Three months ago I bought a 1981 300D with 240k miles on it. I love these cars and I've always wanted one. Besides the high mileage, there was no rust, idled fine, lights, windows and sun roof worked, checked all fluids, oil, glow light, etc. Still had original manual and first aid kit, and interior was intact. The A/C did not work, and it needed brake pads, which he told me up front. It ran great upon purchase. Started right up, no smoke out of exhaust, and accelerated, reversed, and shifted without issue. The previous owner has about 5 Mercedes. He drives a newer one, but just loves the old diesels and buys them and resells occasionally as a hobby (I bought the car at his house). I have really tried to do my research over the past year, including lots of info on this site, and he seemed very knowledgable about these cars, as well. I'll get to the point-after driving about 2 miles on the freeway this morning the car started to rattle quite loud, Like a motorcycle. Then it shook a bit before I noticed black smoke billowing out in my rearview. As I was pulling off it felt like something snapped, kind of like when you blow a tire out, and then it stopped accelerating. When it was loading on the tow truck we found two big pieces of metal that appear to have come from the bottom (of the oil pan, I think). And it was leaking puddles of oil. Has anyone heard of engine parts just breaking off like this? How much is it to replace an engine for this car on average and is it even worth fixing on a car this old with this much mileage? I had planned on putting some money into the car but not this soon for something this major. I'm hoping maybe someone else has experienced this and/or someone could tell me what it could be. Any advice or opinions on what to do would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

What did you do with the car?

Looks like that would happen if a connecting rod let so and punched out some pieces of the block casting.