Later is always better, except for the 1974-5 450SLs, which were blast furnaces under the hood due to efforts to meet pollution controls and the installation of under hood catalytic converters.
1981-2 380SLs should be checked for single row timing chains, an engine killer that has pretty much been eliminated, but could still be lurking out there. I'm not aware of any U.S. spec manual transmissions, unless they were special ordered. There are some out there that have been converted after the fact, but again, are rare from what I've seen. Look around on the R107 forum on BenzWorld as well as other online venues to learn more. John Olson's book is good, but pricey. Dan Sent from my iPad > On Nov 24, 2015, at 9:19 AM, Dan Elliott via Mercedes <mercedes@okiebenz.com> > wrote: > > I have a 1982 300D that I have enjoyed a great deal, especially for its > reliability and how easy it seems to be to work on. Was thinking of starting > to look for a Mercedes SL from the same era. They were produced from 1971 to > 1989. Was wondering if any years are more or less desirable for any reason? > > I like the idea of getting a manual transmission, not sure if that is > advisable? > > TIA > > Dan Elliott, Philadelphia > 300D 155kmi > > Sent from my iPhone > _______________________________________ > http://www.okiebenz.com > > To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ > > To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: > http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com > _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
