W124 Wagon Daily or Daily Worries?

[gn3dr]

Feb 8, 2017 16:17:18 GMT sopgeo said:

I love these old things. I bought my first at four months old and drove it for years. I bought about a dozen when they were for beer money and still have five. 320 saloon, 280 estate, 320 coupe, 500e and an ambulance I bought while under the influence on German eBay, then took over the border to my Polish home. In time I hope to add a 6 door and a convertible. Anyway I digress. These things are tough and will take some stick, which means when you get one now it usually has and needs love to get it going again. Once running, they run on for ever. Check the bottom ball joints, failure isn't very funny, last time I did some they were about twelve quid I think. Lots of fun to fit. The rear hub is more beefy on the estate, but I did once fit a saloon part to an estate without issues. You may think a manual would be nice, but although the gearbox is pleasant, it's a total pain for urban driving with the parking brake, you really need four legs.

I have a pair of never fitted aftermarket wings, if you plan on keeping her. I'm in Ireland and won't be in Blighty until summer, but if you can wait or members can arrange a shuttle to the midlands, you can have them.

Where in Ireland are you. I'm in Kerry. I might have an interest in those wings if they are available? My car has scrape damage down one side so needs some bodywork. I'm having thoughts about doing 500E type arches on mine. It's an '86 though so doesn't have the large plastic side panels.

[carat 3.6]

Feb 8, 2017 8:18:22 GMT Ralph.Wrecked.It said:

Feb 7, 2017 20:57:23 GMT carat 3.6 said:

Sounds like a plan!

I've got my workshop 10mins away just outside Thame, pop over if you want to see whats involved when playing with these.

Ah mega! What have you got over there? 

I've got a few things here to give you ideas.

My daily is a 500hp turbo diesel saloon, there's a widebody twin turbo coupe here at the moment, and 2 others undergoing engine conversions.

lots of cars and parts coming and going, I've got a 400hp twin turbo engine on a pallet if you want to build a real sleeper.

[daklone]

Feb 10, 2017 0:51:10 GMT carat 3.6 said:

My daily is a 500hp turbo diesel saloon

Erm...



Do you have any more details on this thing please?

[Ralph.Wrecked.It]

Feb 10, 2017 0:51:10 GMT carat 3.6 said:

Feb 8, 2017 8:18:22 GMT Ralph.Wrecked.It said:

Ah mega! What have you got over there? 

I've got a few things here to give you ideas.

My daily is a 500hp turbo diesel saloon, there's a widebody twin turbo coupe here at the moment, and 2 others undergoing engine conversions.

lots of cars and parts coming and going, I've got a 400hp twin turbo engine on a pallet if you want to build a real sleeper.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamazing.



It's funny how quickly you can make new friends when they mention things like 400bhp twin turbo motors on pallets!


That is certainly the end game, but i'd say I'm a little way off that yet. There is a complete running driving manual Merc I have my eye on with an OM605 lump in it, that mat well be my starting point. 

[carat 3.6]

Feb 10, 2017 8:21:20 GMT Ralph.Wrecked.It said:

Feb 10, 2017 0:51:10 GMT carat 3.6 said:

I've got a few things here to give you ideas.

My daily is a 500hp turbo diesel saloon, there's a widebody twin turbo coupe here at the moment, and 2 others undergoing engine conversions.

lots of cars and parts coming and going, I've got a 400hp twin turbo engine on a pallet if you want to build a real sleeper.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamazing.



It's funny how quickly you can make new friends when they mention things like 400bhp twin turbo motors on pallets!


That is certainly the end game, but i'd say I'm a little way off that yet. There is a complete running driving manual Merc I have my eye on with an OM605 lump in it, that mat well be my starting point. 

Is that a c250 turbodiesel? Or a w124 non turbo diesel?

[carat 3.6]

Feb 10, 2017 7:59:45 GMT daklone said:

Feb 10, 2017 0:51:10 GMT carat 3.6 said:

My daily is a 500hp turbo diesel saloon

Erm...


Do you have any more details on this thing please?

88 W124 Zender saloon with a om606 and 6 speed box. Borg warner s280 turbo, big intercooler, 8mm pump, 3" exhaust, Bilstein shocks, custom springs, big roll bars, and alot more.

[Ralph.Wrecked.It]

yeah it's a C250 Turbodiesel which we instantly chipped certain letters off the back of so it now just says 'BODIES' haha

Man, that saloon of yours is HOT. I'd love to get to that point with mine over time.

I need big whooshy noises.

[carat 3.6]

Feb 10, 2017 10:05:59 GMT Ralph.Wrecked.It said:

yeah it's a C250 Turbodiesel which we instantly chipped certain letters off the back of so it now just says 'BODIES' haha

Man, that saloon of yours is HOT. I'd love to get to that point with mine over time.

