1973 Mercedes 200D 2.2 - An oily encouter

[rr69h]

Hey there,

since all of your rides made me for quite some time I think it's about time to share my own ones with you. First up is 'The Diva' my 1973 Mercedes 200 D. I think you call those 'stroke-eight' over there, in Germany they go by 'Strichacht' which - unsurprisingly - means exactly the same.

Anyway, have a look:



This is a totally unmolested example. It was ordered new as a company vehicle for an architect in Cologne. Within two years or so it clocked up over 70.000 miles all over Europe before the company went bust and one of the executives had to buy it back from the bank.

The next 25 years for reasons I don't quite understand it sat in a garage and only saw the light of day twice each year. The owner took the car out only on his birthday to treat his wife and himself to an expensive diner. And when it was his wife's birthday of course he did the same.

As the couple grew older they decided to sell the car on to someone with better eye-sight. A good friend of mine bought it and sold it on to me a couple of months later.



It's rot-free and has never seen a welder. Once you find something like this you just know that there's a good chance you'll never sell it on. It needed some mechanical fix-ups along with a good polish and that's it really.



Used to run it on veggie-oil for quite some time after I had fitted new injectors, reconditioned the pump and replaced all rubber-hoses. Nowadays it's cheaper to use it to burn decomposed dinosaurs.



The car seems to enjoy every single mile we cover. Which is no surprise after being locked up all these years.



Future plans? Showing it the world and keeping it nice and shiny. And perfecting the art of Chi-Ga-bashing at the lights. Never heart of it? Let me explain.

1) Fit a period record player to your classic.
2) Get it to play this song: Ideally pretty loud.
3) Roll down your windows as you approach a red light next to a some other car.
4) Timing is cruical. Ideally you get the green light in the exact moment when the drums kick in.
5) No need to light up the tyres (not that you can do that sort of thing in a 200 D anyway). Just drive on and watch people wonder. Works every time. ;D

Why is it a diva I hear you ask? Well, being a vintage Diesel Mercedes it has an aura of indestructability to it. But once you plonk some spares for other cars than itsself into the boot I can gurantee you that something's going to fall off. Had two of these occasions. Always with non-200D-spares in the boot.

That said I did something rather stupid to it which resulted in me having to recondition the cylinder head:



Is it possible to drag a MK3-Spitfire across Germany with 55 bhp? YESSS.

Should you do it then? NOOOOO.

The Merc is fine again (and that cast-iron head is damn heavy!), the rust-bucket on the trailer is almost finished, too. But that's a different story.

[hairnet]

55hp??

ouch

zomg merc tho ;D

[tonycocacola]

hello and welcome.
thats a very nice benz you've got there.

[Hirst]

That's really nice, fantastic photos!



If I had this car I'd carry a shiny metal briefcase around with me at all times - businessman or hitman? Not sure.

[markbognor]

Thats lovely. nice atmospheric photos too.
I had a w123 200D for a while. That was stupidly slow and I probably had another 10bhp!

[chaz]

The Merc looks real good, lovely car.

[popuptoaster]

that looks lovely, i agree about the silver brief case, i have one.

[rr69h]

Thanks alot guys!

Not sure about that hitman-thing though. It's hard to arrive anywhere on time with that raging 55 bhp lump. Not to mention the start-up procedure which allows you to watch a 5th glow-plug in the dash do its thing before it actually fires up. ;D

That was stupidly slow and I probably had another 10bhp!

Honestly it doesn't feel that slow once you're on the move. I sometimes take it on my daily commute to work (roughly 30 miles) and it's not significantly slower than my petrol-powered daily driver.

It does make you tackle the corners pretty hard. Maybe I should think about uprating the suspension. Lowering seems somewhat daft for a car with sporting-credentials as huge as this. If it were a 280 E things would be a little different...

[goochi01]

Beautiful car! I don't think I've seen one that clean before, good to see it gets used though!

Your English is very good by the way.

Oh and welcome

[popuptoaster]

i had my 280ce going sideways comin out of the petrol station tonight, would hardly call it a power house though.

[rr69h]

That's very nice of you guys, appreciate it alot!

