1988 W124 300 TurboD Coupé ''Gold'nBrown'' - intercooling it

[dubbelduwwel]

Feb 20, 2015 18:51:58 GMT TurboDieselWeasel said:

Well, what can I say other that I'm flattered! The Coupé got a feature in a german Blog The author is going into detail with it all, it'll be a series of a few articles sterne-blog.de/category/w124-coupe-umbau-auf-turbodiesel/

Didn't expect that ever to happen.

Cheers,
Jan

Well done! Kindly tip us off when follow ups are published!

[dubbelduwwel]

And so I have agreed on buying a W210 E300 Turbodiesel and I'm going OM606 with 5-speed automatic gearbox. I had thought about this before I put in the OM603, but I've been afraid of the amount of wiring and electronics. And rightly so. It's going to be a total nightmare. The OM603 Turbo was he right choice, I love that engine to bits. The way it drives, the way it delivers power and the economy - it's all perfect! But... Getting a cylinder head that's not broken has now appeared to be an equal nightmare - just as sorting wires. But the difference is: the nightmare of sorting wires gets me somewhere.


Can Wikipedia be correct in stating that W124 sedans were actually built with 3.0 L OM606.910 Diesel I6 from '94 to '96?
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercedes-Benz_W124

[tdipd]

Can you not use the om603 fuel pump on the om606 engine to remove the problem of most of the electrical curse word?

Those om606 superturbodiesels all use that setup, of course you could run regular om603 elements to run stock power

[TurboDieselWeasel]

The n/a OM606 with 136HP was used from '93 on, with the second face lift. With mechanical IP & 5-spd manual or 4-spd. slushbox.

Re: mechanical IP; if I want it legally legal, I must use the electronics and maintain the EGR, kat, gearbpox & differential (ratio) from the donor car. Else I get the lowest possible emissions rating ( = none) by default and that would mean I would have to pay 1130€ taxes per year. And that's just not possible. With all the electronics I get the Euro 2 emissions - and that's a bearable 480€ taxes per year - the same as I'm paying allready.

That doesn't mean I'm not going mechanical IP ever. Just not now. Another point is: it's just more economic if I make use of all the stuff I get with the car - for free. and that's working perfectly. Geting an IP swapped with bigger elements (I can't do it myself) and buying a gearbox controller means €€€€ - making use of all the stuff I'm buying with the donor car anyways - 0€. It's just more work - of which I'm not afraid of. En contraire; I need a challenge.

That said; I got a huge Turbocharger yesterday



Cheers,
Jan

[TurboDieselWeasel]

Took the Coupé outside today - damn it's dirty!



Followed by this was PURE chaos...



...which resulted in storage room for two drive trains and a lot of parts.





The reason being that I bought only the drive train ofthe car, but will take the whole car with me - some parts have to be returned (like seats etc.) at a later date. But this way it's much easyer, since I can take all the time needed to extract the electrics from the car...

Speaking of which; i have received some pictures of what I have bought - ugly car with ugly engine.





248.000km, 4 months TÜV left, full service history, 2 owners (father and son) from new. And still this much rust... W210 - the worst of the worst. But apparently the engines are solid!

So yeah - that's the plan. I all came to realisation a bit sooner than I had hoped for, buton friday I will collect the W210, and then - start reviving the Coupé

Cheers,
Jan

[stevietuck]

Is it in yet

[dubbelduwwel]

I shall watch this frame after frame, word for word! (And I am watching ads for rusted W210's!)

[hairnet]

[village]

Apr 23, 2015 8:12:17 GMT dubbelduwwel said:

I am watching ads for rusted W210's!

is there another sort?!......

[eurogranada]

bookmarked once more...

[TurboDieselWeasel]

More tomorrow... I need sleep. Urgently.

[TurboDieselWeasel]

Sooo - friday morning I headed to the registration office. There was a recent chnage in law - and it's harder to obtain temporary plates now. you'r basically screwed if the car you want to put them on doesn't have TÜV. And you need the car's papers & TÜV slip. I had only a wonky fax and a bad photo of both - but still got the yellow plates. Phew.

