Sorry to hear about your problem Jim...as I know its an expensive one..
Did an MB dealer do your work?...if they have serviced many of these cars they should have done a few blocks and /or engine replacements.You indeed have had a problem that has occurred many times with this engine..mostly it seems in the early 90's models.MB seemed to have gotten their act together with the 94-95 models as I have heard no one with problems with those.Your case sounds like mine...which was bent connecting rods on cylinders 1 and 6 which wore the bores and made the car burn a quart every 175 miles. I had a complete engine replacement from valve cover to oilpan.The tech told me that the new engine had tons of differences from the old....seemed the first one weren't beefy enough....but curiously some people have never had problems with this engine and have well over 200K on their cars...go figure.I also found out that MB will offer you some assistance if the car has less than about 80K.

Warren
1992 300SD 119K
Columbus Ohio
turner@greif.com

[Edited by turnne1 on 07-25-2001 at 09:08 AM]