Dec 28, 2008 18:28:04 GMT goochi01 said:

Beautiful car! I don't think I've seen one that clean before, good to see it gets used though!

Your English is very good by the way.

Oh and welcome

Well, that Diesel-hum is somewhat adictive. I've taken it to London back in 2002 and remember being a bit disappointed after arriving there that the drive was already over. So I spent most of the night thundering through the city. ;D

Looking forward to take it to the Ace next year. Missed that opportunity last time in London just by a couple of days since I found out about it too late.

As for speaking (or writing for that matter) in English: I do my best not to zound like se typical Deutsch-man you all know and love from our holidays abroad. Enaugh damage was done by countless German tourists.

Best regards from the Continent,
Felix

[rr69h]

Dec 28, 2008 19:57:37 GMT popuptoaster said:

I had my 280ce going sideways comin out of the petrol station tonight, would hardly call it a power house though.

Ooof, yours is a 280 c"E"? Nice! You know AMG did some pretty nice things to that M110-engine back in the days, don't you? You can easily get +200 horses out of them or even shoehorn a M117-V8 under the bonnet.

[Oldbus]

Looks a good un... ;D

.....there´s nothing wrong with 55BHP, i ran my 68 200 D as a daily driver for ages clocking up 40,000 miles a year....it´s not slow it´s just everyone else is quicker!

Welcome aboard! ;D

[Mark]

Welcome fellow W115 owner!

Although mine isn't nearly as nice as yours - fabulous looking car!

[alphilsta]

Benz 200D - The kind of car you have to use a calendar to measure its acceleration!

Wonderful car, shame it's condition is too good for daily use.

And about Chi Ga:

1) Get an 70s - 80s stereo with a casette-deck*(brand new and unused, if possible)

2) Replace the speakers with with proper (brand new?) ones of the same size

3) Fit the old covers so nobody can see them

4) Buy a casette-Ipod converter

5) Enjoy, eventhough you may need a little more ICE-oomph to get that traffic-light-thingy right ;D


cheers


(no Idea what those are called in english, I hope ze german might still get it ^^ )

[grizz]

Welcome, and congrats on a Magnifiscently beautiful car.

I do always smile when I see them on the road, my uncle had one that did over 800 000km the last time I heard before he died.

He had it from new, as a farmer in those days it was a status symbol, but to him it was the love of his life, and did look after it.

[rr69h]

Dec 29, 2008 14:25:06 GMT alphilsta said:

Wonderful car, shame it's condition is too good for daily use.

Good condition yes, too good for daily use? Nah. You can see me racing Polish lorries in it all summer long. ;D It does see rain once in a while and I use it as often as I can from March to whenever it will be when the roads get salty.

Keeping an eye out for funny noises and regular maintenance is the key. Plus filling every hole with Fluid Film (www.marineco.co.uk/Pages/Fluid%20Film/Fluid%20Film.htm) every two years. That stuff is really amazing.

Dec 29, 2008 14:25:06 GMT alphilsta said:

And about Chi Ga:

1) Get an 70s - 80s stereo with a casette-deck*(brand new and unused, if possible)

2) Replace the speakers with with proper (brand new?) ones of the same size

3) Fit the old covers so nobody can see them

4) Buy a casette-Ipod converter

5) Enjoy, eventhough you may need a little more ICE-oomph to get that traffic-light-thingy right ;D


cheers


(no Idea what those are called in english, I hope ze german might still get it ^^ )

Indeed ze German does. I actually have fitted an amp under the passenger seat along with some speakers to hook up an iPod. 600 Watts should do the trick.

So what's next? I'll have to address a slight fuel-leak coming from the pump. I've already changed all the seals while reconditioning it, but it still leaves a few nasty spots of Diesel on the ground.

Then I need to get some door window seals. These are made of woven fabric and start to look like a pair of ripped 80's blue jeans. Along with that I'll have to get some new rubber seals for the front triangular windows. You can't get them new from your local Mercedes dealership anymore so I have to think outside the box. Watch this space...

[popuptoaster]

Dec 29, 2008 9:25:00 GMT rr69h said:

Dec 28, 2008 19:57:37 GMT popuptoaster said:

I had my 280ce going sideways comin out of the petrol station tonight, would hardly call it a power house though.