So I headed 50km north to meet at E's where our Taxi was loaded with some empty crates of Franconian beer. To return them home. Also loaded: my welding equipment. More on that later.



It was a sunny, warm and lovely day, and we were in no hurry. At about noon we stopped for a coffee break, P's brought genuine french "petit pains" for a second breakfast. Lovely.



Some hours later the three of us arrived at our destination, where a lovely Schrempp car was waiting for us, amongst others. We put the yellow plates on, had a little chat with the seller (who I knew allready). We headed for a short test drive with the E300 Tubodiesel - even with 4 people inside it's fast and pulls like an ox.



But - our mission wasn't finished yet. We got the tools out - and this happened...



And this happened too...



Also this:



Which resulted in this...



The bonnet was so good, we chnaged it over with the one from the seller's E240T. Good means "w210-good". I.e. LESS rusty Anyways. Since we now had a REALY shonky looking Mercedes Schrempp, we added some - er - livery to the car



With the tuned car we then headed for dinner to a Biergarten where we had a long chat with the seller and enjoyed some very good bavarian food & beer. Franconia certainly is a place worth living! The beer is good, at every corner there's a smal brewery, the food is excellent and all is affordable.



After some more extended chatting we headed back homw, with a 910.000km old Mercedes and a 243.000km old Schrempp. Since the day was still oovely, we took the scenic route through the Franconian hills. No traffic, awesome landscape, only spoiled by the rust bubbles on the bonnet





En route we stopped at yet another smal brewery to enjoy another set of local speciality. But night fell and it was getting dark & cold...



...so we continued soon. And headed for the Autobahn. Full throttle - 100 - 120 - 150 - 180 - 190 - 5th gear - 200 - 210... Still used to the sluggish 300TD the E300 felt like riding a canon ball!



^Xenon headlights, of course...

But this wasn't the end of our journey... We took a detour to get to an industrial park just outside Manheim where some tarte flambée and hand made, oven backed Schneckennudels were waiting for us. Also: beer. And coffee. Lot's of coffee. It was 1:00 in the morning, I was awake since 7:00 in the morning. Coffeine was a very welcome poison to help me stay alive.



Needless to say - it was 4:00 in the morning when I finally fell asleep at E's. Got up at 7:30 - more coffein - and then headed north again wit hthe Taxi to do some welding. Left the E300 at E's. I had promised to continue welding a MB Trac cabin, despite feeling a "little" tired I did some hours worth of work, aided by LOTS of coffee and expresso.





It wasn't the most efficient working day, but I got some panels done at least. Then I headed back to E's. We took both cars and headed to my place. Then I drove back E with the Taxi and then took it back home again.





The E300 did about 570km, the Taxi did 1300km. And I (of better P) got the fuel consuption of the Taxi below 8l/100km - at about 7.5l/100km! That's about 37.6MPG. But the E300 surprised me - people told me the OM606 Turbo is a thristy animal without power... Erm. 41.5MPG (6.8l/100km) - with a lot of 180-200km/h flights

Exactely the same when I purchased the OM603 Turbo 1.5 years ago I like the OM606, after all. But it has two broken glow plaugs, leaky fuel lines - all the 4V engine's problems. The gearbox is a revelation compared to the W124 automatic, they are worlds apart as far as shift quality goes! Shifts go almost unnotable - only the rev counter shows shifts. And the 5th gear keeps the Autobahn revs low - 120km/h (75MPH) is only 2500RPM - the Taxi revs 3500...

All in all - I think it was the right choice. And there's a lot of work ahead!

What's sad: the W210 could be a realy good car. It realy is. The suspension is great, the gearbox is sublime, the engine is fantastic - but it's all spoiled by the pure cheapness of the Schrempp era. All the surface rust, all the slightly cheaper plastics, the fact that everything seems to tell "I was cheaper to build" just ruins the car.

I know which key I will keep in my pocket...



I hope I can take the car apart next week. I don't have as much time as I used to have - work is getting in the way. It's nice to have a steady cash flow. But it'll also leave me with less time for this new episode of TurbodieselCoupé

Cheers,
Jan

[TurboDieselWeasel]

The new power plant. Intercooled, strong - durable. and big.

