It looks like you may be getting hooked on Mercs... A potentially expensive addiction. The timing chain seems to be a pretty common consumable on a lot of MBs. I’ve got a couple of 450SLCs and they need their chains (and guides) replaced about every 100000km to be safe. About the same as timing belts, which are a LOT easier.

The US delivered 380SLs came with a single row chain. So bad, compared with a double row, that I think it was a factory recall to upgrade it.

One of your early posters said E was for economy. Not sure if he was tongue-in-cheek, but E is for Einspritzmotor, meaning fuel injected engine.

By the way, they all look pretty nice cars.

Philia_Bear

Needs more LS/barra swap...

lol ..... After what Hendo told me about his former Merc, I must respectfully disagree. ?

The 16V in the 190E 2.3-16 was the M102 engine, but those beasts were not common nor affordable.

@Spac now that you're busy with these Mercs, are you still progressing with the 960 rally car? If you are and you have surplus interior trim bits, please let me know.

  • Spac replied to this.
      Major Ledfoot

      https://ozvolvo.org/discussion/comment/191540#Comment_191540

      lol ..... After what Hendo told me about his former Merc, I must respectfully disagree. ?

      The 16V in the 190E 2.3-16 was the M102 engine, but those beasts were not common nor affordable.

      @Spac now that you're busy with these Mercs, are you still progressing with the 960 rally car? If you are and you have surplus interior trim bits, please let me know.

      960 has stalled badly. I am in the middle of a big purge - down to one x40, both Peugeots going back to their original owner, several others to be advertised...

      The whole 9-series thing is the biggest area of indecision. Current thinking is to sell both 940s and keep the S90, but this plan is likely to change at any moment.

      Let me know what you want and I'll see what I can do.

        11 days later

        Oops.

        Floor matts to protect floor matts is an interesting decision to make...

        Another interesting decision is the bump strip on the *top edge of the door protector panels* . I assume that they were chrome originally, and it was an aesthetic decision.

        Car drives ok, although the auto is less co-operative than the one in the white car.

        This one is also filthy inside and out.

        4 months later

        Couldn’t handle the flaky, stone chipped white grille on the 190E. No good before photos because I never think of them until it is too late.

        Tried the “aqua blaster” (wet bead blaster), trying to avoid chewing the plastic too hard.

        It worked pretty well.

        But the corners were impossible to get clean.

        Then I tried with the normal/dry blaster.

        Better. Faster, gets more of the nooks and crevices clean.

        But not all of them. There’s actually a ton of surface area and you need to rotate the grille to four different orientations (45*, 135*, 225* and 315*) to even see all of the paint, and then repeat on the other side.

        Luckily, the seal pick chips the paint out pretty easily.

        Bearing in mind that a new grille and surround is about $160 on ebay, I think that there’s about 6 hours work in this one…

        At this point, I think that I will leave the surround in stone-chipped white and repaint the aluminium trims in white, and reassemble it. If I make the rest of the car pretty, then I will buy a new grille.

        16 days later

        This happened today.

        Before getting too excited, the manifold is Mitsubishi Astron. And they’re only 40mm carbs - I would have preferred 45s, but the existence of Chinese copies seems to have driven up the price of genuine Webers by a lot. Go figure. Anyway these came up at a tolerable price, so I went for it.

        Linkages have been installed back-to-front. These photos show the throttle closed, and just opened - the second carb can only begin to open after the first has already opened a fair way… These linkages should be swapped between the carbs (top to bottom in these photos).

        An unexpected bonus is that the port spacing appears to be the same as the Mercedes’ - I will definitely be looking at the possibility of modifying this manifold to suit (rather than fabricating from scratch as was the original plan).

        Next is to investigate 123ignition distributors. They list something for the four cylinder W123 (which should be the same M102 engine as the W201), but I am not going to spend $600 without being sure.

        • rado replied to this.

          I like the 123 dizzy. I’ve got a programmable (via laptop rather than Bluetooth) in my 144 rally car. It’s done Sydney-London, Peking-Paris plus a couple of COTs without missing a beat.

          Got the strips back onto the 190E grille. What a mongrel of a job! They take a lot of care to get on, and then fight every inch of the way.

          Went with white for the strips as a way to balance the 1980s bad taste against the 1980s bad taste…

          Definitely not immaculate, but nor is the rest of the car.

