I did add those support braces and the brackets worked great. The body did not hold, however.

Even with some rather large washers in place, the struts ended up poking their way through the body. It got me by for a few months (4 months exactly) until I was able to get my 240D running.

I would recommend anyone who wants to remove their TD suspension to get some stronger custom springs made and use good Bilstein shocks.

The pump blockoff plate works wonderful. It has not weeped a drop of oil and the timing chain sprocket/shaft have not shown any issues to date.