I need big whooshy noises.

Bodies! Lol, I love it!

You can get the immobilizer removed from the ecu, then swap all of it into the w124.

[Ralph.Wrecked.It]

Feb 10, 2017 10:09:19 GMT carat 3.6 said:

Feb 10, 2017 10:05:59 GMT Ralph.Wrecked.It said:

yeah it's a C250 Turbodiesel which we instantly chipped certain letters off the back of so it now just says 'BODIES' haha

Man, that saloon of yours is HOT. I'd love to get to that point with mine over time.

I need big whooshy noises.

Bodies! Lol, I love it!

You can get the immobilizer removed from the ecu, then swap all of it into the w124.

That's what I was hoping! 

Will start sizing up his engine mount locations and what not soon to see how straight forward a swap it is. 

Will slowly wear him down and try and acquire it at some point this year haha 

[Ralph.Wrecked.It]

Well, it was snowing on Saturday... So that was nice.






Decided than rather try and start it in the snow, I'd drag it round to the workshop, so there was a bit of this:



Once parked up, hilariously it actually fired up straight away and drove itself in to the workshop.

This was also the first time I had used the Mercs party trick and corr isn't it half helpful!



Right, time to dive in.



It was shortly after this point that I forgot to take any photos of anything.

After taking the air filter off and had a look at the throttle body setup, it was a bit gunked up but didn't look too sinister, this got cleaned up along with the throttle mechanism that looked to be sticking quite a bit.

Cleaned up all the terminals in sight, interestingly the king lead looked a bit naffed and the coil wasn't the cleanest so gave this a little going over, but will likely replace at some point just for piece of mind.

It did appear that the throttle wasn't closing all the way which in turn meant that the contact on the microswitch wasn't well.. contacting. Is it fair to assume this triggers the idle control? Either way, it got adjusted and straight away it seemed to idle very nicely indeed. Could be due to things being cleaned up or what not but happy days... For now.



Bunged it all back together and it seemed to sound quite healthy again. Result for now.

A look round the engine bay finds a bit of crust in the expected place, but relatively clean elsewhere.



By this time the day was getting on and the stomach started rumbling. So time for a trip out in the sweetly running wagon to the shops for some grub.

It was sweet as a nut, lovely idle going through town and felt nice to stretch its legs a little, got to the super market carpark and stuck my foot in to see if she picks up ok and to my surprise yes, it was not too bad at all. Then I pull in to a parking space and it dies.

Dead.

Ah well, worry about that in a minute, jump out grab some food and coffee then back to the car.

First turn of the key it doesn't even try and turn over... Interesting.

Second turn of the key, she cranks and fires! But then idles like an absolute bag a proverbial.

Well, I left all my tools at the workshop so it was time to get back there, some interesting driving techniques later we arrive back rather amused at the journey we just undertook.



Since being out, my mate snuck his car in to the workshop (fair enough it's his workshop) so to remaining wrench session continued outside. In the snow.

However, the other wagon we were working on a BMW 528i decided to start spewing horrible brown stuff out the front when running so we got totally distracted looking in to that and the old Merc just sat outside not getting a looking.

There could be a million reasons why the idle turned to toss, it may be some dirty fuel was picked up, over adjusted throttle setup or some other mysteries, I will try and get some time on it at some point this week and see if I can dig a little deeper.

[Ralph.Wrecked.It]

So after going through all the vac lines, over voltage protection relay and fuse, idle micro switch, cleaning the idle control valve (that was a little sticky) I made a rather shocking discovery... The HT leads have broken down a little, I found this out by jumping perhaps about 3ft in the air due to a rather large shock and almost making a friend of mine fill his pants as he was working on a car behind mine...

So, new leads on order and i'll likely grab a new coil too as she's looking a bit worn and corroded (and I hate it for delivering said shock). I was lured in to a false sense of security with the leads as they looked all new and shiny, but as they seem to lay on the header a little I suspect they have been ruined.

A dirty little cable tie hack came in handy to remedy this but will have to re-employ this once the new leads arrive and are fitted.

[Carlosfandango.]

Great thread and great car choice.
Also an Ireland resident 124 lover here. I've also had a few saloons, coupes, estates and a cabrio (though never an abmulance!)
As others have said, with some maintenence and fixes that previous owners didn't bother about, you'll be rewarded with a very loyal car that somehow gets in on you like none other. There really is something special about the 124. This is my current daily -











They really are a great car.
I have dreams of an OM606 conversion but for the time being I just try to use and enjoy it.

Looking forward to hearing more about your car and the improvements you make.

