I saw that car for sale and wondered if the owner was wrong about it needing a new engine. Something is odd there. Did the owner run it out of oil or something?
I have compression tested thru the glow plug holes and left the injection system intact, just pulling a vacuum on the shut off valve while doing the test. Worked fine.

I have no idea how diesel came out of #1. Can you get it to repeat? As I recall, the car had about 220k miles on it. Is that right. Original engine? It might run with compression numbers that low in very warm weather. I assume the owner couldn't get it to start in the fall sometime. Did it run fine in cold weather when you owned it and how many miles/years ago was that? What's the coolant level like?

__________________
1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13