One possible problem could be the oxidation catalyst... It's BIG and in a tight space... I think there's not enough room in a W124 for this current location... But it'll be a solvable problem. I can hear you say "throw it out, bettr flow" - though I need to keep it for TÜV & good tax. At least for the registration



Then a look at the data sheet; the car is fitted with a larger capacity fuel tank - but I don't think it wil fit... Might be somthing I can sell for a little profit.



The interior is made of vinyl cow and goes back to the seller. I'm happy about that, no need to find a buyer (quite unwanted I think). Wood is in perfect condition, but ugly. Maybe someone wants it anyway? I have no idea about parts prices for these.



And I discovered that my car is fitted with the all-aluminium intercooler. That's good! One bit less plastic to add... And it's weldable for adding tabs to mount if, if required.



All good so far

Cheers,
Jan

[camerashy]

Had to go back a few pages to catch up, its been a little since I've read about oily German escapades, keep it up, great updates Jan

[TurboDieselWeasel]

- I hope my "sell it / keep it" escapades are over, though

Anyway. Up with it's ar§e, as always. Whilst jacking it up I realised that this is the youngest car I have ever owned! And probably the most rotten as well...



The bubbles of doom - it was a pretty worthless excercise to place the backup jack stand there...



Bacause I made this with my bare hand:



Yikes.

Today was mainly for the rear end; differential, SLS struts, brakes, some smal bits and lots of severly rotten nuts and bolts.





The drive shafts however are stuck solid. I need to borrow a a BIG puller before I smash them useless...

and I also saved the unused spare wheel, the tyre has still got it's factory bar code sticker on it



Also drained the fuel tank and rear brake lines - not much progress realy, but the hatefull parts are done (like wrestling with the drive shaft nuts). Next: engine! But first: my job... So maybe friday I can start pulling the engine out.

For now I'm having one of franconia's finest brews...



Cheers,
Jan

[fer4l]

Good progress - prost!

[65mustang]

Looking forward to the updates ! Glad the brown coupe gets another change

[rr69h]

Apr 28, 2015 18:14:48 GMT TurboDieselWeasel said:

Whilst jacking it up I realised that this is the youngest car I have ever owned! And probably the most rotten as well...

...and there you have it. This is not the first last real Mercedes!

[TurboDieselWeasel]

It is the FIRST real Mercedes!!

And should be incinerated just like our merguez today

[TurboDieselWeasel]

Sooo - let the madness beginn... I started today by stripping the cooler package and the front bumper. On a W124 you remove 4 clamps, 2 hoses - and pull the radiator. On this... Blargh. Even the intercooler is bolted to the radiator - with captive nuts to the plastic tanks.. I had to kill one of the two intercooler mounts to get both out...

and speaking of coolers - this car has many of them

Engine oil cooler with electric fan on the left side:



Intercooler, radiator and A/C condenser in the middle...



...and a transmission oil cooler with electric cooling fan on the right side:



After a lot of cursing I got the center rad package out, but I had to sacrifice the condenser 'cause the fittings were stuck solid and I sheared of the pipe...



Luckily the oil cooler hoses were easy to disconnect, which is a big relief. On a W210 it's not possible to lift out the oil cooler with the engine like it is on the W124. They run through the front wheel arch on a W210.

Anyway, the rest of the day was spend disconnecting the ancilliaries of the engine and starting to separate some wiring looms - this engine will have quite some more wires attached to it. At least there's loads of space once you've removed all the stuff on the front. Unfortunately, the wiring looms are not separate and will have to be split; almost all of them. Workin slowly, due to a bad back...



I have decided, whilst looking at it all in detail, that the car will have TWO electrical systems; one for the engine & gearbox, one for everything else like A/C, ASD, ABS and all the electric stuff. Resp. I will implant a "W210 circuit" to the W124. And then hope it all works

Will continue tomorrow, not much left for the engine to be lifted out. Could be warmer and less windy, though... And once the engine is out, the fun part starts; splitting and labeling all the wires that run through the whole car. yikes, what have I let myself in for This will be SO much work to make it all fit... Electronics, intercooler, exhaust, gearbox mount, oil radiators... I must have lost my sanity

Cheers,
Jan