Well progress has been kind of slow; limited to a few hours on weekends and evenings. Over the weekend I was able to remove all the gearbox to engine bolts. Luckily the car will be junked, so I was able to beat back the engine firewall to access the upper bolts. If the car wasn't to be scrapped, I don't know how a mechanic could possibly reach those bolts.

Mercedes has a reputation of being a well engineered car, but do Mercedes engineers actually work on these cars? I don't think so. First, the Allen key bolts that can be accessed only through a small tunnel in the engine cross member is utterly ridiculous. Is that the best idea they could come up with? Needless to say, the one on the driver's side of my 300SD is stripped, and cannot be removed. Arrrgh.

No problem, I will just remove the mount from the engine. Two bolts are easily accessible, but the lower rear one is from hell. A one inch deep socket can easily fit on the nut, but the engine vibration damper mount prevents a rachet from going on the socket. This design is totally unnecessary and asinine. Similarly, the metal lines from the oil filter to the oil cooler prevents a wrench from going on the bolt.

Infuriating trying to take this engine out so far. What other engineering surprises awaits?