Hello all -- I am a long-time lurker, but I just registered and this is my first post. I have always liked Mercedes diesels and a few months ago I decided to buy one. I investigated carefully, looked over a lot of stuff in this forum, and after a long search found a nice clean 95 with 149k at a good price. So I bought it and loved driving it, prefering it over my 04 330xi on the highway. Everything was going great and then... Dad came out to visit and I let him borrow the E300 for a trip up north. He hit a rock and ruptured the oil pan. Then -- and this is what I just do not get -- he kept driving because even though the oil light was on the pressure gauge stayed up so he figured he could make it to a service station. (Do not even get me started...)

So I am replacing an engine and here's my question: I have seen several discussions about the possibility of dropping in a 606 turbo from 98-99 and using the original fuel pump. I'd like to know how practical this is and am wondering if anyone can point me in the right direction. Assuming the engine swap can be completed successfully, are there going to be issues with the transmission? Should I just get a good 95 engine and be done with it?

 

That was kind of what I thought, but if there was an "easy" way to get some more power out of it -- I do like the w124 body style.

I found a used 95 engine with 50k for a reasonable (sounding) $2495 -- any comment on that?