If anyone wants to be cured of their wanting the extra cylinder in a 123 diesel, go change the starter, or pull the engine on a 300D and do the same thing on a 240D. The 300D is a royal PITA compared to the little four. It's like one is a Model A and the other is a late model front wheel drive car.

I pulled the engine from my manual 240D to change the clutch. As I recall it was less than five hours start to finish. Don't try R&R a five cylinder without allowing at least twice that much time. Many of the components such as the starter will require at least twice as much time and twice as many new swear words. There aren't enough existing swear words to complete these jobs on a 300D, you usually have to make up new ones in order to complete the job.

Relative to many other cars now being driven, the five cylinder 123 cars are easier to work on, but the four cylinder is a piece of cake compared to most anything being driven regularaly on the roads today.

My $0.02,