Hi, I just purchased a great 200k mile 1980 300D, with the turbocharged engine of a later year swapped with the original engine. I have a long way to go to understand everything about this car, and i've been trying to find a service manual other than a Haynes, or some scammy websites to no avail.
What do you guys recommend for understanding and identifying the mechanical principles behind the various parts of these cars!? Most of the literature posted is directed at fixing problems, but ideally, i'd like to be able to get ahead of things breaking!

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https://www.tonk.ca/models/w123/Main.html

There is SO much 123 information buried in the innards of this forum, searching here probably is at least as good as any manual you can get. Some of the posts are over 20 years old so set the search engine accordingly. In the 2000’s, the 123 diesels were a mainstay of conversation and consultation on this forum. It’s hard to imagine any issue about them was not discussed.

Of course, do your searching the Diesel Discussion sub forum.

I personally drove and maintained 123 diesels over 800,000 miles, and maintained about another couple of hundred thousand for the family.

Your picture looks great. Hopefully the car doesn’t still have the Chrysler Airtemp HVAC system. That was the downside to the earlier version.

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2001 SLK 320 six speed manual
2014 Porsche Cayenne six speed manual

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