89' MB 300E

So as all good projects start, my car was found on craigslist for $600, including transportation to my house. Times were much different, i didn't know as much about cars, and seeing the ad i thought "Wow, german car for cheap! German cars are cool!"

And the 200 mile drive began. Coming from a 90' 2 door cherokee, this thing was a space ship as far as complexity. Needless to say, it needed some work. 230,000 miles, very abused, broken key switch, and the battery could have been a microwave for all it cared, because it wasn't doing the job of a battery.

I lost a lot of progress due to a moderator on another forum deleting my thread out of rage, so sadly i can't share the hilarious cobbled together electronics on this car. Imagine a chimp ripped out the ignition wiring, spliced in low purity structured copper wires, and used the same color for ever wire, then carry that over to most key electrical units of the car, namely windows and lock wiring.

Mods done since purchasing: Replace fuel pumps with walbro 255's (60-80 psi for mech injection) ~ Extensive body work to bring it back from where it used to be ~ Replace most of the important elecrical paths ~ Maintenance (plugs, oil, filters, so forth) ~ Get running (more work than it should have been) ~ New, cleaner wheels ~ Cheap 195/65/15 falkens ~ Shaved trunk lock ~ Seat refurbishing ~ Major degreasing

And at the moment, it's exhaust-less. The resonator and first muffler had axe head sized holes rusted in them, and once i have the time i'll weld up the stuff in the back seat. 2-1/2" tubing, magnaflow Y for the downpipes, and a stainless mangnaflow with a perf core.

Plans for this car? To be used as a development platform, then to transfer all of the things i've done to a clean chassis (preferably a black on black 300e). Obviously plans change all the time, but i've done my research and the set in stone things i want to do at the moment are: Euro headlights, Bilstein B8 dampers - H&R springs, 500e Sway bars, Swag suspension linkages in the rear, R129 lca's in the front, A whole book of energy bushings, R129 calipers - 3GD rotors - Carbotech pads, Fabricated bolt on chassis brace, straight bar strut braces, and subframe braces, 2 way clutch LSD (possibly cobra or charger) - custom axle shafts, Conversion to 5x114.3, BBS 17x8 wrapped in continental rubber, And the main piece, an engine swap. The most likely route at the moment is an ls2 block, 4" stroke, 4" bore, L92 heads, ls3 manifold, and a mild duration ~ high lift cam, bolted to a TR6060.

I'll update this thread as this project progresses. It's hard to say how quickly anything will progress, but with winter fast approaching sadly i don't expect much progress will be made. Either way, this car has been a learning experience for sure, and i'm stoked to make more progress on it!

Holy transformation! The car looks great!

It looks great so far. keep up the good work

Excuse the derp for cutting off the front half of the Y (2 18ga 2" 45'). If there are any other W124 owners out there, an aftermarket or custom exhaust is a GREAT mod for out cars. Not only is there horsepower to be gained, but even using mild steel like me you can cut the weight of the exuast in half, that resonator is as dense as a thousand suns. This whole setup cost me around $350-$400, and is a great bang for buck upgrade. I recommend buying all your own parts and having a shop weld it up for you, but don't seek an exhaust at this price with parts from an exhaust shop, because you'll get crush bends. I'm sure a lot of readers on this board know the difference between crush and mandrel bends, but if you don't, here's an example using my own parts:

Notice the wrinkles in the part on the left? Those are caused by not supporting the tube when it's being bent. This hurts exhaust gas velocity, and let's be honest, it just looks yuck. The part on the right was bend with something called a mandrel inserted in the tube. This supports the tube as it's bent, and creates a smooth bend. Even a small radius bend like the one on the right will outflow the larger radius bend on the left becuase there are no interruptions in the path of flow.

If you're interested in something like this for your W124 or similar chassis, the parts i've used are below.

~2.00" Mild Steel, 3.00" Radius, 18 Gauge, 45 Degree Mandrel Bend ~MagnaFlow Y-Pipe Transition ~Summit Racing® 2.5", 2.5" Radius, 16 Gauge, 45 Degree Mandrel Bend ~Summit Racing® 2.5", 2.5" Radius, 16 Gauge, 90 Degree Mandrel Bend ~Summit Racing® 2.5", 4" Length, 16 Gauge Exhaust Tubing ~MagnaFlow Performane Mufflers #12246

And here's what everything looks like layed out.

Depending on how it sounds, i might just add a 4"x9" magnaflow where the straight bit of tubing is being used, making that part redundant. Just wanted to give this thread a little more meat since i have no idea when it'll be updated, thanks for reading.

Nice, while I was swapping trans in mine I laid out the exhaust in cardboard. I'm hoping to get that done sometime this winter.

So i came across another muffler with the same dimensions as mine, but with dual exit. Decided to make a sketchup comparison to see how different they would look, one with my standard pipe exit, and the other with dual ovular slanted tip magnaflow exits. Quite chuffed with how it turned out, looking for some input on what you guys would prefer, the setup on the left, or the setup on the right?

A vote for dual tips here. Great looking merc.

I have a TE so my outlets are different, planning two round turndowns like the stock versions.

I prefer the look of a single, large, round and straight-cut outlet myself.