Motor transplant ,donor car motor, good.
 

Hello fellow Mbers ,I resently lost a head gasket on my 300cd ,its terrminal Im afraid and my next step has been to find a donor car .Im somewhat of a risk taker ,so Ive gambeled on a donor car I had found on craigslist ,a real better for sure.Its paid off so far ,the motor has great compression on all holes and Im now under way with its swap over to my 83 coupe .Any surprises I should encounter? Does the motor trannie have to come out together?The trans is good in the coupe so Id like to do just the motor swap.

No need to pull with the tranny. It actually is a big PITA to try to remove together.

Well I guess this is a matter of choice, but I have found it far better to remove as a motor transmission assembly.
If you do not have a motor leveler on your cheery picker then I would agree... just pull the motor alone.

the fsm procedure is to remove them as one. on the 617's it can be a bear to get at the top tranny bolts. I will be having personal exp soon.

start out w/ the bad engine- you will learn some things, I am sure.

did you pull the head? why is a headgasket terminal?? i have an engine w. a bad rod bearing, and good top end- where are you??

Mobetta ,heres the story ,the coupe had low compression from the very beginning of purchase ,a no start car that I persuaded to give up a few more miles.It would start only after 2 glows on the cycle ,made lots of smoke on start up ,and made me nerves to drive anywere over 10 miles from home.If I remember right the original numbers for compression were dismal at best ,200s on most of the holes, the donor motor is providing 400s across all holes except one ,not to shabbie for $250 clams.The amount of oiley water after draining the oil pan made me even more convinced of its demise.More than 10 quarts ,Im surprised it didnt lock up ,the motor was bringing in most of what the radiator could supply it.To make the car reliable Im gambeling on this donor ,out with the old in with the new old 617 as it were.Im taking shots of the pull with my digital ,try to post pre-op and recovery pics when completed ,hope to have it buttoned up by next wed.

Since you obviously need to remove the tranny at some point anyway, I would recommend taking it out the bottom and the engine out the top. I guess you don't have to remove the tranny completely, but if you lower the rear of the tranny by removing the crossmember bolts you will find thar you can easily access the top bell housing bolts with a very long extension and a wobbly. Trust me its very easy to get to that way.

Excessive leak from a front fender bender is what put the donor off the road.Oil and trannie lines were leaking like a sive when I went for the first start,the second time I kept my eye on the oil levels. I picked it up off of a guy who won it at an auction and was in no longer need of the car.He robbed the seats,lights,and some other misc .items out of the car.When I got it to my shop I wasnt so sure about the outcome .Charged a battery I had laying around and began to get to work on starting her up .The first sound was not pleasing ,a real rough sound.I then began to do what I should have done in the first place with a long sitting motor and that is soak the cylinders .I opened up the cylinders by removing the injectors and slowly poured in roughly 6 oz of marvel m oil in each hole ,let it set ,purged it the next day by turning the car over by the key for 8 revs each time for 6 or so burst .Very messy but effective.Now,yesterday we have it pulled out of the car and things are looking up ,have it cleaned up a bit and ready to pull out the other for the reinstall.It turns out the worst of the noises when I first started the car was just that, the starter,the top bolt was totally gone and the starter wasnt matching with the fly wheel .Now I understand why people stayed away from this car ,it sounded like the motor was binding but it just the starter.It takes 3 hrs roughly to get a motor pulled if your being careful,30 minutes if your at a yard and a sawsah is handy.Next week we will finish her up.

On my w116 I removed the crossmember to drop the rear of the tranny as suggested. However, I was able to remove the top bolts with a 3" extension and a breaker bar.....I needed more effort to remove the starter bolts.