1975 Mercedes 200 5.0 V8

Could turn it into a MINI RR meet if you like?

I can bring the crane whilst I am at it (pretty sure it will fit in the capri)

How about you get it all prepped and we put a night shift in on RR09?

Overnight engineswap FTW!!! ;D

Pops out to see if the engine crane will fit in the back of the Capri

An update is needed dude

Your rust was much worse than mine was - I'm kinda glad I didn't go poking anymore!!!

Thanks guys! I've been doing little bits and pieces on the engine, but it's one of those frustrating situations where one job bothers another. For example: I can't time the dizzy up because I need to put the thermostat housing on. I can't put the stat housing on because I'm waiting for some rad hose in the right diameter that goes between the housing and inlet manifold... etc. ;D

Last week, me and my bro struck a deal - seeing as we're both suffering a bit of Mojo-fail with our own projects, and realising that it's much easier to get enthusiastic about someone else's project, we decided to swap jobs for a bit. I'm going to do the brakes on his P6, and Steve's gonna do some welding on the Benz. That should give both projects a kick up the backside and get us both motivated. So I'll need to dust off my AF sockets and spanners... ;D

I've only done a cursory sizing up of the engine and the engine bay, so I really don't have any idea how hard it's gonna be to shoehorn the lump in, but I think that's just gonna have to be a case of offering it up and chopping out whatever's in the way!

I have all the black boxes and stuff, but the main thing I'm missing now is the fuel pumps. Dunno what I'm going to do about that one yet...

Dean,

if they´re the same pumps as the four and six cylinder ones i´ve got a couple here you can have mate.

Edit: They´re from a W123 280E

I´ve asked around and although they have different part no.s the lads reckon they´re the same. I can´t tell the difference anyway so i´ll have root around the shed and bring you a couple to the Gathering mate. ;D

edit: Just thinking, i´ve got a 280 one in the van powering the 24V so should have two 6 cylinder ones as the new diesel won´t be needing a petrolpump

Just a small update, but an update none the less.

The other night some losers had a go at the car - nothing much, they tried to steal the boot star and poured stuff over it. Not the crime of the century but it p*ssed me off and was the final straw - the car had been sat out the front of the house for a year and a half, it's hard to work on it out there, and is vulnerable to lowlives whether it's petty vandalism or rolling up with a HiAb and fragging it. So I figured I'd get it back on its wheels and shift it down the side of the house.



Much safer. Look she's smiling!

Spurred on by having my car somewhere I can work on it, I've been doing a few things in readiness for the transplant.

Now, the theory is that the front subframe and engine mounts in this car are the same as that found in the W107 SL. The SL came with the M117 V8 (like mine!) so the engine mounts should line up. The problem will come with the dimensions of the engine bay - the SL has a longer nose, and I'm fairly sure my engine bay is narrower too.

Here's what we're working with...

...not the most spacious place for such a big car. Still, where there's a grinder there's a way!

According to my rough measurements there should be enough room in there for the V8, but it depends how far back the lump sits when using the stock engine mounting brackets. I suppose I could always make some up if I want to shift the engine forward some.

One thing that is almost certainly going to be in the way are the bulkhead strut braces...



These stiffen the inner wings on 4-cylinder models. The 6-cylinder cars didn't have these (so that the longer straight six engine would fit) but instead had inner wings made of thicker steel. (Thanks to Oldbus for all this info! )
So I will need to chop out this bracing as the rear cylinders will pretty much need to be there... so I'm going to need to brew up some braces that work around the V8. Yea it would have been easier to start with the 6-pot chassis, but I don't have one. So I have to make do. ;D

I decided against doing much cosmetically to the engine - it's fairly clean now, and more importantly it's all in one piece. Inevitably if I start stripping stuff down to paint and clean something expensive will break, and I'll have more work than ever to do!
My motto here is: Working first, pretty later.

As for the bodywork, I'm arranging for my bro to come and give me a hand finishing it. We were both pretty fed up with our projects, and decided to do a bit of a swap. I did some spannering with the brakes on his P6, and he's gonna do some welding in return. That way both our cars progress and we both fell less stuck in a rut.

Still loads to do, I've been researching what to do about the rear axle but more of that when I get around to it.

It's getting there slowly!

You're right. The front subframes are identical, and the rear subframes are very similar. The front and rear track measurements are the same. They share various other parts too, but there is a lot of parts-sharing across many Mercedes models.

Regardless of these similarities I still think I'm going to have a lot of cutting and welding to do to make it work! ;D