Opinions on a 300SD

[Turbo190D]

There's a 1983 300SD turbo for sale near me. The seller is asking $700. It ran when parked 3 years ago, at least according to the seller. You know how that goes. I do know the seller and have for a long time, and don't think they'd try to swindle me. I ran a carfax on it, which shows it had 100k on it in 1989. No odo readings since then. The odo says 138k on it, which I'm guessing means the odo broke some time in the 90s.


The car is in pretty garbage condition, most of the interior is shot with just a few decent parts. I mostly want the engine to potentially put in my truck later. A buddy of mine wants the window regulators and I'm sure I could use some of the vacuum stuff in my 190D.


Anyway, pictures are in the album here: https://imgur.com/a/3USZPzE



What do you guys think, is it worth the $700 or should I pass on this?

[Quahog]

what does left rear quarter look like?

[Turbo190D]

There's no rust/body damage other than the dent on the hood near the sunroof that you can see in one of those pictures, and the front passenger side headlight area.

[WDBCB20]

Get it running, see how it starts,stops and runs, do a compression check.

If you're getting it for the engine then whether it's viable or not should be your focus.

That dark coolant may suggest well rusted internals due to marinating in coolant which long ago lost its rust inhibiting properties.

[Turbo190D]

I could take the battery out of my 190d and put in it, see if it would turn over and whatnot. They don't have the keys, so I guess I'd have to pull the column apart and remove the lock assembly or something, I'm not really sure how you'd go about that honestly. I know how to do it on the D21 but I've never had a need of hotwiring a Benz lol.

[dude99]

Easy, disconnect the vacuum line to the shut off actuator on the Injection pump under the hood. You will have to glow the plugs before starting. That can be done by taking a jumper cable and connecting one end of it to the positive terminal of the battery and the other end to any one of the glow plugs. They are wired in parallel so if you power one you power them all. Let them glow for 30 seconds or so.

Last, jump out the terminal block on the passenger fender (one side to the other) which will crank it over and start it.

[qsprn]

"I mostly want the engine to potentially put in my truck later."

I had an '84 300SD with about 140,000 actual on it. Unfortunately, I hit a deer last spring and the insurance company totaled it. The mechanic ( a genius with these BTW) who works on my older Mercedes says a good OM617 engine itself is worth about $2500. If it's not junk....



bk

[Turbo190D]

Yeah, I figure the engine/trans combo is worth a good bit more than 700 as long as it works. I talked to the owner, they're getting a key from Mercedes next week so that should allow me to more easily test everything. Hopefully it'll just fire up with a battery in it.