OK, you may have scared me away from buying a fixer-upper. So I have a new batch of question

Your fellow (I don't own one yet so I don't consider myself officially in the club) MD Nugent has made me an attractive offer on his low mileage 4.5L with tranny. Being that he's 4 hours away, I think I'll take him up on it.
Can I put that engine in any W108 with little or no difficulty. I am leary of buying any non-running MB so I feel I should by the best condition 280 daily driver I can find and put the 4.5 in at my leisure. Suppose I buy a 6 cyl. what do I need to obtain additionally ie. motor mounts?

PS I am still looking at this 280 SEL in Portland that has a Ford 351W in it. The interior is good and I think I could pick it up for $1000. My reasoning is that it runs... and the 351W would make a wonderful small block for my 1967 Mustang Fastback project which I have no engine for yet. What sort of pain am I looking at to plant the 4.5 in it?

I hope I am not becoming a pain in the butt, but I need to make the right decision. My girlfriend won't tolerate another "project".

in a thread about 6 down from yours, a guy is selling his 300SEL 4.5 on ebay for 2900.

check it out

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2403497994

The 4.5 will fit in any chassis AFTER 1970 -- the brake booster was moved a couple inches to the left to clear the left valve cover. All bodies have the relocated booster, so it doesn't matter which model you use, but the 4.5 WON'T fit in the earlier design. Brake pedal hooks to the right left in earlier cars, right in the later ones, assembly is NOT interchangeable.

You will need to change springs and rear end to match engine, else it is a drop-in except for the wiring. You will need a complete wiring harness for the 4.5, along with the electronics.

It would probably be easier to drop in a later 4.5 with K-Jetronic -- no electronics, just the fuel pump relay and high pressure line from pump the K-jet.

Peter

__________________
1972 220D ?? miles
1988 300E 200,012
1987 300D Turbo killed 9/25/07, 275,000 miles
1985 Volvo 740 GLE Turobodiesel 218,000
1972 280 SE 4.5 165, 000 - It runs!

That is exactly the information I was looking for.
One question though. There must be different engine mounts, yes?

As for the beautiful 300SEL ... Altanta is out of the question. I'm in the Northwest. So I need to find a California car.

Hope I don't offend anyone here, but whoever bid on it instead of just snatching it up for the rediculously low Buy-It-Now price of 2900 is an idiot.

Engine mounts may be the same, at least the V8 mounts were identical through the W116 chassis. MB doesn't change mounts like GM or Ford -- all engines have "arms" that stick out and bolt onto the mount, and the mounts are all very similar, at least from the 1950s up to the W126 chassis, when they changed to gel filled mounts. Still fit in the same way, but are not as interchangeable.

Most likely, you would want to change them anyway, as the old ones will the squashed.

Peter

__________________
1972 220D ?? miles
1988 300E 200,012
1987 300D Turbo killed 9/25/07, 275,000 miles
1985 Volvo 740 GLE Turobodiesel 218,000
1972 280 SE 4.5 165, 000 - It runs!