I can see both sides to this debate. If I intended to own this car for the rest of my life then I would replace everything that I could while I was doing the engine swap. Then again if that were the case I would probably buy a $3500+ rebuilt engine rather than using one that has seen a lot of miles already. In my case I am looking to make it a safe, dependable daily driver that I will enjoy driving until something better comes along. This is my first Mercedes, my first diesel car for that matter. If I get hooked on them as most of you have, then I will be keeping my eyes open for one of those really nice, one-owner cars with maintenance records that come up for sale occasionally here in Florida. In the meantime I think I should try to keep my investment in this one to a minimum. The car will need a little front end work to be safe to drive and my budget is limited.

Thank you again for all your advice. I will post the results of a warm compression test when I get it running for the sake of comparison.