Medium Pimpin' - 1995 E300 diesel build

[MGW]

Dude. When I saw that photoshop of what it'll look like..... Oh my gosh. BEAUTIFUL.

[Oh Damn, it's Sam]

IT'S A MINI UPDATE!

As always, thank you to everyone for you kind words on the build, and thanks for your patience with my slow ass. The school term is over as of Friday, which means I can actually get some work done on the car instead of failing classes! YAY!

1. BAG MOUNT FINAL DESIGN IS AT THE WELDING SHOP AS WE SPEAK! Should have them back at the end of the week, inshā'Allāh, as the Arabs say. I've been testing designs until I found one I'm happy with, and I think I'll be happy with this one. I must have contacted 10 welding shops to try and get a quote, and the only one who was willing to actually act like a business and take a look at my project was the one Skiierman recommended earlier in the thread, Cycle Metrics, which is actually a motorcycle shop. Fingers crossed!

2. OTHER CRAP

This car has always been slow. Like, way slow, and it always shifted like everloving balls when it was cold, not wanting to go up a gear or banging around when it shifted. I knew something was up, but the usual suspects were not the issue. I checked the fluid: bright red and fresh smelling. I changed out the fuel filters thinking they might be clogged and limiting acceleration, but no, the old ones looked clean and the new ones made little difference. No vacuum leaks, and the modulator was where it wanted to be. Hrm.

Finally it dawned on me that it seemed like it was shifting early. It never dawned on me before because my old Cummins redlined at 3200 RPM, and that was after raising it from the factory's 2600. But, everyone says that the OM606 likes to rev, so I started messing with the Bowden cable, which controls when the transmission shifts. I turned it a couple rotations until it started shifting at a little over 5000.

Lo and behold:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43YRxBTTo5k"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43YRxBTTo5k[/ame]

It actually feels like I'm driving a car rather than a piece of farm equipment. I mean, it's still slow as shit, but it's all kinds of better than it was. All the transmission banging around under load is gone, and it actually drives like a car that cost something like $75,000 in today's money. What a thought.

Also, I broke my plexiglass cover for the audio system . Some shit slid around in the trunk and cracked it, so I picked up some stronger Lexan to replace it. This will be cover #4, I think? I need to come up with something to cover it when there's crap in the trunk.

What else? It snowed here the other day. People who aren't from the west coast probably don't realize it, but it like NEVER snows here. We get one little flurry of snow maybe once a year and the whole city goes OMG JON SNOOOOOOOW and crashes into a tree. Uh, FYI: Nitto Neogens on a torquey heavy RWD diesel are like comically bad on ice. Not that I expected them to be anything but terrible, but I had some entertaining moments trying to get out of my neighborhood. Luckily I didn't hit a busload of nuns or anything like that.

Okay, that's all for now. Everybody keep your fingers crossed that my welding shop gets done on time with everything and I can get this car on air sooner rather than later. My goal is to have the system up and running and all the kinks worked out of it so I can cruise around like a bawwwws on New Years.

[mike-81-240d]

Whats the song?

BTW: Stock 0-60 seems to be listed at 12.8-13.8 seconds.

[Oh Damn, it's Sam]

The song is Steamworks by The Presets.

I figure 13.7 is pretty decent for a naturally-aspirated OM606. I might tweak it a little bit to see if I can get it to just tap redline before shifting out of first and maybe I'll eek another half second out of it, but considering I was testing with 18-ish gallons of diesel in the tank, heavy 18s, the big 'ol stereo, and my lard-ass in the car, I'm pretty happy. With how rev-happy the 606 is, the big ratio jumps in the 722.4 trans and the tall rear end ratio (2.65:1!) just kill what little acceleration the engine can come up with. I'd bet with a 5-speed auto with proper overdrive and a lower final drive ratio, it would be a considerably quicker car.

[Dano]

I like the story. Definitely following this build. Because I have a 1992 w124 build coming up soon myself might need some feedback.

[Dano]

Are you from the portland oregon?

[mike-81-240d]

The song is Steamworks by The Presets.

I figure 13.7 is pretty decent for a naturally-aspirated OM606. I might tweak it a little bit to see if I can get it to just tap redline before shifting out of first and maybe I'll eek another half second out of it, but considering I was testing with 18-ish gallons of diesel in the tank, heavy 18s, the big 'ol stereo, and my lard-ass in the car, I'm pretty happy. With how rev-happy the 606 is, the big ratio jumps in the 722.4 trans and the tall rear end ratio (2.65:1!) just kill what little acceleration the engine can come up with. I'd bet with a 5-speed auto with proper overdrive and a lower final drive ratio, it would be a considerably quicker car.

Thanks!


