I looked at an 80 wagon that needs an engine. What are my options for installing a non wagon engine so that I can keep the sls? I have access to another 80 non wagon engine and possible access to a turbo engine.

Use the head from your old wagon engine.

Thats a good option. Are there other options for an external pump?

Zero.

Force speaks the truth -keep that head and have it repaired if need be, they are getting rare! I love my sls system, once repaired, they last a long time -

OK the swap heads option seems to be the most viable in terms of no new parts to source or try to make other stuff work.

Any special in swapping the heads. The dead engine in the wagon has 260K and the 1980 replacement engine supposedly has around 100K. I am leery of a 260k head on a 100k block and accessories.

I may keep looking for a wagon engine or open this one up and see how bad it is.

I say dead engine because when I fired the engine over it had a death rattle, ran very rough for 10 seconds and abruptly stopped working. The seller said he had a local MB shop (one I have trust in) quote that it needed a new engine. When car was taken to the local MB shop it was 6 quarts low on oil and they added oil and came up wiht the diagnosis of bad ring or something. I didn't have a printout or anything to go by, just what the seller stated they said. It sounded like a connecting rod snapped when it seized up on me Dropped his asking price almost in half

Get a turbo engine then start replacing other items (radiator, complete exhaust line front to back, accelerator linkage pivot point, etc.) and you'll end up with a great running car but if the head isn't off a Wagon SLS you will have a lot of work replacing the rear shocks and this I do not recommend.
Find a used wagon engine and keep SLS, its worth it. This has been said several times before (by others bedsides me) on the Forum.
DDH

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'95 E320 Wagon my favorite road car. '99 E300D wolf in sheeps body, '87 300D Sportline suspension, '79 300TD w/ 617.952 engine at 367,750 and counting!

There are options for an external pump. Someone here has an electric pump and someone else is planning to retrofit a 124 pump.

There's a picture of an electric sls pump in this thread:

Converting SLS mechanical pump to electric

Forced mentions the duty cycle on electric pumps but as long as your control valve is operating, the pump doesn't need to pump very often. In fact, I only think it needs to pump initially to get to pressure and afterwards if the load changes.

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

Any direct links would be appreciated. Thanks

None have actually worked in the many years of people attempting.

Actually constant flow is required. Even slight changes in suspension height (road bumps) will consume fluid since there is no delay buffer as with air suspension systems.
For an electric pump to work it must be 100% duty cycle rated.

Buy my wagon head with turbo related stuff.

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08 R320 CDI current

Past
95 E420
87 300D Turbo 5spd
90 300TE
83 300SD
85 300TD
92 400E
85 190D

I'm not convinced that's true. After the main pressure hose started leaking on my TD, the system did not crash until after I stopped the car, a loadful of people got out, I shut the car off and then restarted it. I had driven about 75 miles with that busted hose before I stopped and the system held its pressure perfectly well with six people and a 1500'lb trailer hooked to the back bumper.

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

Your level valve had failed. There is NO hysteresis in the level system operation.

The way I understand the system is that the pump is always pumping fluid to the valve in the rear, when the car is running. But when the rear is in a steady state, the fluid being pumped from the pump to the valve is just diverted back to the reservoir. All the pump does is supply pressure to raise the rear. It's not maintaining the height. The valve directs the pressure to raise the rear when needed or directs it back to the reservoir when not needed. If the pump was needed to maintain height then the rear would always sag when the car was turned off.

The SLS is a slow acting system. it takes several seconds for a low rear to raise up. I'd argue that a bump will not cause a major change in fluid flow. There isn't enough time for anything to happen when you hit a bump.

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x2

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13