Resurrecting A 1983 Mercedes Garaged Since 2003

Greetz all,

Fresh meat

I am about to start working on a 1983, 230E with 28,000 km on it. It’s fuel injected.

The car has been parked in a heated garage since 2003 and, from what I can tell, it’s mint. Nobody has ever messed with it and it still belongs to the original owner.

I want to restore it to running condition. What’s the protocol ? The last thing I want to do is damage the car trying to start it.

I presume one step would be flushing out the fuel lines….how does one do that on a Merc ??

You can drop the gas tank down and clean it out on the ground.
New Fuel Filter.
There is A Bosch distributor head Mechanical injection pump like a diesel engine has.
It may need to be rebuilt.

They are infamous for dried out intake manifold O-ring lower plenum gaskets.
It's a C4 Corvette style TPI tuned port intake manifold flipped upside down.
Hidden from top view.
They are difficult to take apart and reassemble a million Vacuum lines on the engine easy to missplace loose track of the lines.
They run nice I recall.
Very Precision machined engine.
I have worked on 4-5 in the past.
One of the Hardest to work on.

If it has problems locked up, it's a prime candidate for a USA Drag Race Style engine swap. Kool little Mercedes engine.
Difficult 10 to 10th power.
Only best can work on and repair.
I have had 100% success.
No fast repairs takes alot of time

It's a 4 cylinder.
I worked on the Mercedes V8s in past.

1/2 as difficult 4 cylinder

The Old Chiltons Repair Manuals for your Year of Mercedes are pretty decent for pictures and guidelines to make repairs.

yeah, as a start point
Id do an oil change,
trans fluid change, (manual or auto)
differential oil change,
coolant and brake fluid change,
and of course the battery needs to be replaced

https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/march-1977/37/the-mercedes-280e-w123

It's the Bosch K-Tronic Mechanical Distributor head Gasoline injection pump system.
There is a Lift Pump low pressure pump a Bosch early Electric turbine pump ( like the later Bosch 044 used in early days C4 Corvette EFI Racing) and fuel filter packaged stacked on on top of another back by the gas tank.
It resides between the Rear IRS Differential and gas tank.
Those fuel pumps always fail when an old Mercedes sits for 1-2 years.
Most likely shot after 17 years sitting not ran since 2003 .

K-tronic Bosch Mechanical Injection uses on those Delorean cars I recall.
Used to work on them too.

Early Mass Air flow meter, an air valve hooked Mechanical to a Potentiometer.
K-Tronic.