Long post warning: if you don't feel like reading several paragraphs then this thread is likely to aggravate you.
Hey, folks. With apologies for a non-technical question, I could use some input in trying to decide what my 300SDL is actually worth. Thinking of moving it on, perhaps next spring/summer but perhaps sooner.
I'm thinking somewhere around $1500 -- maybe negotiable down to $12xx or so -- is probably about the best I can hope for. With that statement made, I'm going to go down the list of everything I know about her and see what y'all think.
And yes, this is like a sheep asking a pack of wolves where they should all eat lunch -- but nonetheless, I figure you folks are more honest and better informed than anybody else.
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I'd be selling it mostly on a "For parts" basis... not that somebody *couldn't* drive it, but I don't think they'd want to.
The good:
Engine has unknown mileage but I can made an informed/educated guess that it is around 250,000 miles.
Less than 10,000 miles ago, my dad and I replaced a cracked head with a
Pull-a-part donor head that does have a >14 casting number... I can't remember exactly which one it is, I will look later today. I believe it was a 350 head that someone had already stuffed the original-style prechambers into. It is uncracked and undamaged as far as we know.
Basically, the financial value of the car is the value of scrap steel plus the value of a good-running, dependable 603 with a high-casting-# head in it. I would *confidently* put this entire engine into a body that needed one and run it for years.
Hood hinges are not bent and hood hasn't rusted or anything... if anybody needed it, that's the only sheetmetal part that I'd really want to use again. The front fenders would *probably* be okay but the way the thing is rust-bubbling everywhere else, I'm suspicious that the whole thing will be gone in a couple of years. Trunk lid is probably fine too.
Transmission seems to be fine -- though it is getting on up in miles and has never been rebuilt as far as I know, it still shifts well and I've never had a suspicion of slippage. There is a fluid leak from one of the seals that you can only change by separating it from the engine but if you had it out, that wouldn't be so bad.
Three out of four windows currently work, and the front door checks are in pretty good shape. Somebody looking for those parts could use them, for at least a while. None of the glass is broken, so anybody who needed that to repair a wreck or something could use it.
Almost everything belt-driven except the A/C is in good shape and could be used for replacement parts.
Alternator was a reman from a few years back so should have plenty of life left in it,
water pump was replaced five or six years ago,
power steering is good,
fan clutch has been upgraded to the one for the 606, etc.
Starter is good as far as I know.
The turbo is a Garrett and should be good for many more years of service... I had it rebuilt (new seals, and having a cracked housing repaired) by G-pop-shop in Arkansas a few years back (maybe four years?) and no hint of trouble since, so if somebody needed that, I suspect it would be plenty usable.
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The bad:
Though the frame is not rusted, there is
body rust starting on practically every panel; each door has bubbles under the paint, the left rear wheel well has started to rust away.
The
paint/clear coat is shot.
Interior is pretty junky... carpets are permanently dirty,
seats are worn out, and half of the electrical options no longer work.
Climate control not only no longer works, but has already started one fire under the hood when the fuse burned instead of blowing. Fire did not hurt anything major -- but I don't
trust the climate control now. The "button box" is relatively new (came from a junkyard with a recent refurb sticker on it, was nice and clean) and still,
the ONLY mode that works is defrost. Fan speeds are erratic.
No a/c (compressor is destroyed)... bottom line,
this car has no climate control whatsoever; even defrost in the winter is questionable though it usually works eventually. The computer
loses its mind sometimes... you turn the system on and it clicks relays and flashes lights and chatters and carries on for twenty minutes but never does what it should.
As of
yesterday,
the right rear door has got a dent in it. I suspect that it could be repaired, and I might even have it done... but the door is rusted out at the bottom anyway. Dent was caused when the girlfriend wrapped it too close to the woodpile.
I don't think it cracked the paint, but unfortunately it got the plastic trim strip as well as the sheet metal, so repair may be difficult. Going to have somebody give me an estimate this week.