          I would have put it all back together, but I left the clips at work … well, I thought I did, until I opened the road car’s boot and discovered the clips there.

          Meh, a job for tomorrow afternoon.

          4 days later

          Wow ok. Is the backyard full yet!?

          Spac

          This happened today.

          https://cdn.ozvolvo.org/uploads/IPQJM0C07UAS/53e31702-3ced-4955-8fd2-b152fc9fc12e.jpeg

          https://cdn.ozvolvo.org/uploads/E05U5SQ11IX6/272de40a-0e51-48c7-b2d7-fcec10567159.jpeg

          Before getting too excited, the manifold is Mitsubishi Astron. And they’re only 40mm carbs - I would have preferred 45s, but the existence of Chinese copies seems to have driven up the price of genuine Webers by a lot. Go figure. Anyway these came up at a tolerable price, so I went for it.

          Linkages have been installed back-to-front. These photos show the throttle closed, and just opened - the second carb can only begin to open after the first has already opened a fair way… These linkages should be swapped between the carbs (top to bottom in these photos).

          https://cdn.ozvolvo.org/uploads/BR52UX4GND74/a3ffc64c-b0c8-44f1-af78-25fc28ce6008.jpeg

          https://cdn.ozvolvo.org/uploads/JMIMPE6DEUPV/202cf153-b899-44a7-9669-bcc701583ec0.jpeg

          An unexpected bonus is that the port spacing appears to be the same as the Mercedes’ - I will definitely be looking at the possibility of modifying this manifold to suit (rather than fabricating from scratch as was the original plan).

          Next is to investigate 123ignition distributors. They list something for the four cylinder W123 (which should be the same M102 engine as the W201), but I am not going to spend $600 without being sure.

          What a decent set of 40's fetching these days , if you don't mind me asking ?

          • Spac replied to this.
              rado

              https://ozvolvo.org/discussion/comment/198025#Comment_198025

              What a decent set of 40's fetching these days , if you don't mind me asking ?

              I paid $600 with manifold. He started off asking for $1500, which was highly optimistic even with the Covid Tax.

              The $600 is the low end of the price range but still galls a bit considering the number of pairs of 45s I have bought and sold for less over the years…

                  Hmm , never had a set of 45s but a few 40s on escorts, capris . I've actually never driven a car with 45s but I bet it'll sound the goods . 40s should be good though for the merc hey ..

                  • Spac replied to this.
                    rado

                    Hmm , never had a set of 45s but a few 40s on escorts, capris . I've actually never driven a car with 45s but I bet it'll sound the goods . 40s should be good though for the merc hey ..

                    I think so!

                    Merc people are weird. Once you get past the "the Mercedes engineers know best!" crowd, you still have to deal with the "just buy a Cosworth" and the "Fit a LS/SR/M111/JZ" crowds... and then you discover that there's a literal handful of people who have actually fiddled with the humble old M102 8V boat anchor and had reasonable results.

                    Finally beginning to formulate a plan for these cars. Maybe.

                      Spac

                      https://ozvolvo.org/discussion/comment/198230#Comment_198230

                      I paid $600 with manifold. He started off asking for $1500, which was highly optimistic even with the Covid Tax.

                      The $600 is the low end of the price range but still galls a bit considering the number of pairs of 45s I have bought and sold for less over the years…

                      Yes well your old 45s are going well for me even if they kill floats regularly.

                        12 days later

                        I did something else today…

                        Not (just) because I have poor impulse control… but for one good reason:

                        This is a C180, so is the 1.8 litre version of the 2.2 litre silver car.

                        I now have most of the parts needed to put the 2.2 and manual box into one of the 190Es - will need to make engine mounts and I am not sure about the tailshaft.

                        You should put a beams motor into one of them

                        Looks tidy

                        What's that set you back? If you don't mind saying

                        • Spac replied to this.
                          rado

                          Looks tidy

                          What's that set you back? If you don't mind saying

                          $1000 and a trip to Albury.

                          I inadvertently took the photo from the most flattering angle possible. The front bumper is broken, and there's a solid dent in the bootlid (complete with oversized band-aid stickers).

                          Also one rooted tyre (suggesting geometry/bush problems), saggy headlining, and a few other bits of weirdness.

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