Haha, I wish I was Ed China with his nice warm, dry, clean workshop, his lifts and the tool for every job.
It's snow, ice, rain, axle stands and the roadside for me.
Yes,you guys are right, looks like the poor thing has just been used and abused.

I done some more homework on this engine, am I right in saying it's the mercedes m112?
Got hold of autodata's compression specs, Chrysler just specifies a minimum of 6.9 bar/100 psi where as MB SLK (170) 112 engine specifies 12-14 bar/174-203psi. I prefer the MB figures for my compression readings lol

Today I got the car on axle stands, squeeeeeezed underneath (just like Ed China) lol, tried to take the exhaust apart but it didn't want to play so had to drop the lot in one piece which was a whole day's fun. I'd really like to meet the person who designed the rear hangers! They'd be meeting the last few knuckles I have left.
Here's what I found and I think you'll see why it didn't want to play.