Any help will be greatly appreciated! I am putting my wrecked baby's 87,300dt,6 cyl. die.engine in another 87 complete car i bought with blown head gasket. My engine has 220k on it I have owned it 3 years with no major probs. What should I check/replace while motor is out?
I am going to seal tranny had small leak there....
convert a/c from R12? any other seals? water pump? turbo seals?timing chain?
I plan on keeping this car
I bought my baby from orig owner and records, I have,don't show any major repairs
Thanks guys!

I would drop the oil pan and the oil reservoir, clean the bottom side of the pans and replace the gaskets for certain while the engine is out of the car.

Replacing the water pump and serp belt and tensioner might be recommended, leaking seals for sure (crank seals if they are leaking).
The timing chain can be replaced with the engine in the car, not a bad idea if you are planning to keep her and you drive a lot. But keep the R12 whatever you do, and if your old compressor was good w/ no leaks, use it over one that you have no history on.
DDH

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'95 E320 Wagon my favorite road car. '99 E300D wolf in sheeps body, '87 300D Sportline suspension, '79 300TD w/ 617.952 engine at 367,750 and counting!

thanks dieseldiehard for suggestions
any tips on getting engine out? pull engine tranny together?
replace oil pump?
Thanks

I can't say re: pulling engine with or without tranny because I haven't been down that road (yet). If you have the factory service manual it should tell you the proper procedure and gsxr might know.
The oil pump is not an item that fails unless due to something like the vacuum pump disintegrating, which the early ones were prone to doing. Therefore I suggest you find out whether or not the vac pump has been changed before and it might be good insurance to change it anyway as it can bring down an engine if it fails.

BTW, if the trap oxidizer hasn't been bypassed yet by all means do that.

I bought an '87 300D turbo with 250K miles showing. The PO had a rebuilt transmission installed shortly after deciding to sell it, the body and interior were cherry but the engine seemed weak and it had noisy lifters especially at cold idle. The only thing really wrong besides noisy lifters was the wastegate was partially open due to carbon buildup and it failed to close, that prevented boost from developing properly.
I decided to have the top end rebuilt meaning a valve job (it hardly needed it) and resurfacing because the head gasket was leaking and the front crank seal needed replacing. A light cut on the head brought it to spec.
I also discovered the exhaust manifold was warped slightly so it was ground smooth (I was told that even new exhaust manifolds are warped or have small high spots that make them fail to seat properly - be forwarned!) and I had it metallized by Jet Hot so it is smooth and shiny inside and out.
I figured a new timing chain was a good idea because I planned to keep the car and wanted it to run perfectly and I didn't want any leaks (especially oil!). It is now the tightest, smoothest but most powerful diesel I have ever driven! Now I need a radar detector because its hard to keep the car under 80 MPH on the open road.
DDH

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'95 E320 Wagon my favorite road car. '99 E300D wolf in sheeps body, '87 300D Sportline suspension, '79 300TD w/ 617.952 engine at 367,750 and counting!

I replaced my 87 300DT OM603 with another. I first pulled both engine and tranny at once. I didn't like the way it came out as it hit the tie rod behind the crossover frame and dented the cover tube. Also, I had to lift the whole thing rather high up for the tranny to pass over the radiator.

On the return, I decided it would be much easier to install the engine first without tranny attached, and then install the tranny last.

A couple of notes, I could not reinstall the upper most bell housing bolt as it is damn near impossible, so I left it out. I'm not bothered by having one less bolt.

The other, and I would agree too not to do a R134 conversion. Keep your R12, it is much colder than R134 in your A/C system.

Also, I was able to disconnect only the bolts and bracket to the A/C comp., but did not disconnect, or discharge the A/C pressure hoses. I simply set the Compressor aside, held by bungee cords.

Do this and you wont have to recharge the system. Just hook it back up to the new engine and it will work.

If you have any more questions, I'd be happy to help.

Sooty

I'm in western Mass and have the engine out of my 87 wagon . I plan on putting the engine back and then the tranny, they came out as one. I bought a use 98K engine from Texas for $900. The car with a non rusted one owner body cost me $800. The tranny was a recent rebuild from MB. Do you think I need to reseal or just change the front seal?

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Ricali

03 C240 4matic wagon
95 300E 234,000
7 prior 240;s 5 still going
81 300sd gone
65 230sl gone
49 Studebaker Champion
90BMW convert.167,000
60 Dodge D-100

RicAli

I forgot to mention that whether needed or not, I replaced water pump, thermostat, rear main seal, transmission seal, and while I had the front drive shaft out, I also replaced the center drive shaft bearing. There maybe a few more items I replaced too but cant think of any now.

WoW, sounds like you got a real bargan for that money! OM603 engines alone generally run $1500 to $2500 used!

Are you going to be at the GTG in CT Aug 1 ? ?

When and where is it going to be??

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Ricali

03 C240 4matic wagon
95 300E 234,000
7 prior 240;s 5 still going
81 300sd gone
65 230sl gone
49 Studebaker Champion
90BMW convert.167,000
60 Dodge D-100

RicAli

"New England Summer 2004 Diesel GTG" is posted here on Diesel Discussion, and is currently posted on page two as I write!

Deatails and location are stated.

Hope to see you there............


Sooty