Darn 3-wheel engine stands

The in-line diesel is cumbersome with the overhead cam and heavy injection pump on one side. A V-8 is much more balanced. I didn't trust the stand, which is why I moved it away from my Dart. The guy I bought it from said it broke once and he welded it back (not comforting). Once I lifted the engine back, I continued with the top down so the center of mass is low. I'll have it on the ground for the rest of the work.

My main job was cleaning to swap parts, since diesels get filthy. I don't know how others clean, but what works best for me is to scrape solid gunk with a putty knife, then brush in diesel fuel and wipe the wet gunk with paper towels, repeat, then an air nozzle to blow off sand and clean all crevices, then break up hard stuff with a wire brush, repeat. Gasoline evaporates too fast and is dangerous. Diesel (or kerosine) stays wet all night and seems to dissolve gunk just as well.

bohica2x0,
I would still like to rebuild my original engine, which is all apart. Can you buy new turbo pistons for $55? I can buy used ones for that, but don't trust them, and $275/set for used! I recently saw a new set for $675 on ebay, so maybe they started making replacements. About time, since M-B sold millions of 300D's around the world. I found 3 bad pistons in my engine, at 330K miles, which seems to be when most fail (so much for the "million mile engine"). 2 had spots missing by the ring grooves and one had big chunks missing and ground up rings (#1 that always fails first). The block is fine since it has removable cylinder liners ($15 ea) and I found an easy way to remove them. I have read horror stories of failed engines from burning veg oil, but maybe they just hit the 330K "engine fails" mark.