interesting note about "mercedesdiesel4x4.com" adapter plate
 

this is referring to a 617 engine, using the above mentioned adapter plate

it has come to my attention that, with the engine and transmission mated, the bottom two bolts the go thru the adapter plate into the oil pan, make it damn near impossible to get the pan off by itself. the right hand 6mm allen head bolt is blocked by one of the bolts, and the pan wont drop down off the two fron studs far enough to slide the pan off the bolts. and the bolt heads are trapped between the clutch and adapter plate. so unless you separate the engine and trans and/or, do what i did, which sucked, youre not getting the pan off. and now that my pan is off, those two bolts arnt going back in.

the solution to this problem would be to either weld nuts to the back side of the adapter plate (verifying clearance, Clarence) or if the bottom holes in the plate were threaded, then you could just drill out the threads in the oil pan and install the bolts from front to rear. i should have seen this problem months ago, during assembly.

unless im just fucked up and did things really wrong, which is all together possible. the kit should have come with all the necessary bolts, imo

It's the same way with Bendtson's adapter, but then the original Mercedes transmission adapter is the same way. I reckon the Germans figured if you are taking the entire oil pan off, you will probably have the motor out for a rebuild anyway. I would have to look back at your build thread, but are you changing it out for the narrowed pan? That would suck!
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.die...c552504b39.jpg

Yeah just sent the pan off today to swap out for a modified pan. And after thinking about it all, and depending on how much meat there is on the pan, I'm gonna try to thread the adapter for a larger bolt and drill out the pan as nessecary. Or if that doesn't work I'll thru bolt it, front to back and put the nut on the inside. There seems to be solutions for this issue. Not sure how no body has figured this out yet

When I put my engine on the engine stand, I had the oil pan off, does not work well, I had to bolt the stand to the upper bolts, which made the engine top heavy on the stand. When I flipped it over to inspect the crank, I had to use the engine hoist to flip it back upright when I was done. There was no way even with a cheater bar, to pivot all that weight back up!

yup ran into the same issue. maybe next time ill bolt the plate to the engine and try and bolt the engine stand to it, instead of the engine.