1997 Mercedes-Benz C230 Track Car: "Add lightness"

It crossed my mind, however the C230 was only built for about a year, so any early management won't be geared up for this particular engine size. Plus I'd be in very uncharted territory. I could of course swap in an early engine but it seems a shame when I have such a low milage one here.
I really should know better after god-knows-how-many cars and projects that it wouldn't be straight-forward! ;D

I'm quite keen to go the Megasquirt route now though, I've found I can even control the variable valve timing with it - fun!

Bloody modern cars, eh? ;D

Andy - thanks for that, I shall check it out! Megasquirt appeals not only to solve potential problems created by removing the auto box, but also because I want to use this car as a track toy and can have fun tweaking things! However, I will investigate getting the stock ECU flashed (I'm assuming that's what the guy does). I'm fairly certain that the stoeck ECU won't play without the TCM as they communicate by CAN bus so the ECU will be looking for the TCM. There's a possibility it'd work but I'm not so sure. I believe there's a chassis ECU on these too which further complicates things!

Dieselweasel - I know! This is the newest car I've ever had, and I'm ripping the guts out of it. ;D

Yzn - your W123 is amazing! Do you have a build thread on here?
It could be that some C230 ECU's are the same as C220's - I'm not entirely sure whether all C230's had Bosch systems like mine or if some had earlier PMS management like (I assume) C220's have. Information about the finer details of these cars is scarce as you probably have found out!
The versatility of Megasquirt certainly appeals. Like you say, I could add boost at some point!

Are you 100% sure on the above? When I was doing research into the OM606 engines fitted with the 722.6 box, they will run without the auto gearbox when fitted with a manual box. Is it of course a completely different engine so I could be talking complete curse word This is something that quite a few people have done, so might be easier to find online rather than manualising a 230!

Yes the VVT control is really interesting! Speaking to Phil at ExtraEFI he reckons that most of the sensors should be fine for Megasquirt. I must say, I like the idea of doing it even if the stock ECU is OK.



Not entirely sure - just what I've read on forums really, which isn't always right! It's just so hard to get detailed information on this sort of stuff as nobody plays with them as much as, say, BMW's.
Problem is, if I want to try it to see if it works I'll need to fit the 60-2 trigger wheel. Unless I refit the engine and flexplate without any gearbox at all as an experiment... Hmmm! That shouldn't take long to do.

Brigsy, I think if I went for standalone management like Megasquirt that's what I'd do - put a 36-1 wheel on the crank pulley. Further up the thread I mentioned putting a 60-2 wheel on there for the OEM management but that's not without its problems!

Currently, I'll spend time getting the chassis done. Hopefully a solution for the engine will be arrived at by the time I'm done!

With the engine posing a bit of a head-scratcher, I decided to carry on preparing the body, getting rid of as much weight as possible.
Mercedes are well known for their heavy doors, closing with a satisfying "thunk". But that's no good for the track, so it all needed to come out!


^ Before...


^ After!

The difference in weight is unbelievable. I'm adding polycarbonate windows and possibly some lightweight door-cards.

Repeat three more times...









...that's a lot of weight saved! I need to tidy up the edges a little, but the hard bit is done.

The nearside of the car had lost an argument with a truck at some point in the past and the doors were a bit dented, so I swapped them for the doors I took from the Brabus.


The car sits so high now - I've got positive camber on the back! OK the engine and box are out, but it still sits really high with all the weight out of it. There are plans in place to remedy that, though! ;D

In terms of the engine and box, I think plan A is to get the flywheel modified with the 60-2 trigger wheel, and see if it works. There's conflicting opinions on whether the ECU needs the transmission module to operate - I looked at the schematics of the TCM and there didn't seem to be any signal outputs to the main ECU, just inputs. However I'm not 100% sure.
If it doesn't work, then I can always Megasquirt it. As ettorebugatti says, the 60-2 trigger can be used in any case.
This is all dependant on the flywheel work being "economically viable"!

I'm working towards getting the body ready for paint. It's about there - I to fix a couple of little bits like the hole for the electric aerial, and sort out the bonnet pins, then it's time to get busy with the prep!

Interesting! This project is fast outgrowing its original "cheap track car" brief... but a 4kg flywheel would be pretty bloody cool.

Speaking and texting with BigPerm earlier in the week, there are going to be some serious problems caused by removing the auto box. He's been a massive help, looking into various options and workarounds, and consuting a guy described as "the font of all Benz knowledge" who has pretty much said that without another complete late-model manual W202, "we're f*cked".

However, getting a complete late-model manual W202 isn't that difficult. In fact, Bigperm knows of one for sale. So that's one option.
The other option is to go for Megasquirt. I've emailed extraEFI who reckon it's all do-able and most of the existing sensors should work with a MS2 set-up. They can build me one for a reasonable price (I've done the whole buy-it-in-kit-form-and-never-get-around-to-actually-building-it thing, I ain't going there again! ;D)

Not sure what I'm doing yet, but I can mull it over while I carry on with the chassis. I've spoken to Alistairk about throwing some paint at it, and we should be good to go in a couple of weeks. Still undecided on colour, but it has to be something easy to match if when I bump it. ;D

any update on this ??