The consensus seems to be that if you found a really cherry car with good paint, no rust, nice interior, good transmission, and all accessories working but a trashed engine due to some failure (oil pump?) and you could pick up the car for under $1000 and you planned to keep the car for many years, then it might be worth spending $8000 on an engine.

Interesting that we haven't heard from charmalu in Soquel [Santa Cruz, CA]; he put a Metric Motor in his 300D and has been very happy. His signature reads, in part,

"85 300D Turbo 330949 miles eng. go bang 7/4/07
new Metric Motor engine yeah. 29,651 mi so far"

Jeremy

__________________

"Buster" in the '95

Our all-Diesel family
1996 E300D (W210) . .338,000 miles Wife's car
2005 E320 CDI . . 113,000 miles My car
Santa Rosa population 176,762 (2022)
Total. . . . . . . . . . . . 627,762
"Oh lord won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz."
-- Janis Joplin, October 1, 1970