After running the diesel purge and noting no improvement, I called some shops that work on foreign cars. A couple of them asked me the symptoms and said it sounded like I needed a new engine (one even quoted me 4700 to 6500 dollars!!!). The forlorn receptionist at one shop went totally blank when I said diesel.

I found 3 shops that said they worked on MB diesels. One shop specialized in Mbs, another in foreign cars in general and the third works on all kinds of cars. I had the car towed to the specialist place and it took them no time at all to call me and tell me that the engine had thrown a rod. They gave me an estimate of $2500 to rebuild the engine using a remanufactured engine. (another shop, that diagnosed the problem on the phone, said they could probably find a motor at the salvage yards for 900 and the labor would run about 800 totallin 1700).

Is there any lesser amount of rebuild that could take care of a thrown rod? Should I expect to find any lower bids or are those about par for this kind of problem.

Any chance I'll find someone who has a good motor but needs a great and solid body to put it into and would buy the car off me for 1300 to 1500?