I was wondering the same thing about the motors - I have read many times on this site that the post 123 diesel motors were really lousey. I guess they cracked heads and bent rods all the time. So which motors are the ones I should stay away from and which ones are good motors?

Thanks

Greg

Greg,

I believe the rod bending you refer to was in the 3.5 liter (350SDL - 126 series). The rods weren't beefed to match the increase in size, which resulted in bent rods. The 4 and 5 cylinders as well as the 3 liter 6 cylinders are quite sturdy in all applications. Larry Bible's signature sums it up nicely (even if he is a Teasipper).

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Mike Tangas
73 280 SEL 4.5

The 6 cyl 3 liter engine used between 1986 and 1987 (300D and 300 SDL) are good strong engine with some problems. The 6 cyl engine resurfaced again between 1990 thru 1994 with a large displacement, 3.5 liter. From the information I got, many people had major problems with the 3.5 liter engine.

I am not going into the problems with the 3.5 liter but here are the problems with the 3 liter engine. You may want to know them before you buy one:

(1) It has an aluminum head. The orignal design of the head was bad and easy to crack.
The replacement head should be the improved version and better. If you get the engine overheated with an improved head, you still can damage it just like any other car with aluminum head.

(2) Bent rod occurs when the engine sucks in a solid hard carbon disposit which comes off the inner surface of the intake manifold. The carbon is formed inside the manifold due to the exhaust gas coming thru the EGR valve.

(3) There were early reports about oil pump failure due to a screw working it way into the oil pump from the oil pan.

I got most of the information from this forum. You can do a search to learn more about it.

David