I've not had a lot of time to spend playing with the Benz lately, but I've made a bit of progress.
I've been looking at the clearance issues that comes with shoehorning a stupidly large engine in a car that was never designed for such! ;D
I got the engine more-or-less lined up in position - I'm using stock engine mount brackets which, after a little thought, work alright. In the original positions they made the engine sit too far back and hit the bulkhead, but as the mounts are angled forwards, I figured if I swapped them around they'll angle backwards and make the engine sit forwards a bit... if you get my meaning. Pics would help here but I neglected to take any. The engine isn't bolted in at all, but is sat on the mounts and there is about an inch of space between the bulkhead and engine - plenty! ;D
As mentioned previously, the exhaust manifolds were going to be tricky. The stock "log" ones ended over the gearbox bellhousing - nice and neat, but hit the bulkhead.
I dug out my old 450 V8 cast iron manifolds. Wasn't sure if they'd be the same pattern but I figured they might be, as the alloy block 5.0 is an evolution of the old iron block 4.5
^ They're an odd design - one "block hugger" and one log manifold.
I offered them up to the standard manifolds, and seeing that they were indeed the same pattern, fitted them.
^ Offside block hugger. Fits like a dream and routes between the steering box and mount bracket. Not a lot of room between the manifold and chassis rail though.
^ Nearside log. It's shorter than the stock log and doesn't foul the bulkhead, but there ain't a lot of room to allow for the engine rocking about. Note that the engine is way out of position here, but still the clearance issues are evident.
Whilst they fit physically, I still wasn't that comfortable with the clearance. It'd get better once I had the engine mounted spot-on, and I reckon if I lifted the engine slightly this would give the steering box a little more clearance too, as there's only a cat's whisker between that and the cylinder head, and I ain't about to go swapping steering about too.
There was another issue which I occured to me over a cuppa. I hadn't measured the bore of the manifold ports. The stock 5.0 manifolds are 40mm. I whipped off one of the manifolds and measured... 36mm. Bumhats. Looks like it's custom time then.
Luckily, I had spotted that Martin had a pair of manifold flanges made up for the V8. A quick text to see if I could buy them and £25 later they were mine! I collected them today...
Looks like I'll be reading up on manifold theory then. That'll be fun! I'm looking forward to it.
I vote for through inner wings and then out behind the wheels on each side, like your old setup, but better hahaha!
Might be a TAD loud though!
This may well be necessary! ;D
But that isn't the end of my clearance issues, oh no...
The oil filter also fouls the chassis rail. This is a paper element type with a bloody great housing that sticks out the side of the block. Even by removing the canister, the housing bracket still hits. So I need to make some sort of remote oil filter system. These are readily available but, as mentioned, the bracket needs to come off which leaves a non-standard shaped hole where the oil inlet and outlet channels are, that no aftermarket remote filter will fit. See...
^ Large oil filter canister and bracket.
^ What I'm left with on the block.
What I'll need to do is get a plate made up with pipe unions for the oil inlet and return. The pipes can then go to an aftermarket remote filter head, via an oil cooler.
^ I also tidied up the passenger side inner wing, which had been welded up and painted over in red lead for ages. It was annoying me that this was left for such a long time, so I rubbed it all down, painted (more) and seam sealed it. It'll get undersealed in one go as soon as I've done the sill and floor in that area.
I collected a whole load more goodies today from Martin (thanks mate!). So I now have the alternator and bracket, the ignition coil, the idle air valve and some more engine mounts and brackets to play with, plus a load of other stuff that will make the conversion easier.
I've been doing other little bits and pieces but nothing interesting enough to post until I've finished it.
Next steps are to track down some V8 engine mounts - they are identical to the stock ones in my 200 but harder. Unfortunately they cost a lot of money for what they are (fifty bloody quid! And that's aftermarket!). I may try Mercedes themselves but going in and asking for a pair of 1981 450SL engine mounts for a 1975 Mercedes 200 with a 1985 500SE engine in it just leads to mass confusion... and no, I don't have a chassis number... ;D
I'll also need to address the issue of suspension... in so much as I'd like some. The weight of the V8 just squashed the current springs down onto the bumpstops. No surprise there! I may get away with slightly longer ones (mine are very short!) but I think some heavier duty ones are in order.
I'm hoping I'll have a bit more time to spend on the project but I'm a bit stuck for time lately! It's getting done bit by bit though.
