Well as far as rust is concerned, my 300E did not show any visible rust on the car anywhere...and I looked before I made the final purchase, but after I rebuilt the head and started out for my "test drive"......rust raised it's angry and ugly head to surface....from within my fuel tank!
My fine running engine was performing excellent....with no radio playing, I was enjoying the sound of the engine for almost 4 miles, when traveling up a hill, the engine starts sputtering and suddenly dies.....(it's 2:00 am and I'm on the side of the road for a test drive after I closed the hood for a test drive, so don't go for a test drive after sun-down!).
I removed the spark plugs and noticed how red in color they were, and also noticed there was no smell of fuel on them. I cracked open the fuel line to the FD and no fuel...
When I got the car back home the next morning, I started troubleshooting, and removed the fuel line to the primary fuel pump....no gas once again...but rust had lodged into the fuel filter, and primary pump, so I decided to remove the fuel tank and clean it. I found so much rust in the tank, you would not believe it unless you were there to see it for yourself! So if you think a filter (new filter at that) will stop rust from entering into your fuel system (gasoline or diesel)....think again. I cleaned my fuel tank with Naval Jelly and big granite rocks, the cleaned it with high pressure hot water from the local car wash. I also purged the fuel line to the FD, but now I suspect that the fuel return line is also in need of a major cleaning (which is more difficult to do on this model).
Hope this helps someone else, before rust invades your fuel system, because rust invaded my fuel distributor, injectors and regulator. The FD caught it bad....and has not operated the same since, and I'm not sure it ever will.....now I may be in the market for a replacement/new one....oh boy! More fun....and money.
