Engine Swap '77 240d into a '80 240d
 

I have a nice rolling chassy with a very nice body and interior has a bad motor. I also have a 1977 240d that got a bad body but a good engine. Both are manual transmission. Would this be an ok thing to do? Will everything just plug right in or will there be alot of mod's needed?

Around about the 80 model they changed the location of the ac compressor. I am not sure exactly when. I suggest you look at them both and determine where the ac compressor is and if they are different it will make the swap a lot more difficult. In fact if it were me I would not try to do it unless they are of the same generation (as to the location of the ac).

77 ac on the top and the 80 is on the bottom. Thanks for the advise. I will be looking for another engine.

Not sure the AC would be a deal breaker for me. Glowplugs/relay may be different--loop in 77 and maybe pencil in 80.

the a/c would not be a problem. you could either swap over the mounts for the 80 a/c onto the 77 motor or install the 77 with it's a/c and connect to the hoses in the 80. the hoses connect in the car in the same place on both cars. (the hoses from the condenser would not change, just the ones from compressor to the evap/drier... no issues mounting them though. however, the glow plug issues would require a set of large body plugs to connect to your 80 glow plug controller. also, the 77 motor would have less HP than the 80 would... not much less, but less still...