1972 Mercedes 280SE 4.5, making the luxurious uncomfortable and noisy.

I usually don't do SAE measurements, but I can't find my metric caliper. I actually don't know why I have an SAE caliper because I have never used it until now. My SAE tools are all thrown in a 5 gal bucket. Which has been kind of a pain lately because I've been doing some work on my buddy's '64 vette and messing with old American iron for my trans stuff. Every time I need a tool I have to dig through a half full 5 gal bucket for the right size, I swear it seems like I have 500 of the same wrong size socket before I find the right size. Haha

To be honest, I usually stay away, far away, from Peach Parts forums and MB.org forums. Back when I was on there, I had the impression people were pretty dick to anyone that popped in and wanted to do anything but put MB factory parts where they are supposed to go. Then it was, well, I guess it is OK if you replace a factory part with a similar factory part, but only if it fits as is. If you weren't part of some official race team spending big $$$$$, you had no business modifying a MB. It rubbed me the wrong way, so I just don't go there. Though it is nice to hear the is a bit of a change to that.

The shop will stay nameless until I at least go by and talk to them. It is entirely possible they had an apprentice do it (I saw one in there the other day). That doesn't mean that it got done any less wrong, but I don't want to publicly flog someone until I hear their side of the story and give them a chance to make it right. People make mistakes, and my personal opinion is how people own up to their mistakes says more about them than just about anything.

W114/W115's are sick! I put a poor man's LS1 (2001 4.8 LR4) and 4L60E in one a few years back.

Engine compartment picture. I didn't put much time into making it look nice under the hood. I miss that car. Was going to buy it back a few months ago.

Nice Benz!

Well, I just got back from the machinist. It is a shop for a company called FH Pumps. They main bread and butter is pumps (obviously), but they tell me they do a fair amount of hotrod work in their shop.

I was a little peeved after talking to the machinist as he was angry I didn't bring it to him to "fix" before taking the ~2mm of material off myself. I told him ovaling a bolt hole is not "fixing" anything. When you pay decent shop rates ($75 an hour) you should get decent work. It took him a long time to understand what my issue was with his work. Which annoyed me to the point where I walked off and went to find a manager, or something. Spoke to him for a bit and just got more angry so I went to cool off a bit in my truck.

The manager came to my truck and offered me my money back on the labor or to purchase another flywheel and redo it.

I took the 120 the flywheel costs and will be buying another. I will let them have their shot at making it right. I am not 100% faultless as I didn't know the one bolt was 2mm off. If I were working the mill, I would have liked to know that before going to work. As a matter of fact, I am lucky he did not cut it with the spacer upside down. Then it would have been wrong and 100% my fault for not specifying.

The peach parts thread is in performance paddock, so they are looser there. But I get you on the "purist" snobbery. If any one gives me any crap about modifying a slow old benz they'll hear right back to piss off, MY CAR!! My buddy is the moderator for the benzwolrd vintage section too so that's good. I know enough about these cars now I really only post when I see someone that needs help or is doing something similar like you. And my build thread that is stalled for quite a while now. So are they buying you a new flywheel and machining it?

Hi there . That's sucks that a "machinist" coulnd't do a very simple work using a rotating table . I don't have numbers in front of me , but they were very rounded off . center bore for a flywheel was 45mm or 50mm Fly wheel has 8 bolts , on a turn table you find a center move away to part where you want to drill every 45 degrees minus one off center hole. You need to use center as you 0 point so flywheel doesn't have a slight chance to move. Plus balancing after installing pressure plate is very recommended . Find some one who knows what they doing. Engine rebuild shop . Good luck .

The worst part is that I sounds like he was using the washer as a guide and didn't stop and remeasure when he hit it on one hole. Unless it just happened to be the last one he could have made it right. Plus off on the center hole is completely unacceptable. Mistakes happen yes, but this seems like amature hour. Find an engine shop that does high performance work. Hell, are you anywhere near metric motors that does the MB classic center work?

email me more specific pictures . You got my email

Damnit!! The more I look into it it seems that I have found a mistake on the Epc. 119.971/981(4.2) and 119.970/980(5.0)are the mid sump engines from the w140 and w210. They do use a different oil pump with a longer pickup. The Epc has the 119.980 listed using both pickups but I believe it's wrong. 400 plus for an oil pump. Jesus. I think the short pickup part could be used on a good pump but there may be moving/wear parts in that part of the housing. How's the bellhousing plan coming?

I am waiting on a piece of aluminum to make an adapter plate. Other than waiting for parts I have been working too much. There were a couple 2 week periods where I had one day off. With 12 hour days that gets pretty hairy. I told my supervisors that I'm not going to be doing any overtime for March. Then promptly for assigned a few training days. Haha, at least the training days are only 8 hours.

I did sell some car stuff and got some manual window regulators. They are from a W114. The rears fit and function properly. The fronts fit, but the down position is about 1.5 inches too high. I am going to figure out how to make a change somewhere and get it to work.

