I've been looking for a benz to convert to wvo and ran across this 300sd turbo diesel with only 101,000 miles on it. It wasn't for sale but they said it runs and I know I can get it cheap,$ 800.00 cheap! I wanted to learn a little more about them before I bought it. Seems maybe early 80's? late 70's, I'm new to these cars how do I tell without going back and bugging the guy before I'm ready to buy it????

If it has no EGR its a 1978 or a 1979..............The W116 got EGR in 1980

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Proud owner of ....
1971 280SE W108
1979 300SD W116
1983 300D W123
1975 Ironhead Sportster chopper
1987 GMC 3/4 ton 4X4 Diesel
1989 Honda Civic (Heavily modified)
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Section 609 MVAC Certified
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"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche

1981 - 1985 maybe??

Some info on frame and engine type from stamp would help a lot.

Danny

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1984 300SD Turbo Diesel 150,000 miles

OBK member #23

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The 300 sd was made in the late 70's til 1980 with the 116 chassis, it looks slightly older. It was then replaced with the 126 chassis which is a more contemporary design. Then it was upgraded again in 1985 with the same 126 chassis but an upgraded engine, not really sure what was modified.

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1983 300SD White with Grey interior

Without some more details you will get little help here.

If you don't want to talk to the current owner, maybe you could use Google to look for images of 300SD's and get some idea that way?

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1985 300SD, 203,000 miles, dark blue

Lil Sarah says: "Poor old Grandma Blue Car...She's sad."

round headlights = 78-80.
square headlights 81 and up

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1959 Gravely LI, 1963 Gravely L8, 1973 Gravely C12
1982 380SL
1978 450 SEL 6.9 euro restoration at 63% and climbing
1987 300 D
2005 CDI European Delivery
2006 CDI Handed down to daughter
2007 GL CDI. Wifes

unless its a euro model, then square lights from the 70's on

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1982 300SD (214 k, excellent shape) kidmobile running mostly biodiesel, gets 31 mpg hwy with 2.82 rear from a euro 500SEL



1976 115 body 240D 4-speed (traded for Jeep parts) - Engine lives on in my CJ7

It has double round headlights, a moon roof, the AC is not working, silver with blue interior......? I just didn't want the guy to know how interested I am....its not going any where..

That would be a W116 chassis, 1980 or earlier. Great car, but it is aging now. The big problem was rust out on those. Hard to believe one of those has only 101k miles.

its either been setting for the better part of a decade or maybe the odometer is lunched.

But who knows.....Mine has 120,000 on it....but it was a seasonal use car in Arizona...not a dail driver.

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Proud owner of ....
1971 280SE W108
1979 300SD W116
1983 300D W123
1975 Ironhead Sportster chopper
1987 GMC 3/4 ton 4X4 Diesel
1989 Honda Civic (Heavily modified)
---------------------
Section 609 MVAC Certified
---------------------
"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche

I think they made the SD in the 116 body ONLY in 1979 and 1980.

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Michael LaFleur

'05 E320 CDI - 86,000 miles
'86 300SDL - 360,000 miles
'85 300SD - 150,000 miles (sold)
'89 190D - 120,000 miles (sold)
'85 300SD - 317,000 miles (sold)
'98 ML320 - 270,000 miles (sold)
'75 300D - 170,000 miles (sold)
'83 Harley Davidson FLTC (Broken again) :-(
'61 Plymouth Valiant - 60k mikes
2004 Papillon (Oliver)
2005 Tzitzu (Griffon)
2009 Welsh Corgi (Buba)

Nope......they made it three years....'78, '79, and '80 . But only the '80 had egr......Take my word on that...I have the manuals on it.

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Proud owner of ....
1971 280SE W108
1979 300SD W116
1983 300D W123
1975 Ironhead Sportster chopper
1987 GMC 3/4 ton 4X4 Diesel
1989 Honda Civic (Heavily modified)
---------------------
Section 609 MVAC Certified
---------------------
"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche

This is on a plate on the driver's side of the windshield, I think. It's also on a plate under the hood near the hood latch, at least on mine, a 1985 300D W123.

If this is not where the VIN is on this car, surely some helpful soul on this forum can tell you where to look.

Once you have the VIN, you can find out everything about it.

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Semibodacious Transmogrifications a Specialty

1990 300D 2.5 Turbo sedan 171K (Rudolf)
1985 300D Turbo TD Wagon 219K (Remuda)

"Time flies like and arrow, yet fruit flies like a banana"
---Marx (Groucho)

Would this car make a good candidate for wvo?? or is it worth more to re sell? It does have some rust starting on the rockers and yes it has been sitting for a while. From first look the frame and under carrige seemed ok. The exhast even looked fairly new?

You will need the forum to keep it running. That car was not unreliable, it was an very good runner, but like all of these old diesels it is aged. With that few of miles my guess would be that you will run into several systems that are failed or will act up shorlty.
Question is it a Waste Vegtable Oil Candidate? Absolutely, the old technology diesels are much more forgiving with lousy fuel, they will run on most anything, even french fried cooking oil.