13.8 liters of German fury will grace my trailer come Sunday

Well the good news is the shipper got here super fast.  He rolled in about 7:15PM.  I had him meet me at a nearby church with my single car trailer and planned to load them one at a time and run them home.  Well,  that went about how you’d expect with two 40 year old project Mercedes that have hydraulic suspension.

For some reason neither would pump up.  The green one had an obvious hydraulic leak at the right rear.  The grey one was running pretty rough and was LOUD with the missing exhaust,  so in the interest of not waking the dead by continuing to mess with it I just called in the pros.

We had already got the grey one off the trailer,  but it was too collapsed for me to winch onto mine,  so the rollback driver dragged it onto his deck,  then backed up to my trailer and I was able to winch it onto my trailer from his deck.

The green one was a little more stubborn. Part of the exhaust that was left hung on the shippers trailer,  so I pulled out my trusty cordless sawzall and hacked it off,  then the rollback driver pulled it onto his deck directly from the shippers trailer.  The rollback driver then followed me the 3 tenths of a mile home and unloaded the green car.  He only charged me $100,  so no complaints there!

The cars.  Well the green one is definitely a parts car.  It is very rusty and the interior is shot,  but it runs good!

The grey one is solid,  but is running like E36 M3,  so I need to figure that out and get the suspension to pump up,  or at least jack it up and get blocks in there so I can move it around.  Overall I’m happy for the price I paid and am ready to get to work on them.

About working on them.  Well, we’re closing on our new house July 31st,  so building a new shop there,  then moving is going to take some time.  I will tinker on them here and there,  but more than likely no serious work will happen until I can move them into the new shop.  I will plan to start a build thread on the grey one then.  More to come. 

Very cool, if you need extra space I have room for your sec...

In reply to chandler :

The SEC is a blast.  I’m hoping to get it out more once the new shop is build.

I’ve decided to take the engine and transmission out of the green parts car and swap it into my silver 4.5 powered sel.  I’m just not a fan of the 4.5,  but the rest of the car is in great shape,  so I think the 6.9 swap will really wake it up.  I have H&R springs on it and hope they’re up to the additional weight of the 6.9.  We’ll see.  Guess I need to start a build thread.

Do you have a “garage” thread? Just curious to see all the cars you have in the stable. Very cool, i had never known of the big 6.9 mercs. 

I had already though “this guy has a heck of a car collection” then you wip out another SEL

TJL said:

Do you have a “garage” thread? Just curious to see all the cars you have in the stable. Very cool, i had never known of the big 6.9 mercs. 

I had already though “this guy has a heck of a car collection” then you wip out another SEL

I will soon.  We’re moving and I’m building a 50x100 at the new place,  so plan to start a thread on the new garage build.  It will be nice to finally get them all under one roof.

Cotton said:

TJL said:

Do you have a “garage” thread? Just curious to see all the cars you have in the stable. Very cool, i had never known of the big 6.9 mercs. 

I had already though “this guy has a heck of a car collection” then you wip out another SEL

I will soon.  We’re moving and I’m building a 50x100 at the new place,  so plan to start a thread on the new garage build.  It will be nice to finally get them all under one roof.

Engine bay comparison.

4.5:

6.9:

I’ll give the 6.9 a thorough cleaning and detailing once it’s out.  I’ll also tune it up,  replace any leaky gaskets,  etc.

I kind of miss working on a m117 

My dad had a 4 speed 1977 euro 280SE W116 up until I was 8 or so. I always liked this chassis, but could never find one that I thought was in good enough condition. 

I ended up with a euro 500SEL W126. The M117 on the W126 was a pleasure to work on. Plenty of space to access everything. 

Does the W116 have a big engine bay as well? Or is it a pain to work on?

Love the cars btw. 

In reply to Slippery :

It's a pretty big engine bay to work in

In reply to Slippery :

My 4.5 car has not been difficult to work on and the engine bay is pretty roomy.  We’ll see how it goes with the 6.9.  

I’ve been trying to think of easy modifications while the engine is out.  I was looking for headers as a “while you’re in there” modification,  but they don’t seem to exist.  

Cotton said:

In reply to Slippery :

My 4.5 car has not been difficult to work on and the engine bay is pretty roomy.  We’ll see how it goes with the 6.9.  

I’ve been trying to think of easy modifications while the engine is out.  I was looking for headers as a “while you’re in there” modification,  but they don’t seem to exist.  

http://dkubus.com/ try them. I know they make m117 parts 

In reply to yupididit :

Cool,  I’ll check with them.  If nothing else I’ll do a nice exhaust from the manifolds back.

In reply to yupididit :

I question the benefit of headers unless further modifications are taken  such as camshafts, port work, higher compression,  increase in intake etc.  

Headers by themselves are not a magic cure all. 

frenchyd said:

In reply to yupididit :

I question the benefit of headers unless further modifications are taken  such as camshafts, port work, higher compression,  increase in intake etc.  

Headers by themselves are not a magic cure all. 

Cool

In reply to frenchyd :

The stock log manifolds are nothing to write home about,  but could be a moot point anyway if I can’t find a set.  I’m not in love with the idea enough to have a custom set made.

In reply to Cotton :

Since I’ve welded up a few sets myself I understand the complex engineering that goes into them.  Most commercial “HEADERS” are actually little more than tubular exhaust manifolds. True “HEADERS” are based on Engine parameters such as camshaft events, bore, stroke,  compression etc.  and really only gain horsepower when in a relatively narrow operating range.  A successful set will gain perhaps 5% increase which for racing is a really big improvement.  But for the street is more heard than felt.  

The better use of money for the street is to open up the size of the tailpipe and decrease any back pressure.   You can do that starting from the stock exhaust manifold. 

Mercedes engineers wouldn’t fail to gain power anyplace they could.  With  BMW, Porsche, and Audi  pushing them and a unlimited speed on the autobahn, they’d leave untapped power at their own peril.  

In reply to frenchyd :

Well,  they still had to deal with emissions.  The Euro 6.9 is a good bit healthier than the US version.

Cotton said:

In reply to frenchyd :

Well,  they still had to deal with emissions.  The Euro 6.9 is a good bit healthier than the US version.

Back in the 1980’s the world was still trying to make fuel injection run reliably without burning up the car.  Add the various emissions from different countries and they had plenty on their hands a few decades later reliability was solved, emissions was under control and they went in search of power.  Now modern cars can meet requirements while making the power of the old big block muscle cars and get 25 mpg while doing it!!!