Ooof, yours is a 280 c"E"? Nice! You know AMG did some pretty nice things to that M110-engine back in the days, don't you? You can easily get +200 horses out of them or even shoehorn a M117-V8 under the bonnet.

I've got a 5.7 litre yank V8 I'm gonna drop in the coupe, it was originally bought for the juiced purple one but I'm gonna stick the straight 6 in that as it a nice smooth cruising engine which will suit it better i think, i dunno if i can bolt it onto the 4 pots manual box but if i cant its no problem as ican transplant the whole lot over.

I have amps and subs in the coupe, makes me grin sitting at the lights with a big cigar and a pair of shades on at night playing Ride Of The Valkeryes at full blast and watching the younguns looking at me nervously.

[Oldbus]

Try here if you´re struggling finding spares.

I get all my Merc stuff off him and highly recommend him...

www.mercedes-lager.de/

[rr69h]

Blimey, it's been a while!

Even the old pictures in this thread have stopped working, so here's a little reminder of what I'm talking about:















So what's new then? Well besides one rather important appearance at a friend's wedding:



...not much actually. As you may recall the /8 had some engine-troubles I couldn't get my head around. The symptoms indicated head gasket failure, even after I'd changed the gasket and had the cylinder head reskimmed and checked for cracks. It seemed to work fine, but all of a sudden I've had very high pressures on the cooling system.

Since I lost all trust in the engine I decided to take the high road and go for a replacement one. The timing couldn't be better since a fellow Mercedes-guy was just about to break a /8 Diesel which was rotten beyond recognition, but had very healthy mechanicals.

The seller lives in Austria so my friend Chris and I hatched the plan to take his W124 estate to his Vienna place, take the engine out and drive it all the way back to Wuppertal - all in one weekend.
So on a friday I left the office early and boarded the ICE-train to Munich. Once in Munich I took another train to Rosenheim where I was joined by hundreds of Bavarian uni-students who were on their way to skiing-vacations.
Chris picked me up at the Rosenheim train station and we spent the evening generally talking nonsense, laughing alot and having a root around the area in which he lives. Rosenheim is very close to Chiemsee and the countryside is amazing.

But I was here for a purpose! So the next morning we filled the W124 up and went on our way. After three hours we arrived in Vienna and were greeted by this:



That concrete block resting on the tyre sums up the car very nicely. The previous owner spent a fortune of time and money on "improving" the car by filling all rust-prone areas (of which there are quite a few on a /8) with concrete! The body could easily be disassembled by hand, but he kept the mechanicals in tip-top condition. There was a brand new exhaust under the car, a brand new clutch and what surprised me the most: two new factory headlights which are one kidney each...

Anyway. After I've heart the engine running and was pretty confident that I wanted it even though it looks a little sorry for itself we drove (!) the car to the nearby workshop and got cracking. After one hour and 14 minutes:



Then we plonked the engine into the W124:



Notice the highly professional securement of the loading-bay with Austrian TV gudes and all that. ;D Don't worry, we strapped the engine down securely before setting off.
After an Austrian stew and some authentic Strudel we said our goodbyes and hit the road:



And on saturday at 11 pm we arrived in Wuppertal and went to the pub. The next morning we unloaded the engine in my mate's shed where I will be cleaning it and change some now easy to reach seals and components before I'll install it into my /8.

And the best part: the engine is from a 220D. So we will be having five extra hp, a total of 60 racy horses. I shall be able to race the fastest lorries on the Autobahn then...

So this is what I've started with:



After a damn good thorough clean the deassembly started:



The whole engine was covered in some sort of engine bay wax which after 40 years of collecting grime was a pig to remove. I got the wire brush and various chemicals out and got a bit carried away:





The rocker cover was by far the worst. This is already one hour in:



But in the end it responded well to some polishing:



Then I painted the engine block and the cylinder head black and started putting it back together changing or overhauling various components, all necessary gaskets and adding a few new nuts and bolts along the way.

This happened alot:



But it led to this:









And this is the finished article awaiting installment:



And this is where we're currently at. I'm planning to take the old engine out in a couple of weeks and dropping the new one in after giving the engine bay a thorough clean.