we are putting a 603 engine in a 1985 380 se.gasser is out as is tranny.we have a 1986 300 sdl to strip as engine is toast.tranny is not good,reverse was going.603 engine is coming from a 1987 300D with 81000 miles on motor and tranny.i was thinking of taking wireing from 126 sdl to run and start the car.as far as tranny goes im up in the air.should i use the gas tranny from the 380 that shifts great and fluid looks new,or the 300d tranny?the 300d speedo is cable.the 380 and sdl are electric.can parts be swapped to make the d tranny electric speedo?any help im grateful for.we cant wait to drive the 380 limosine with the 603 in it.,we drove it for 10 or so miles with gas engine and it started to get hot,found no oil on dipstick and antifreeze empty except for about a gallon of sludge oil /anti freeze muck in radiator.never cooked and ran great to move around before pulling motor.

The 603 won't bolt up to the 116 tranny.

You should be able to swap the SDL tail housing onto the 87 300D tranny to drive the speedo. I don't know how much work that involves.

Sixto
87 300D

i have a parts book and it lists the 1985 380 se as having a rt-722.310 and the 1986 sdl as rt-722.321.....and the 1987 300d as722.317...

Is the 380 tranny a one piece housing or does it have a separate bell housing? I saw in an earlier post you'd mentioned that the 380 tranny had starter warts on both sides? If that is so then you would have to confirm that the overall bell housing dimensions and bolt pattern are the same for that to work.

If in fact it will some how bolt up to the 603 then perhaps you can swap the SDL valve body for the valve body in the 380 Tranny, thereby gaining the shift characteristics better suited for the 603 engine.

Keep the torque converter with the valve body.

Sixto
87 300D

Any chance you can scan / take a picture of that parts book?

It sounds like a great source of information...

__________________
1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

its an adsit catalogue.the prices suck but the info is good.