I'd post pictures, but they would be completely uninteresting. When I make the changes to the fronts and have something interesting, I'll post that up.

In reply to HunterBenz:look for w111/110 regulators. They rust into the ground on the east coast. I can buy one for a few hundred for a part I need and get my money back on the rest easy. I may even have extras when my race car is goin together. I think I'm gonna go with a strap and buckle like a helmet or bookbag shoulder strap to hold the windows up. Gonna dump any weight possible.

   Are you gonna try to make a plate to adapt a bellhousing to the motor or a trans to a 722.6 auto bell?

I got the fronts modified the other day. The fronts needed about a 25 degree bend in them to pull the window down enough.

Template I used was pretty basic, just a outline traced into some cardboard with a line marking where I needed things.

I threw a little piece of 11 GA into the gap and welded it into place.

And the result.

Sorry it is not something too exciting. I'm still waiting for my aluminium plate to make my adaptor. Amazon cancelled my order for some reason. I placed the order again. I hope it gets here soon.

I'll be adapting bell housing to engine, at least that is the plan at this point.

That sucks re: Amazon.

This place is another option: https://www.speedymetals.com

Hey I hope you got that flywheel situation taken care of. My friend on Peachparts has gotten his auto bell housing adapter plate completed to mount the t5 to the m119 722.6xx auto bell. It looks great, heavy in steel but that's fine.

I had an idea come to me and I can't confirm it will work because I'm not looking at any of my swing axle cars at this moment so there may be clearance issues I'll have to inspect. So the front "mini leaf spring" subframe mount is a big handling problem because its rubber bushing lets the whole subframe move and change caster angle under braking. This whole setup should be replaced with heims or del alum bushings to keep the subframe adjustable and solid. On top of that the main rubber subframe mounts let everything move around too. If some solid subframe mounts were fabricated a bit shorter than the rubbers to lower the body on the subframe it would lower the car without suspension geometry issues and it would give some chassis rail and steering box clearance on the manifolds. Only thing I can think of off hand may be hood clearance. What do you think?

Eliminating both the rubber bushing and the mini leaf spring thing will make the car feel a little more stiff and give a more predictable response under hard driving. I don't think there will be much extra clearance by sinking the body a bit more on the sub frame. I will probably be doing both things you mention in the future, but I am not there yet.

As for the rear, I have not spent a lot of time looking at ways to improve it. There is not much info out there on the theory behind the swing arm suspension and, while I don't think it is overly complicated, I have not devoted any time to looking into it.

I am about 37.235% done with my adapter plate. The good news is, if I berkeley up the big plate, I can use the center slug to try a trans to bell adaptor later. Haha. Here is a teaser showing where I am now.

Next up: I have to cut out the painted area and then I can measure and drill for the Ford bell housing.

Don't you want to leave the center so you can use it for reference drilling the ford pattern? And wouldn't lowering the body give steering box and chassis rail clearance? I'll be looking into it for mine anyway. On a side note I'm going tomorrow to check out the contract and final details on a 3500 sqft shop! For 875$ a month

On the centering the Ford bellhousing thing, short answer is no. Basically I eyeballed it to be mostly centered it with allowing for a margin of error. I got most of it done tonight. I have to go get dowell pins for the Ford bellhousing tomorrow, if I can find them locally. Then I can do enough to get the write up done on how I made my adapter. I will tell you that eyeballing it, I was withing .020 inches. After measuring, the bellhousing was withing .001 inches of center. I think a few of you will get a kick out of my ghetto method. I'm sure a few will tell me it was wrong and wreckless, but I live in a zone comprised entirely of danger, so wreckless is pretty much a standard. (For the mm crowd, I measure in inches here because offset dowell pins are sold in inches, not mm's as far as I know.)

What I meant by my post is I don't know if it will be enough to be a difference worth the effort. But, if I were you, I wouldn't listen to me and I would do what I wanted anyway. That is one think I love about car builds, every single one is different. Every build borrows from past builds and ideas from others molded to fit another crazy mind's ideas of what they want in a car. I also have not done any testing, or even any consideration in that area. I did think of making the mounts solid, but that was as far as I got. I have other things to work out first.

Aaaalright, I have some time away from everything today, so I'll post up part one of my bell housing to block adapter build with about 2% of the tools I SHOULD be using to make this. First up, I started with this half-inch thick plate of aluminum.

I basically got things sorted to where the center of both bell housings were at a place where the both bell housings would be on the aluminum.

I clamped the Mercedes bell housing to the aluminum and used a transfer punch to mark all of the holes.

I marked some of the transfer punch marks and didn't drill them on the first go.

I drilled the holes with this cheap-o drill press from the Harbor Freight.

Then I bolted the Mercedes bell housing to the drilled piece of aluminum and drilled out the dowel pins using the bell housing as a template.

