Normal operating temp about 85 to 90.Cylinder head cracking is not common as with the 603 #14 head,it is not unheard of to have a head gasket problem sometimes letting oil into the #1 cylinder. I find the power OK but cant compare it with any other MB as this is the only one i have owned.Some of these had early timing chain failures,so you should plan on checking and maybe replacing the chain,and it is not unheard of to have a vacuum pump failure and both it and the chain can cause catastrophic engine damage.I really like the car and just turned 250,000 miles a week or so ago.When i bought it a couple of years ago in the first month i probably spent $1000 on it ,but thats just me most people would probably not have bothered with most of the stuff that i did,since then it has been great. I run B100 in it when i have the grease to make it with which is most of the time ,in the past year i have only bought D2 a few times.Read up on GSXRs posts as he has alot of good info and really knows these cars and plan on doing the waste gate modification to a pressure operated one as that eliminates alot of potential performance issues. Don

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Red Green "This is only temporary,Unless it works!"

97 E300D 157000 miles
87 300TD ?141k? miles