" freeway cruising speed were both very nice. It was installed for about a year and was still running great with no apparent issues with vibration, until my beautiful dunkelblau veggie Benz was sadly "killed" by a red-light-running, gas-guzzling SUV. (The irony.)
The kit does change the sound of the engine; you can really hear the turbo spool up with all the clutter of those stock air cleaner parts out of there! Almost sounds sporty, which seems a contradiction in terms for a W123, ha ha.
In short, Wade Performance intakes for Mercedes diesels get two thumbs up from me.
Thanks BioDrew! I may get one.
Thanks BioDrew! I was just hoping there was someone out there that could report some actual user experience with the Wade intake. I'm primarily concerned with reliability, and it sounds like you found no issues there. I doubt a bit of turbo whine will bother me much. So this is one possible solid fix for the troublesome stock air housing.
I've discovered too that there are various "parts & pieces" available at certain auto parts chains for fashioning your own custom intake and filter. I have the idea that it is preferable to mount the filter (and thus its weight) off of the engine, and route the clean air to the turbo inlet with a lightweight flexible duct of some sort.
I'm going to investigate this possibility shortly, and will post again if I find something that is workable. If not, the Wade system looks like the best choice so far. Thanks so much for your comments! And my condolences that you lost your diesel to the inattentive pilot who unknowingly engaged the ramming mode.