First time poster here.. My situation is my '81 300SD is totaled from a nasty rearend colision.. I managed to find a rather nice '87 560SEL for a decent price.. Is it possible, and how nasty could it get to upgrade the 560 with my ole Om617??

Thanks!

 

Not in this state.. Diesels are emission exempt, and one form takes care of the engine swap to a diesel. Not that I'll bother as no one checks this anyhow...

Driveshaft lenght and gear ratio were the first snags I was expecting.. Driveshaft is easy, are the diffs the same? What about mounting points for the engine and trans, they appeared similar but I wasn;t able to get a real good look at the 560 yet...

After 32 days of dealing with the other guy's insurance company it sounds like the payout may be enough to take the easy route, and just buy another 300SD, that is if they get something settled before it's sold...

 

I've done this before several times.. It would be titled as a "Specially Contstructed Vehicle" But as a beater I probably won't bother.... True that it is only exempt from annual emission inspection, but because of that the chances of anything being enforced are next to nada.. (especially when I'm the one putting the safety and emission stickers on)

All the legalities aside it looks as though this swap isn;t happening anyhow.. The 560 looks great up top, not so on a lift.. The putty and undercoating that is filling up the frame rails is sort of a turn off..

Thanks for the info at any rate.. The seach and insurance battle continues.. If all else fails I may just upgrade the Turbo'ed OM615 in my Pinto wagon...

 

I'll snap a few pics when I'm at the other farm this weekend... I bought the car already made.. Whomever mounted the engine and trans in that shell did an extremely nice job.. However I suspect the turbo was an after thought.. Kinda of looks like an old K-car turbo and manifold half assed welded to the benz manifold and some rather crude oil and coolant lines were strung to it... In addition to that, the ole 2.2 with a quarter million miles probably wasn;t the best choice for an engine to throw a turbo at.. Doesn;t have crap for compression.. I planned to resurect the engine minus the turbo and leave it at that..