ferociousfish

Well background info first.I have a 1982 380SEC. The car went in for a VERY expensive service a few weeks ago as it was having some trouble cold starting and thought a good service/tune would help. Runs fine when its warm and the only trouble is that initial start up, wont idle and stalls if you take your foot off the accelerator.

Since coming back I am still having trouble. I takes about 5 seconds of turning over to fire and then idles very roughly. I need to keep my foot slightly on the accelerator when backing out or else it dies. It surges slightly but once I'm on the road it runs fine with no hesitation or rough idle. It will also start and idle fine once warm. After a $2400 bill last time I am going to try and sort this out myself and that's where you guys come in!!

So my mechanic did tell me my regulator needs to be sent away for calibration however I thought I'd get some ideas from you guys first. In the picture below, if I remove the connector off the circled bit (idle control valve - am I correct) this should surge but has no effect on idle at all. Would this be one of my problems? How hard is this to replace? Simple undo, replace and retighten?



Now the new reason for concern, when I took the air cleaner off today this is what I found. What the hell is this?





I have been doing some research on this forum and some people with similar problems suggest the OCV. Where is this? I have attached a picture of my engine bay so if someone could point out any areas I should concentrate on I would be greatly appreciated! I have a cute sister who I would be willing to post to the person who solves my problem.


Cheers

vdubpower

dude did someone vomit in your engine...wtf...it looks like one of the aliens from Alien died in there.....post this on benzworld....best place for w126 info....ewwwwwwwwwwwwww

oldsinner111

Looks like air water and oil mixed.Check oil,look in rocker cover.Check dipstick for this snot.Or water some how mixed in from rain and pvc valve.

elolson

You have your call out on the idle control valve. Hard to see how this would cause your hard start issue especially since you say it idles fine when warm. You have something else going on. The little device under your bubble to the upper left is the warm up regulator. That could be a factor, there are some fuel pressure tests that you can do to rule it in or out. After it is warm does it start up and run fine? Is the issue only on a cold start? Can it be warm and there is a time after which it will not run so good (injector leakdown)?

I do not know what that mess is, take off the cleaner and clean that junk out. Make sure you get all the tubes hooked back up, even the one underneath on the back left side.

northbeach

dude, that is one great looking engine (i have a 380 sel 1983), but that blob situation must go. man, i have never seen anything like that before. keep us posted!