Rear door checks are already to the point I need to replace them if I'm going to keep the car, and
right-rear window mechanism is broken. Window is up, and will stay up, but if you roll it down you have to "help" it back up with your hands.
There was something a little wonky with the
computer idle control... on hot, hot, hot summer days (+90 air, road temps probably closer to 100 in the sun) after a long run that got the engine really good and hot, if you accelerated and then backed off the throttle too quickly, the engine would die, it was like the computer didn't "catch" the falling RPMs fast enough to save it. I solved this by running the mechanical idle stop up to the same place the computer was holding it previously... hasn't done it to me since.
Speedometer does not work... burned electric components visible, the copper winding on one side has charred and one of the odometer gears is wrecked.
Front suspension, in spite of a partial rebuild about six years ago, is basically worn out. Nothing DANGEROUS yet -- but it all creaks and grumbles and moans, and the rubber parts are all showing signs of age, although none have allowed the joints under them to actually get destroyed yet.
Some previous owner before I had it bashed the front frame rails into a curb or a pothole or something, so the frame isn't 100% perfectly pristine. It is safe and it is "straight enough" but it's taken a strike from underneath prior to my owning it. Have been driving it since 2005 with no trouble from that, but just disclosing everything I can think of.
Trunk gets wet in the rain.
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Summary: I would transplant this 603.961 into anything that it would fit into, and feel relatively confident that I had a good engine and transmission.
I would also use the head or the turbo as parts for my otherwise okay block.
I don't know what that's worth to anybody... every "my head is cracked" thread has somebody saying "Oh, 603 heads that aren't cracked sell for upwards of $750" but then in the actual market, I don't know that I believe that... I was unwilling to pay it, which is
why when mine cracked I got an entire 603.961 out of a junkyard for $160 and pulled the head off of it.
So basically -- the body and interior of this thing, due to rust, abuse, and general 26-year-old electrical problems, are those of a "parts car" at best; HOWEVER, the actual driveline (engine, trans, rear diff, etc) is one in which I'm quite confident; it's just that the body is going to pieces around it.
So what's the monetary value, give or take, for a good power plant and driveline that the new owner could safely drive home to their shop to harvest whatever they needed?
Why I don't think it's sellable as a daily driver: the climate control issues make safety an issue... it's uncomfortable in the summer, but dangerous in the winter when you can't get the windows defrosted when you need them. Also, it already started one fire (changed brushes in motor following that) and so I don't trust it. Besides that, the rust bubbling is only going to get worse which means that any money spent repairing the car from now on is basically being spent on one that has a limited life remaining. Also, the assorted electrical problems, "feature" problems, worn out seats, worn out upholstry, etc -- it's all just making it no fun anymore. Also, I think the front suspension is going to need work sooner-rather-than-later -- maybe within the next year or two -- and I would not want to spend
my money on it.
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On the other hand... if I could find a w140 that had no body rust and nice seats and working electrics, that somebody was selling for "junk" price because the rods were bent -- I'd buy it and put my own engine in it. Frankly that would be worth
more to me than selling off this SDL. But...finding a nicer body with good interior, priced at a "steal", with an already dead engine, in the w140 -- might as well try to win the lottery, about the same chance.
Car isn't for sale "yet" but who knows... probably within the next year. If cash was waved under my nose I might not turn it down.
I apologize for bothering everybody with this -- but I really don't have a clue whether I'm on the right track or not. I know that the simple answer is "it's worth whatever someone will pay for it" -- but some of you buy and sell a whole lot more often than I do, so I'm trying to pick some minds. I arrived at my $1500 guesstimate on the grounds that the head and turbo and the scrap steel all probably add up to close to that in resale/scrap/reuse value, or that a person who had a body just waiting for a ready-to-drop-in-and-drive engine could make use of it -- it seemed fairly reasonable.
If it was only resellable for $1000 or less, I might just keep it until it suffers something fatal rather than let it go that low. I understand that "parts are just parts, not worth much"... but at the same time, it's worth
something to me to just keep driving it until it dies, aggravation and all.