CFD

[lightyearman]

Got a lot of want for these after getting rid of my 190d

[Ralph.Wrecked.It]

New leads on, she fired up and behaved herself... A little.

Then spluttered and stumbled when trying to idle at a set of traffic lights, then behaved itself for another hour or so of driving.

On the way home, it was cold dark and wet... Struggled to start and then when it did, idled like a bag of spanners again. At this point I was out in the sticks and needed to set off home... Phone was out of battery too at this point so I was prepared for some hilarity of being stuck in the middle of the countryside for the night...

Anyway, after 5 mins she bucked her ideas up and ran like a champ nearly all the way home... Nearly.

Got to a big roundabout with a set of lights, which were red... Came to a stop... And so did the motor.

Interesting...

Fired back up, then took an interesting route home so as not to have to let the car idle at any point and as I pulled on to the drive... She idled beautifully again.

When getting it first fired up at the workshop, we did notice that the throttle linkage comes to rest at different points every now and then, it looks like when it comes too far down is when it gets all grumpy about life, so next step is to clean up the linkage and see if that helps. tried to see if I could buy a replacement linkage... They don't seem to exist?

The battle shall continue!

Whilst I was at the workshop, I stuck the motor back in my 31 Coupe and rolled her out for a couple of photos.

[Davey]

Feb 10, 2017 9:11:41 GMT carat 3.6 said:

Feb 10, 2017 7:59:45 GMT daklone said:

Erm...


Do you have any more details on this thing please?

88 W124 Zender saloon with a om606 and 6 speed box. Borg warner s280 turbo, big intercooler, 8mm pump, 3" exhaust, Bilstein shocks, custom springs, big roll bars, and alot more.

So what your saying is that if i buy a 90's e300td i can quite reasonably get 500bhp from it from what seems like little outlay?
SOLD!!

[Davey]

Mar 2, 2017 10:44:33 GMT Ralph.Wrecked.It said:

New leads on, she fired up and behaved herself... A little.

Then spluttered and stumbled when trying to idle at a set of traffic lights, then behaved itself for another hour or so of driving.

On the way home, it was cold dark and wet... Struggled to start and then when it did, idled like a bag of spanners again. At this point I was out in the sticks and needed to set off home... Phone was out of battery too at this point so I was prepared for some hilarity of being stuck in the middle of the countryside for the night...

Anyway, after 5 mins she bucked her ideas up and ran like a champ nearly all the way home... Nearly.

Got to a big roundabout with a set of lights, which were red... Came to a stop... And so did the motor.

Interesting...

Fired back up, then took an interesting route home so as not to have to let the car idle at any point and as I pulled on to the drive... She idled beautifully again.

When getting it first fired up at the workshop, we did notice that the throttle linkage comes to rest at different points every now and then, it looks like when it comes too far down is when it gets all grumpy about life, so next step is to clean up the linkage and see if that helps. tried to see if I could buy a replacement linkage... They don't seem to exist?

The battle shall continue!

Whilst I was at the workshop, I stuck the motor back in my 31 Coupe and rolled her out for a couple of photos.

Now that is a group shot!
Great work!

[Ralph.Wrecked.It]

Mar 3, 2017 11:14:02 GMT Davey said:

Feb 10, 2017 9:11:41 GMT carat 3.6 said:

So what your saying is that if i buy a 90's e300td i can quite reasonably get 500bhp from it from what seems like little outlay?
SOLD!!

Yup, bigger turbo, uprated fuel pump and winner winner... Some of the DieselPump UK kits are stupidly reasonable these days! I have many wants to engine swap mine... Uh Oh!!! 

[wdiesel]

Feb 10, 2017 9:11:41 GMT carat 3.6 said:

Feb 10, 2017 7:59:45 GMT daklone said:

Erm...


Do you have any more details on this thing please?

88 W124 Zender saloon with a om606 and 6 speed box. Borg warner s280 turbo, big intercooler, 8mm pump, 3" exhaust, Bilstein shocks, custom springs, big roll bars, and alot more.

What six speed box are you running? Also what clutch and flywheel?

I'd like to run an all Mercedes drive line but I've been told that the torque may cause it's failure prematurely.

Any help and wisdom is appreciated and it's a fresh build 🙏

[Ralph.Wrecked.It]

Yesterday she nearly started on her own... Alas, not quite.

Having bad thoughts about engine swap ideas now as this motor is doing my head in. Will keep hacking away at it for a few more weeks before writing it off haha

I'll perhaps buy her some more presents, she seems to like running when she gets presents..

[Tepper]

I went through a similar saga with a K-Jet on a 190e and in the end swapping out the fuel metering head sorted out the running issues. I think they can be rebuilt, but clearly the sensible thing to do here is drop in an OM606