You could in theory turbo it... Although the engine was not built for forced induction.

http://www.superturbodiesel.com/std/Thread-I-did-it-95-Turbo-606

[Oh Damn, it's Sam]

I like the story. Definitely following this build. Because I have a 1992 w124 build coming up soon myself might need some feedback.

Are you from the portland oregon?

I am indeed! I'm up by PIR, kinda St. Johns-ish, up in the awesome industrial park. Where are you at?

Don't hesitate to let me know what help I can offer – I always look forward to seeing more Mercs get built!

You could in theory turbo it... Although the engine was not built for forced induction.

I've thought about it on-and-off, but I'm not convinced the 722.4 can handle the extra power long-term. If I'm going to go to the trouble of swapping a 722.3 or a 5-speed auto, I figure I might as well either swap a 606.964 or at least the beefed pistons/con rods off one into my block. That's another discussion for another day, though.

[Dano]

I picked this up last week for $640 has some rear end damage and starting issues. But with time ill get at it.
Thanks for the support bro im gona need it later down the road when i get deeper into this 300e build. But for now it sits at my dads place until i get the resources and time.
And i read some of your stuff on here about that black benz definitely liking it. Good stuff man keep it coming.
Why i ask cause i saw ur "PDX" was wondering if you ever come up to RDM meets on sundays?
Maybe when i get mine running we could go for a shoot or something would love to see that boat in person
Im from se portland so its pretty exciting to see another 300e local

[zebra]

Great build! Subscribed.

[willlarney]

nice attention to detail. can't wait to see more

[Oh Damn, it's Sam]

Great build! Subscribed.

nice attention to detail. can't wait to see more

Thank you both!

I picked this up last week for $640 has some rear end damage and starting issues. But with time ill get at it.
Thanks for the support bro im gona need it later down the road when i get deeper into this 300e build. But for now it sits at my dads place until i get the resources and time.
And i read some of your stuff on here about that black benz definitely liking it. Good stuff man keep it coming.
Why i ask cause i saw ur "PDX" was wondering if you ever come up to RDM meets on sundays?
Maybe when i get mine running we could go for a shoot or something would love to see that boat in person
Im from se portland so its pretty exciting to see another 300e local

That looks like an awesome project! I've been wanting to do a shoot after mine's on the ground, and it would be cool to have a pre-facelift like yours to shoot with!

I haven't made it to any of the RDM meets yet. When I lived in Seattle, I was heavily into the show / meet scene up there, helped organize some of the old Golden Gardens meets, was involved with a fairly well-known (and now defunct) team, that kind of stuff. Circa 2005 or so, I kinda swore it all off on account of all the fucking drama, and I've avoided the "scene" ever since. Still, the RDM thing sounds pretty low-key, so who knows, I might make an appearance at some point. The old Merc has a long way to go before I'm willing to put it on public display, though

[Ey3dol]

awesome, i was waiting for an update on this. My build thread will be starting shortly!

[Oh Damn, it's Sam]

awesome, i was waiting for an update on this. My build thread will be starting shortly!

Glad to hear the world will soon have another W124 on air! FYI, I got nervous about clearance and I bumped the tube on the upper bag bracket to 3" long. I think I'm going to wind up with brackets that are way too long, and then I'll just trim 'em down as needed. As soon as I've got everybody together and sitting on bags, I'll post up the final tube lengths on each bracket.

I think I still owe you measurements on the bag plates from Slam Specialties, but they're off at the fab shop for the moment... sorry dude

[Dano]

Thank you both!



That looks like an awesome project! I've been wanting to do a shoot after mine's on the ground, and it would be cool to have a pre-facelift like yours to shoot with!

I haven't made it to any of the RDM meets yet. When I lived in Seattle, I was heavily into the show / meet scene up there, helped organize some of the old Golden Gardens meets, was involved with a fairly well-known (and now defunct) team, that kind of stuff. Circa 2005 or so, I kinda swore it all off on account of all the fucking drama, and I've avoided the "scene" ever since. Still, the RDM thing sounds pretty low-key, so who knows, I might make an appearance at some point. The old Merc has a long way to go before I'm willing to put it on public display, though

Thanks bro, I just had to have it even though im running another complete opposite project right now. Civic wagon which I love gets killer mpg. Lol. But the benz shit im in love hoping to get to it next year maybe bring if not earlier it would be awesome to do a shoot with yours man but I dont think it will be soon, hope you'll still have yours by the time I get my bitch running.

I see understood. I freaking **** the car drama bullshit myself to the core when people get all fired up whos make model is the shit. Like some hardcore jdm people no offense but it's old, I have the love and passion for all car builds.
It seems to me that this RDM meet is alright so far not a drama scene everyone comes out here from american low riders to imports and german cars. Pretty packed at times. So far so good. Havent been their in a while though busting ass to get my project done!
You should definitely let that black benz roll up sometime and appear in public