Craig,

Honestly, the engine could have been marginal when I bought it and even though it was running good when I turned it off after running low on oil, maybe that was just enough to push it over the edge. I have heard engines run out of oil before and those engines always had at least a little rod noise, but I didn't hear anything this time which makes me believe that it did not go completely dry; Who knows?

As for finding one with a good engine, I would think the rust belt would be good because the bodies would certainly be trash here, unless you mean that they were trashed years ago and are already shredded.

Yup, that's what I meant, I doubt you are going to find many "fresh" W115s in junkyards anyplace, especially in the north.

MangoMan,

I have heard of the car and read the article at your link. What do they mean by "During this time the owner was able to call upon the original engine and two spare units, deploying them on a rotational basis 11 times in total". Why would he R&R engines 11 times if it weren't to rebuild them? My guess would be that some of the people here with 300k and 400k got more miles without rebuilds than the taxi did.

John Deere diesels operation are measured in hours, not miles, and they spend there lives pushing down trees and the like. My dozer is smaller in displacement, weights 14,000 lbs and pushes with thousands of pounds of force. That Mercedes diesel would pop within the first hundred hours. Semi diesels routinely go over 1,000,000 miles.

The best engines gas and diesel do not use chains but use gears. Where are the test ports on for checking fuel pressure on the 240D? Where do you buy new pistons for the 240d? My 1976 JD starts with a quick push of a button in the dead of winter, even a new 1976 Mercedes could not do that. I was even told by the mercedes dealer that they were not equipped to test injectors: What is up with that?

I said what I said because when you look at the two engine designs you can see quality and serviceablity features in my JD that are not on the Mercedes, even though they were built at the same time.

I know that JD engines are great and start in the dead of winter. The thing is they are not performance engines and your not going to use it to fly down the freeway at 85 miles an hour. JD engines are huge and heavy, not designed for a little 4 door sedan. Comparing JD engines to Mercedes is a little tough to do.

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01 ML320 Auto White 95k "The Wife's"
75 240D Manual Yellow 57K "My baby"
84 300D/T Auto Gold 120K "Now my brothers"
84 300D/T Auto Silver 300K "Totaled"