Greetings all. I'm back with an update.

Had the car checked out by an indy Mercedes shop and all looks good. Needs injector return lines, glow plugs and rear brake pads, and a few other minor things. Again this is a '81 300TD with 161k miles.

They did a compression check and found the following:

1. 360
2. 330
3. 380
4. 340
5. 330

How do these numbers look to all you gurus? The shop said this is "within spec" as far as the variance, but I forgot to ask what the normal max compression is, so I don't know what sort of wear these numbers indicate.

Also, he said the oil was overfilled by a quart, but said this would not be harmful for a short period. Your thoughts?

There were no major problems found on the car. Trans and rear end are good. Self-leveling works. AC seems intermittent, so I'll want to get that looked at for sure.

Thanks again!