Hello everyone.. new here
A friend of mine has a friend with an 80's 300 wagon that she wants to part with.. not sure of the year or whether N/A or turbo. He says it has a blown head gasket. I've been looking for a benz wagon to convert. What is a fair asking price for something like this? What am I getting myself into in terms of getting it back in running condition. Sorrry for the vague details. I haven't seen the wagon yet.

Rich

How do they know it's a blown headgasket? White smoke, oil in coolant/coolant in oil, pressure in radiator hose cold, etc?

79-81 is non-turbo, 82-85 is turbo.

Price varies greatly depending on records, rust, and overall condition. For a rust filled beater, I'd pay $100-500. Decent middle of the road shape, $500-1,600. No rust and well maintained, $1,600 to whatever you are willing to part with.

Close! 79-80 are non-turbo, 81-85 are turbos. Wagons got turbos one year before sedans and CD's.
With a blown head gasket, or symptoms consistent with that, I feel those prices are high. At those prices there is no reason not to look for one without engine issues.
Just my opinion, and no offense to ForcedInduction.

__________________
Jimmy L.
'05 Acura TL 6MT
2001 ML430 My Spare

Gone:
'95 E300 188K "Batmobile" Texas Unfriendly Black
'85 300TD 235K "The Wagon" Texas Friendly White
'80 240D 154K "China" Scar engine installed
'81 300TD 240K "Smash"
'80 240D 230K "The Squash"
'81 240D 293K"Scar" Rear ended harder than Elton John

Presuming you would do all but the machine shop labor, to replace the head gasket you should expect to spend at least $250 to do the job. Need gasket set, should use new valve seals. Those are simple enough to do yourself. The job gets more interesting should you want to rebuild the head. Would need to locate a shop capable of pulling the prechambers and replacing them. Not easy to find shops with the tooling to do that, but they are out there, I just did the entire job on my 81 last summer and spent about $700 for the gasket set, chamber seals, new valve guides, valve seals, and of course the shop time to do the head work. Had a well worn head. They can run a lot of oil down the valve guides and it is most satisfying to get that cleared up.
She runs sooo much better now and the oil consumption has dropped to less than a third of what it was using before.

With all due respect to Forced Induction, I agree with Jimmy.

You are better off finding a good running wagon with out any issues.

If you think worst case scenario, you have already exceeded value of
car. You might pick it up as a parts vehicle, however, depending on
condition and your ability to store it.

My 2 cents worth.

Tom

I'd say it depends on how much you like to tinker with things. These are fun cars to work on and, if the blown gasket is the only thing wrong with it(i.e. interior is in good shape, no rust, ect.), I'd say if you can get it for less than a grand, take it. Even if you spend another thousand fixing the engine and getting it up to snuff, that's still $500 less than I paid for both of my cars.

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Seth

1984 300D 225K
1985 300D Donor body
1985 300D Turbo 165K. Totaled. Donor Engine. It runs!!!
1980 300SD 311K My New Baby.
1979 BMW 633csi 62K+++? Dead odo

Dang eBay prices are starting to affect my value baseline!

I would be cautious about buying a vehicle with a blown head gasket. I once bought a car with a blown head gasket and found out the hard way. There may be two problems, the blown head gasket and the reason why the head gasket blew. In my case it was a crack in the block on the deck in between two cylinders.

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green 85 300SD 200K miles "Das Schlepper Frog" With a OM603 TBO360 turbo ( To be intercooled someday )( Kalifornistani emissons )
white 79 300SD 200K'ish miles "Farfegnugen" (RIP - cracked crank)
desert storm primer 63 T-bird "The Undead" (long term hibernation)

http://ecomodder.com/forum/fe-graphs/sig692a.png

Having a friend who is selling a car might be better than dealing with a stranger but is far better than getting a vehicle off eBay. Just don't fall in love with the car and refuse to negociate for a price that reflects the cost of a car that needs work. Parts can be expensive in MB especially the SLS (self levelling suspension) for example.
OTOH, a good running wagon is a useful and desireable car, I've driven mine (I own 2 300TD's) cross country several times. They are turbo engines however. The N/A engine in the '79 thru '81 will be a lot less powerful and not something I would choose to drive long trips or on freeways trying to keep up with traffic at 70 MPH you will want to use earplugs as the engine makes a fair noise when "wound up" all the way. So regardless of conditions those factors need to be weighed, that is how you intend to use the car. Around town it would be fine I am sure.
Then the question of conversion. Are you planning on running grease or Bio?
Are you in an area where its really cold (as in other than the Southwest or the Southeast? The reason is because you need to decide if you will need a secon tank and valve to switch to diesel before you shut off the engine or if its cold youll wind up DOA
Just where to put all the WVO stuff is a problem in the wagon because a second tank any larger than a milk jug won't fit in the area where the tire jack goes, that being the only concealed area there is. Having a second fuel tank in the rear cargo area is not very pretty so a sedan might be a better choice for a conversion than the wagon.
But you gotta love the 123 wagons for what they are. If that one your friend is selling is relatively rust free and attractive looking it is something someone somewhere is willing to pay well for, running or not!

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'95 E320 Wagon my favorite road car. '99 E300D wolf in sheeps body, '87 300D Sportline suspension, '79 300TD w/ 617.952 engine at 367,750 and counting!

First, you guys are making me crazy. WAGONS: 79-80 = non-turbo. 81-85 = turbo. Live it, learn it, know it!!
Now that I've got that outta my system, I really enjoyed my non-turbo '80 wagon on the highway (which was the only place it ran correctly) It didn't have everything that a turbo wagon will have, but it really was a nice driving highway car. They will top out before the turbo, but that has allot to do with the gearing in the rearend.
What I am trying to say I guess, is that if I had a choice and all things were equal, I'd take the turbo. BUT, if not equal, I would still take a non-turbo any day!

__________________
Jimmy L.
'05 Acura TL 6MT
2001 ML430 My Spare

Gone:
'95 E300 188K "Batmobile" Texas Unfriendly Black
'85 300TD 235K "The Wagon" Texas Friendly White
'80 240D 154K "China" Scar engine installed
'81 300TD 240K "Smash"
'80 240D 230K "The Squash"
'81 240D 293K"Scar" Rear ended harder than Elton John

Something else to consider in buying a car that is not running is what happens after you fix the head gasket and find that the transmission or some other major item is also in need of repair?

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DCM

1977 240d
1980 300sd
1987 Chevrolet Suburban

tough to respond intelligently to a thread with no year and no description of the car other than "wagon".

????????????

tom w

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

FWIW some people value their wagons a bit more than they are "worth" on the market
like $10K for an '83 300TD:
http://www.craigslist.org/sfc/car/143016586.html

__________________
'95 E320 Wagon my favorite road car. '99 E300D wolf in sheeps body, '87 300D Sportline suspension, '79 300TD w/ 617.952 engine at 367,750 and counting!