Nothing's more expensive than a cheap Mercedes. Mine cost 3.4 times more than $1000 just to buy it. Of course I live in the Northwest where wagons used to sell for $10-17k. Mine was never worth that much, but then again, neither were most of the ones people were trying to sell for that much.

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I figure Id re seal the upper oil pan, lower oil pan, oil filter housing (which is leaking, thanks Biodiesel300TD), and maybe both ends of the crank if I went to the trouble of the upper pan (which is leaking).

That should solve the leaks, and I want to stop there before I go too far with this engine.
Additional issue is the incredibly sloppy way the yard pulled this out, they just ripped it out with a forklift I think without unbolting the mounts. Both cast motor mount arms are damaged from that in the bolt locations. (!@#$%)

I need to change the title of this thread to "Expanding nightmare with new 1985 300TD"

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When I pulled the lower pan on the yard engine, I discovered that the oil pump drive chain tensioner looks twisted and mis referenced. Also, this yard engine probably also has a leaking head gasket on the 5th cylinder.

(insert into this space appropriate volume and quantity of swearing)

I decided that I would rebuild the yard engine, and the compression and cam look good. Another thread about that- rebuilding 617 turbo, advice, opinions needed
(the cam on the wagon engine is really worn down)

Just got my service manual CD, and printed that sucker out to make a nice shop service manual! Now I can start to fully tear the yard engine into a million pieces.

Meanwhile the wagon fuel tank came down, and I drained it out, washed it, and am letting it air dry before tackling the rusted areas.

Im in it now. It will unfortunately be a long time before this car hits the road, and before I get to test my special 5-speed! (more swearing)

While the engine rebuild takes place in what was once the second half of the garage, but is now property of the wagon and its internals, I am working on reinforcing and replacing the damage the blew out the bottom of the radiator. Looks like the PO nosed up onto a curb, and cracked the plastic right in the middle. Until now, ive never noticed just how vulnerable the radiator is to just the right kind of damage, so I think ill make a nice little plate to protect it for right there.

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