Spac’s Adventures in Mercedes
- Edited
One of the Canberra “we take the good parts off the scrap cars before scrapping them” wreckers is wrecking an early 90s E320.
These motors (M104.990) are the holy grail for W201 conversions - almost bolt in, 162kW and tough as nails. Think B6304 but more durable, and a lot rarer. Calling them a German Barra is probably a bit overstated, but gives the right idea.
The motor is a non runner: “it turns over a little bit”. I paid $500 for the motor with accessories, four piston front calipers and big front swaybar.
Pulled it apart when I got home this afternoon.
I was expecting the worst but it seems that it has a blown head gasket on cylinder #6 and has hydraulic locked.
Everything else seems to be pretty good. Bores are nice, no sparkles in the oil, etc.
Not totally sure if I am going to use it anytime in the near future, but it is far too rare to allow it to be scrapped.
- Edited
Experiment: Evo Bilsteins into the front of a W201.
The green bits are the leftovers from the cheap and nasty Chinabay BMW coilovers.
Yellow bits are the Evo Bilsteins.
Photo collection is incomplete but should be enough to give you the idea.
First step is to modify the lower mount to suit the MB upright. (Lousy photo - note the cut in the lower mount, spaced out with a stack of washers).
Then tack the Evo leg into the Chinabay leg. And discover that it goes very close to /hits on the spring mount, depending on where the camber is set.
This is at full droop. The strut moves away from the spring as the suspension compresses, but hasn’t moved away enough before the step (at the top of the green leg) solidly hits the spring mount.
Cutting away the green leg gives more clearance.…but not quite enough.
I think that if don’t wind in too much negative camber then it will be OK, but am not fully satisfied with this as a solution.
Obvious other option is to trim the spring seat, which I would be happy to do …. except these are destined for the 190E in the hope that Group Nd historic class actually gets up, and it is likely that they won’t allow body mods like that.
Where does the oil go in the damper?
Here.
They are an inverted dampener. Among other things, it means that you can weld to the lower leg with less stress.
Tacked into place for a trial fit this evening (weather permitting).
Asymmetric cut outs to allow for clearance across the range of steering movement.
Currently working on the optimistic theory that a combination of a) shortening the strut length by 15mm and b) Lowering the car which naturally introduces some negative camber … will give enough clearance between the strut and the spring mount at the camber settings that I need.
Any particular reason not to cut the mounts off the green tube and weld them back on such that the mounting points are closer to the tube? Just level of effort involved in doing that?
VolvoHordzAny particular reason not to cut the mounts off the green tube and weld them back on such that the mounting points are closer to the tube? Just level of effort involved in doing that?
Now that you mention it…
I worked out that the E36 mounts space the strut body further away from the upright. So I cut the mounts off.
Not sure if I will cut the mounts from the Mercedes struts or modify the BMW bits.
That’s all I managed today - stupid busy so I missed smoko and most of lunch.
The 203’s reported fuel consumption is getting better since the ignition switch has been repaired.
This was a fairly casual drive home today - never seen it in the 6s before now.
Here's another high quality Ed find:
https://auctionsplus.com.au/auctions/machinery/nutrien-cooma-hay-making-and-machinery-clearing-sale/1990-mercedes-benz-2.6l-190e/listing/87300-171449Hitting the auction this weekend....
Closish to home, 2.6 … this is relevant to my interests.
PaddlerEdhttps://ozvolvo.org/discussion/comment/200101#Comment_200101
That was why I posted it... It's always easier to encourage other people to spend money....
I do like my d5 xc90
Speaking of merc
May yet trade in the auto 120i for a coupe (non convertible) clk430 because v8 and cheap and small and auto for easy commute
I did a thing today.
Turns out that road cars that aren’t super fast on the road aren’t super fast on the track.
The 203 is a bunch of fun to drive on the track, but it is absolutely insufferable with some sort of traction control that is super intrusive even in “dyno mode”.
Managed a 66.9 (the BMW race car’s best is 62.2 for comparison).
Still, I drove it there, drove it home, and will drive it to work tomorrow.
Might see if I can get the fuel consumption back down into the single digits soon…
Auctions plus is a funny platform, but has been around for nearly as long as eBay.
Think it's a case of register and go from there. Once you've got the account set up, you can click on Connect on the listing above and then it'll take you through to a grid of squares with the lot number and a brief description of the lot, as well as current bid and if it's on the market.
This is merc content
https://youtu.be/LKoaLSV34foDoes it matter if its slow (300kw is never that slow) if it sounds that good?
Hahauaha,Epic!
Definitely calling shenanigans on the auction one: $7700 with GST is beyond top dollar for something that has been sitting out in the open for an indeterminate amount of time.
As a contrast, this one is $3500 and is clearly the better car. https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/328897065375538/?ref=search&referral_code=marketplace_search&referral_story_type=post&tracking=browse_serp%3A95195724-f7a3-4096-b18f-db7b73134cd5