for the most part, that depends on you. I bought my mb in may, just did the 3rd oil change this week-end, wow 9k already, keep it looking good, change the oil regularly, and you'll love the car for its quailty, and the looks ya get from others.

chip

It will run until you kill it.

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N. Hodges
1994 S350
1987 300 SDL (for sale)

aluminum rather than cast iron

That makes a world of difference.

Had a parts car with over 1,000,000 km (620,000 miles) on the original engine that still had the original head gasket. It was due for a rebuilt though, but still started at 15 F. Has anyone else in this forum ever seen an original Mercedes 1,000,000 km badge? Unfortunately, the guy who sold me the car kept the badge (hey, I understand...)

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Denis

1979 300TD 189,000 Miles, now running WVO with a home-made 2 tank conversion
1974 230 Gasser 189,000 Miles, For Sale
1961 VW Microbus 162,000 Miles
1961 Ford Fairlane 500, 53,900 original miles
1951 Oliver Super 55 Tractor
2002 Chocolate Lab

Peter:

The block design of the four and six cylinder engines of the 60s and 70s was very smilar to the diesel engine block design. I certainly could mistake a gasser block for a deisel block without the heads on, and the cranks don't look that different, either.

Remember, Benz was a fairly small concern in those days, engineering talent was spread a bit thin. If the desgn works well, modify it a bit. You could drop a dizzy right onto the oil pump shaft of the OM 61x engines without a bit of trouble, and I'd bet there is a nice flat spot next to it for the bolt hole for the holddown!

Obviously, they cannot be interchanged, I don't believe, but they are very close.

Peter

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1972 220D ?? miles
1988 300E 200,012
1987 300D Turbo killed 9/25/07, 275,000 miles
1985 Volvo 740 GLE Turobodiesel 218,000
1972 280 SE 4.5 165, 000 - It runs!

Peter,
I have reread the posts and I'm in total agreement with you. MB did it right unlike GM which totally screwed it up.

Peter

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Auto Zentral Ltd.

Hello,
1978 300D with 1.65million kilometers, still on original engine that has had one new headgasket and a couple of sets of injectors, prechambers. But the rest of the car is now falling apart. I sold this car in 1988 to the present owner.
I know of one OM616 240D engine that was in a 1976 W115 taxi and is now in a 1980 W123 taxi, that block has run at least 3 million kms, never been rebuilt. Just valve adjustments and oil changes by the owner driver, now his son-in-law has taken over *The Engine*!
The sixties four and sixes were closely related to the diesels, but the block of course has a IP flange and drive on the diesels, plus the rocker shaft type valve gear in the cylinder head. All these type engines seem to last forever with routine maintainence, but around here repair shops do a lot of unneccesary work by convincing owners that the engine is burning oil or it needs a valve job.

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Nachi11744

Her '82 300D has 355k on the speedo , car runs just fine .
Regular oil changes ............ hmmmm .......... due for a valve adjustment ....... thanks for the reminder

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'72 240D
'76 300D
'88 300sel
'40 Chev pickup , the shop hack.
'73 Monte Carlo Landau, for "Super Chevy Sunday"

Same with VW, there little 4cyl gassers blocks look identical to the diesels, even the new diesels and gas engines are not too far removed. I have a late 90's 2.0L short block from a jetta sitting on a rack at work and if you look at it from ten feet away you could mistake it for a twenty year old diesel. Designs that stand the test of time. It's a wunnerful thing.

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One more Radar Lover gone...
1982 VW Caddy diesel 406K 1.9L AAZ
1994 E320 195K

The 350 was based off the olds 350 engine (different design from the Chevy 350s) and made an excellent block for gas drag racing use (as it was much beefier) for those interested in running an olds engine.

Sorry, you're correct it was the Olds 350.

Still, it was a DERIVED engine -- the bock was "redesigned" as a diesel, not an original and was WAY understressed (to say nothing of WAY underpowered). Same deal on the "new" Dodge Hemi -- this is a 1951 engine design tarted up with EFI. Nothing else has changed -- splayed pushrods sitting crooked on the lifters, 6" rocker arms, undersized crank, and all. Should be run to watch people over-rev it and send the pushrods out the valve cover, just like in 1958!

It was not a happy design, by any stretch of the imagination. It should have produced at least as nuch horsepower as the 617 non turbo on a displacement basis, and it didn't. Spun mains, bad rods, broken cranks (from rod bearing failures, if I remember correctly), oil pump failures, injection pump problems, severe head gasket and head bolt problems (and not enough head bolts, either!), serious head cracking problems, cold start problems, cracked blocks, etc.

Good idea, and if GM had taken a good look at European designs of similar vintage instead of taking a short cut, they could have done very well.

As I said, there are a large number of these engines in use in gensets, pumping appliations, etc, where they do just fine. I personally suspect the problem is "underengineering" to save money -- smaller bearings (narrower, as usuall GM practice, diameter is fine), lighter castings, cheaper pushrods (why not a OHC engine?), too long a stroke and too low compression, etc.

A 5 L diesel with a turbo should have made those cars fly!

Peter

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1972 220D ?? miles
1988 300E 200,012
1987 300D Turbo killed 9/25/07, 275,000 miles
1985 Volvo 740 GLE Turobodiesel 218,000
1972 280 SE 4.5 165, 000 - It runs!