I thought I remember seeing an older-style pull-start/manual shut off setup in a W123 in Germany - and this video shows exactly that - and I don't think it's a retrofit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1Ska3Eq1YU
It appears to have the same style of intake & IP as my 1976 240D, with an oil bath air filter. It even sounds the same (the one in the video is unfortunately pretty beat up & rusty though).
I seem to remember reading something about that the W123 was introduced in 1975, but in the U.S., we started getting them in 1977, and all of the US models had vacuum shut-off/key start, paper air filter and an injection pump that you didn't have to manually add oil to.
I also know that there are 200D and 220D W123 models in Europe & elsewhere in the world, and have seen a 200D imported here, but the engine setup looked more like a newer W123 240D than a W115 220D.
So what year did Mercedes stop making the older-style 4-cylinder engines that were used in the W115 cars?
In other history - IIRC, the OM617 turbodiesel was first built in 1976 and put in the W116 300SD starting in 1978 - and didn't appear in the 300D until 1982 - but in Europe & elsewhere, the 300D's all had a normally aspirated 617? Was the OM617 manufactured after 1985 for anything?
Other than the cloth seats, shorter bumpers, lack of the "DIESEL" badge on the right side of the trunk, the headlights, manual heating controls, manual transmission option, and lack of a radiator expansion tank, were there other differences between the Euro/international & U.S. model W123's? Any unusual models anyone has seen?
-AC