Bagged Mercedes W115...

[niscort]

im jealous.. your days are getting longer.. mine are getting shorter

[A4crn]

Looking good!!

[Zman86]

First show this year. Just finishing up my girlfriends car this week, then the Benz can get over into the working bay for some much needed love before the summer time. In usual Canadian fashion, the day after this it rained, hailed and snowed...

[Zman86]

So, my Jetta had been off the road for last month due to an ignition switch failure that I had no real desire to fix. I've been using the mercedes as my daily driver. Since I got the Jetta back on the road yesterday, figured it was time for some maintenance on the green bastard.



Changed the rear brakes, old ones had pretty much nothing left



Changed the transmission mount and topped up the diff



On the to-do list...

Change broken speedo cable
Fix trip odo
Tidy engine bay
Install Becker head unit
Fix broken wire to transmission kickdown switch
Replace shifter bushings

However, something potentially game changing happened last week. While out doing my daily tasks, the car started running rough at stop lights and smoking badly. A cylinder cut out test found cylinder #3 not firing properly. I checked the valve adjustment and adjusted the valves back to spec as they were tight. Did not help.



Buddy of mine borrowed the injector pop tester from his work and we checked the injector. Was cracking at the correct pressure and the spray pattern was great. While blow by had never been an issue with engine, we did the usual unscrew the oil fill cap and set it on the valve cover. Blew the cap off immediately. Pulled the #3 glow plug and it was covered in fuel.



I Confirmed tonight after getting my hands on a compression tester that cylinder 3 is toast with only 85psi compression.



So, this puts me at a point where I don't really know what to do. Rebuild the stock engine? Do the 617 turbo/4 speed manual swap I've been dreaming about? Or start on the full restoration I've been wanting to do? As it sits, the car runs normally at highway speeds, it only misses around town and smokes terribly (even for a 70's mercedes diesel)

So, thoughts? Opinions?

[floatingdino]

Upgrade time for certain!
It would be really great to see it remain diesel though. Do something cool, different, unexpected.

[w114]

Do the 617 swap. It'll be easy enough. I'm stuck with a carbed U.S spec M110, would rather have a diesel. Rest of the car looks great. Really jealous of your all red taillights+euro headlights.

[Zman86]

I have no idea where the po found those tails, they are in terrible shape and I'd love to replace them, but I've never seen another set anywhere. The 617 turbo swap requires re-working the firewall apparently, as well as those brace tube that come from the firewall to the frame

[bobbyjones]

i'm a huge fan of my carbed m110, but i vote 617/4speed.

[mike-81-240d]

Throw a OM602 + 5 speed in there.

[Zman86]

Found these while browsing tonight. I've seen both before. I'd really like to know more about the turbo setup on the yellow one, it appears he has turbo'd the stock engine...

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=863F7yeDdHo&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D863F7yeDdHo

[w114]

The all red tails are from 1968-1969 Series 0.5 cars. Mostly short bumper sedans have them. There's a W114 Sedan near me with a chevy 350 swap, "ran when parked", and I have maybe ten pics of numerous V8 swaps in W114/W115 cars. Mercules.com is an easy source for some info on that.

[A4crn]

I'm almost done rebuilding my OM 615 220d, and it took a long time to find all the parts etc. Looking back a motor swap would have been quicker and cheaper but I'd lose the classic car registration benefits.

If I were you I'd still remove the head and check piston no 3, maybe its just a broken piston ring
As far as motor swaps there's a lot of options, but I'd keep it Merc, just because they're so refined and run great when set right

[Zman86]

^ I checked a couple other cylinders while I was at it, 150-200psi, not too fantastic. If the engine is going to have any work done, the whole thing will be done at once.

For now, I'm using it to repel Mosquitos while I work in the shop...

[Zman86]

Found this W123 turbo diesel while I was out driving today. Rotted to nothing, but has the engine I'm after. No one answered the door, so I'm heading back to leave a note this afternoon...



Edit: talked to the owner on the phone, went and looked at the car, wouldn't start. Pulled $400 out of my wallet and told him it was most I'd go. He turned it down, said he had a guy offer him $500 a couple weeks ago and he'd rather wait and see if he would show back up than take $400 right now and have the car off his property in a day. He's not hurting for money either...

[ChuckNDicks]

I love that body style Benz. Eventually, I'll have to break down and get one. Good luck with the motor issues, that car is way to sweet to be sitting in a garage for long!