Bought a good 617 Turbo today
 

Just the engine, don't have room for anymore cars. Anyway, I stopped at G W Pierce Yard the other day on the north side of Indy. Talked to the operator who I have known a long time and he said Jim, we just haven't had a Mercedes here for a long time. Well, I said, I'll just look around. Well, I thought, that looks like a Benz. Sure enough, a real decent 85 W126 with a 617. Car was complete in every respect. So I went back to the front desk and told Benny about that car. He argued with me, we don't have any Mercedes. Well I said, you do. You have a gray 85 300SD along that fenced line, it is really buried in the weeds, and it has a NC state safety sticker. Damm he said, I thought we got rid of that car years ago. So how much for the engine? $300.00 and we will pull it out. OK I said, let me check it out a bit and I'll take it if it checks out. Car had to be sitting out there five years. Inside and the trunk was a stinking mess. But I went out there today with a hot battery, installed it and used a paper clip in that terminal box and with out glow plugs activated that car fired up like it was just home from getting the mail. I couldn't believe that a car sitting that long outside would fire up that fast. As soon as the circuit was closed it fired and I dropped the paper clip. Got another one and it started right up. It ran for about a minute and died.

Wow. Gotta love these damn engines. What're your plans with it?

I wouldn't mind having the transmission,rear diff and speedo for a rainy day. Or is it just the diff you need to switch an older SD to the '85 ratio?

I loved the way the engine fired up without glow plugs. It was like magic - really hard to believe. And now I have this very beautiful butter colored W123 with a 240D emblem on it, but with the 300D Turbo under the hood-and with a four speed. I plan to keep it a long time. I kind of think that with good care these old cast iron Mercedes diesels just don't wear out, but many of them do suffer instant internal destruction from chain failure, oil pump/chain failure, vacuum pump failure and front of crank/damper problems. So the price was right, I had to pull it, (and got that done today) and my Dear wife allotted me sufficient space in the garage for storage, ( but I had to promise to get rid of that most excellent M103 block). But my plan for the engine is to wrap it up very nice in plastic, put it in a back corner of the garage and just save it Eventually either I or some other well meaning Mercedes owner will need it. PARTS IS PARTS!

It sounds like an excellent find!

Good for you, Jim!