the reason for the change in engine, tranny and drive train is that I couldn't find a 300sd I liked so at the suggestion of a fellow on this board[ I don't remember his name] I went in search of a mb speicalist, and found one on Rt 1A in plainville mass. This guy, Russ, has 40 or 50 mb's in his back woods and field. He had my car with a over heated moter and bad tranny, but the body an insides were great. So he said he had a good moter with 202 on it and another one with a good tranny and another with drive train, We talked price and he was sure he could do all the work and it would cost around $3,500.00 for everything. So I gave him $400.00 down and off we went. All he asked was for me not to be in a hurry and I understand, He's a 65 or 70 year old flight mecanic from the korean war era, as he wooked on a aircraft carrier, fixing the last of the prop driven airplanes. He has some great stories and loves to sit and talk. It took him 6 weeks to do my car and every satuday I would go down to see how he was doing, he would ask me if I was in a hurry and I would reply," no, not really", what a lie, but I kept It to my self. When I took delivery of the car he said start a list of the things you find wrong so he can correct them. All in all its been a great experence and a lot of fun. The wheels on the car were the wrong ones and he wanted then for another car he was putting together, so he dug around his storage barn and came up with the right wheels with the new goodyears already mounted and asked me ifg I wanted them for an extra $400.00. He said it was a good deal,so I said ok! so thats the story of why so many different parts in my 300sd. steve