After that mess, I sprayed the inside shape onto the aluminum with a random spray can. I probably should have picked a more contrasting color. As you can see above, there was two starter locations on the bell housing. I cleaned off the one I will not be using and cleaned up an edge that did not sit flush (by design).

Then came the REAL slow part. I went and bought a cheap HF, on sale, jig saw for 30 bucks and cut out the main circle. This took quite some time.

After I did that, I bolted the now 42.7% completed adapter to the engine. From far away, in the dark, with my eyes closed, the circle almost looks good. Giotto, I am not.

After moving the studs to the top two holes, I eyeballed the center of the Ford bell housing to the crank and clamped it down. I put a dial indicator on the centered circle on the rear of the Ford bell housing with its magnetic base stuck to the crank and I was .020" off. A few (dozen) taps with a hammer and turns of the engine, my buddy and I got that number down to .001" total runout. I used a punch to mark one dowel pin location. The motion of the dowel pin location punch moved the bell housing a little. We taped and turned a few more times back to .001" and I punched the next mark.

That is about where I am at now. I went to National Parts Depot and picked a couple Ford 1/2" dowel pins to use. I really like that I have so many good places to buy stuff like this locally. I also picked up a clutch alignment tool so I can get that done right.

I'm out of town for the weekend and will probably get more done on Monday and Tuesday. I may be able to get countersink bolts locally, if not, I can get any-dang-thing I need from McMaster-Carr's Android app. That app is epic, by the way. The other day I almost bought from the app just because I thought the app is so cool. It is just like the books that used to be in every auto parts store complete with diagrams and measurements. I love it!

I'm not sure I'll be able to get the countersink bit with a matching angle locally. So I'll have to find one of them after I find out what angle my countersink bolts will be.

Magnificent!

Thats great. I'm not sure i would have thought of the dial indicator setup like that. I just happend to have bought one last week. this may save me money over a Mercedes bell,adapter and hydraulic slave cylinder.how much was the plate? will the starter bolt right to the plate no problem?

Hey not sure if you trust your stock v8 radiator to handle the m119 on a track, but I came across this which is perfect size for my w111. And if I recall correctly I measured my w108 4.5 rad and it was the same size as the w111, at least width wise. It had the oil cooler next to it which my w111 doesn't have. The grill is lower and wider on the w108. I am going to have to install one in there somewhere though. http://www.amazon.com/Fleetline-Fleetmaster-Stylemaster-Aluminum-Radiator/dp/B011WSHJTI

Rwd4ever: Sorry man, I've been out of circulation with being busy at work and health issues. The plate was about 70 bucks and the starter will bolt to the plate.

MegaSquirt gurus:

On the car, I'm about to start working on the car again. I have not even finished cleaning up from the last update, but with a little extra money around, I'm looking at getting my MegaSquirt set up while I have the cash. At this point I'm looking at buying an assembled MS3X and the 10' wire sets, just for ease of use.

I have been trying to look into the MegaManual but all I see when I go to the website is a FAQ. Am I just that dumb or is there a secret handshake to get in the door so to speak? I'm thinking it might be my phone not able to view the website right, but it is kind of annoying.

Anyone have any recommendations on going a different route with the MS?

All good man. I've been so busy moving all my cars and setting up shop I haven't checked here in forever. I got in to my 4500sqft warehouse/shop a month ago and I'm still not done. I have aquired a m119 though!! It may be useable as a whole but it's good for the correct oil pan and mockup at least. It's a 119.740 and I though all 119.7xx were closed deck blocks but now I've found info that says engines with the number stamped in the front valley are all open deck and only rear driver side behind the head stamped are closed deck. Oh well I got parts to play with. I think it will fit with stock mounts but the brake booster is gonna have to go I'm pretty sure. It's even closer to the engine in the w111. My plan is also pre built ms3 with all the sequential cop upgrades and wireing stuff. It's worth a few hundred bucks to know its not my soldering some dumb part backwards or something. I still have my w111 street car to build first so I'm going to be living vicariously through your build and my buddy's r129 I'm doing exhaust and starter on. He bought a stripped parts car for those parts and is giving me the motor. We have a decent w108 that could get it before my w111 to though. So nice to have a place to do it now! I have two 108 parts cars if you need any stuff let me know.

So, Harbour Freight got me with their Memorial Day sale and I bought a cheap ass pressure washer. Yes, the bright blue one, for 80 bucks. The thing works great for working on this project. Washed off the super grungy bell housing.

It worked pretty well. I also washed out the grungy engine compartment.

I also got my package from McMaster Carr and Amazon. Counter sunk bolts and a bit respectively.

Countersunk the bolt holes and the adapter it bolts up nicely.

Then the magic happened, I drilled and tapped the adapter for the new bell housing. Bolted her all up, and BOOOM, M119 with a Ford top loader bolted up.

I'm super excited about making some measurable progress. I also bought most of the material to make engine mounts. Next up is lining that all up and getting the engine and trans mounts made.

That, there, is kick ass.