All,
I picked up a '79 300SD pretty cheap and I'd like some suggestions on how to evaluate the engine and tranny. The odo reads ~350k miles, but ceased functioning before I bought the car. It isn't too hard to start even though the IP seems to be set way wrong (ie, you have to give it some pedal to start, and then nurse it along until it warms up). Oil pressure looks great to me-- 3 Bar at highway speeds, 1.5 Bar at idle when hot, and the needle pegs at 3 Bar as soon as you touch the pedal to accelerate from a stop. Aside from checking blowby and compression, can y'all offer any other tricks to evaluating the engine? I really don't think this engine has 350k mi on it.

The tranny seems to shift pretty nicely and feels nice and smooth. I haven't gotten the tach working yet so I can't tell very easily whether it is slipping, but it sure doesn't feel like it is. Short of dropping the pan and looking for metal, are there any good tricks for evaluating a tranny?

Thanks folks!