I just went and picked up a 1980 300sd. It had low compression so I pulled it out of the car, my dad made me a stand, and I pulled the head. If you look real close you can see the crack in the side of the #1 cylinder wall (the lip looks bad in the pics but ok in person). The rings on the piston are gone (you can wiggle the piston in the cylinder). Just thought some might enjoy the pic. I talked to a guy earlier today and he said that he had a turbo engine for my 300d so maybe he has one for my sd also. this currently leave me with:

1980 300sd (cracked cylinder wall)
1980 300d (bad crank, Going to install a turbo engine eventually)
1977 300d parts car, and what I am driving now, spray painted (runs and drives great, non-turbo, ironic isn't it?)

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Good News....
That sleeve is just about a $35 item...and is made to be able to be taken out and a new one put back in... as a normal service procedure for your engine...
If you can find a new engine... .great... but a crack in a sleeved engine by itself is pretty much nothing to worry about...
Do you know what caused it to get that way ? Like overheating?

I saw it was sleeved, I was worried that I was not going to be able to resleeve it myself though. I don't have any information on how to pull the old sleeve though I do know the basics of fitting a sleeve.


I have no clue what caused the sleeve to crack, but I suspect the rings went first. The air filter and intake where full of oil from the blow-by. The rest of engine looks ok to me so it is really a suprise to me. The engine only has 150k on it.

Do a search for ' skinnerbox' on this site... that is an online engine manual...
very straight forward.... they show how to make a simple tool for fitting into the sleeve to pull it out..and then give exact directions for putting it back and then boring and finishing it off at the top...
If you have another engine to throw in there that is great... but if not... then this is SOP for redoing these engines.. even though they are not usually cracked there....

You need more than a drift. You need a press and the tool. These are in tight. Leathermang, if Arnie gets serious about replacing the sleeves, he can use the tool from the loaner program. Arnie, if you have access to a press, the proper tool (which I already made ) will get these out, but I would not recommend trying to knock them out. With new sleeves pressed in, a COMPETENT machine shop specializing i n engine work can bore and hone these. The greater issue is what condition the pistons are in. If you can reuse them (inspect diameters and ring lands per FSM specs), then it's definitely worth it to resleeve. Good luck!

__________________
'82 300SD - 361K mi - "Blue"

"Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement."

listen, look, .........and duck.

I have a metal lathe and should be able to make up the tool in a short amount of time but will take you up on the offer if I see any problems. I do not have a press. I keep think of buying one (the shop could use one anyway), but I think I will try to hammer it out first, I was ready to junk the block anyway. I am not worried as much about getting them in. I have a lamp to heat the block up to about 200F and I will drop the new sleeve into a box of dry ice for a few hours. I know it will still be tight fit still but it should go. I have the propper boring equipment so I am not worried about that either.
The #1 piston is ruined, the broken compression rings chipped the top of the piston. I will put new compression rings in all around but I am geeting a head of myself. I still have not taken the pan off. Before I go any further i need to check my crank and pull the pistons.