I bought a pristine '87 300D almost exactly one year ago, it had all service records and was clean as a whistle but it had some messy oil leaks, fuel leaks and so on. It needed some steering bushings and shocks but had a recent trans rebuild
$2300 for the car and over $3.5K into restoration and I am very happy. Right after buying the car I had the head removed by a Indy that loves these engines. He knows them like the back of his hand. The head was sent to be pressure checked, new valve guides and a skim cut to ensure flatness, it was very flat to begin with but the rebuilder wanted to remove a small area of corrosion where the head gasket had started weeping oil. If the corrosion was severe like I have seen on some 300E gassers, I'd have gone with a new head. Maintenance obviously pays off here.
I somewhat reluctantly gave the OK to reuse the head, I would have liked to find a newer one but I really didn't want to dig deeper in my pockets at that time. I figured since the head made it to 250K miles, with the same care it would last me another 100K.
New: front seal, lifters, water pump, radiator, seals on the IP. Results are no leaks and wow! strong! This is the best diesel I've ever driven. Damn I like to crank it open and mess with ricers - had it up to 105 where it still felt like it wanted to GO! I don't pray to the #14 Gods, I just keep an eye on the temp gauge and plan on keeping up up the regular maintenance I normally use with the "fleet".
1971 220 (gas) 4-spd manual 106441
1979 300TD w/ ’85 turbo engine 295530
1983 300D 243280
1985 300TD 217300
1987 300D 262300