MBfinatic

Just picked a 1989 190 E about a week ago for $500. It has 148k miles. 2.6 auto. The car has been neglected. The owner said to have put carb cleaner in the motor! On test drive car was able to achieve 25mph for about 2 minutes. It is leaking coolant badly! Also transmission does not grab gears.. Reverse and second gear work.



Plans for paint, evo II kit, new motor/ tranny/ rear end, soon!

MBfinatic

Sold the exhaust today. Still debating on colors for the car.

MB_Fahrer

Are you swapping out to a 16v or keeping the 2.6? What's your plan?

These may be of interest to you (no affiliation with sellers):

http://www.benzworld.org/forums/sale...5-16-body.html

http://www.benzworld.org/forums/sale...heap-euro.html

http://www.benzworld.org/forums/sale...arts-190e.html

MBfinatic

I am leaning towards a skyline Rb25det motor. 2.5 I6 turbo with the neo 5spd manual tranny. Cheap to get with endless modifications.

MB_Fahrer

Hmm... Well if I were you, I would go with something like this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/190726970576...witem=&vxp=mtr

MBfinatic

Wow! Great find! Is there any aftermarket parts for those motors?

MB_Fahrer

Quite a bit. By quite a bit, I actually mean more than you would ever want to spend the money on. I had a 190e 2.3-16 for a while--loads of fun. Mine wasn't anywhere near 190hp though. It was old and tired.

Parts wise, some are ludicrously expensive, while others aren't. There are loads of these cars in Europe that are still used in racing, so you can find a lot of parts if you know where to look. Atec Motorenbau (http://www.atecmotoren.de/) still supplies a lot of DTM parts (intake, standalone ECU, suspension, etc, etc, etc). David and Thomas are very helpful.

These forums are very good resources:
http://w201-16v.de/w201/portal.php
http://mercedes-190.co.uk/index/
http://190rev.net/forums/

You have to remember with these 190s, that handling was the big issue. They were built to turn, and they do it very well. What's sad, is these cars are almost worthless these days, so everybody starts throwing LS motors in and effectively turn them into backyard hackjobs.

If you are looking to use it as a fun street car, I would say shoot for about 250hp and start lightening up the car. Ditch the heavy stock seats in favor of Sparcos (or whatever brand you like), run 17x8 or 17x9 wheels (Enkei's tend to be very light), H&R cup suspension kit, find a nice muffler you like, and enjoy it.

I'll send you a PM with some of the parts prices for the 2.3 cossie motor. I'll have to dig through my old emails to find them.

Cheers,
Ricky

MB_Fahrer

Might also be of some use to you: http://www.benzworld.org/forums/sale...-190e-16v.html

MBfinatic

Hmm thats interesting. Now im not one who likes to swap brands together but it feels right to put a rb25/26 in the 190. You can get the motor with tranny for about 1700-2k with roughly 60k miles. You cant do that for the 2.3 16v. Plus the aftermarket on the rb is endless. I know there is A LOT of work ahead whichever route I take.

MB_Fahrer

If you want to make silly horsepower, go with the rb. It sounds like that will be a much cheaper option dollar per horsepower. Just be sure to beef up the running gear as you go along. Wheels, tires, brakes, shocks, and springs.

MBfinatic

Yes suspension mods and all are to come later on. First is to get her running. Than sway bars and a H&R cup kit. Plus I am going to be ordering the evo II body kit. I think im going to paint it a dark silver.

MBfinatic

New motor and tranny came in yesterday!

MB_Fahrer

Awesome!! I like the idea of dark silver paint. I think that'll look sharp on it.

MBfinatic

I like that idea to. I saw this and it made my mind on it .



Different front and rear bumper, wheels, etc but other than that it looks amazing!

MB_Fahrer

Yep, that looks great. Good color for the car. If you're thinking of doing the EVO II kit, consider this instead. Rieger kits are fantastic. The money spent on the kit, will be money saved in fitment costs and overall quality. Rieger is top notch when it comes to body kits. I suppose one could say that this is Rieger's interpretation of the EVOII kit. It's call the EVO III kit.

http://www.lltek.com/benzgate/html/w...ass_rieger.htm

vanir

Gawd that looks a little insane from where I am at the moment money wise. I just picked up a 1989 190E 2.6 auto myself for AU$1100 (he came down from 1350 but it was probably worth a bit more, he's a doctor that just wanted to get rid of it to make garage room and we got along well so it was a good deal). It's got 182,000km on the clock and seems pretty good, drives nice but paintwork is rough with the clear coat peeled off the boot and bonnet (got a quote for $700 to scrub them back bare and respray). Picked up 4 new Pirellis for $400. Tie-rod ends are being replaced tomorrow for $170. Middle muffler has a hole in it so I'm having it cut at the twin pipes and joined to a 2.25" system back from there. It's an asian delivery (cloth seats) but pretty sure it's got the 220ohms R16/1 resistor rather than the horrid 770ohms US one, so it's good on 95RON...seems to have a fair bit of pickup from about 3000rpm (bit of a slug in normal driving, kind of used to lumpier, quicker cars but fairly happy with the pickup at the higher rpm).

I only have a modest working class budget to work with but plan on spending a bit for the rest of the year and get it up to scratch. First up next is changing all the fluids/filters. Last owner overfilled the oil a bit (it's blown all over the engine but doesn't drop any on the driveway, a good clean and oil/filter change should do the trick).

I do want to attack trying to squeeze a little more grunt out of it if I can, bring up the paint real nice, look at taller rims and sexy tyres a little later.
The M-103 sounds tricky to get much more out of without throwing some big dollars at it with blowers and the like. Stock they're already putting out 1hp/cubic inch which is real impressive. Other than freeing up exhaust a bit I'm not sure if there's much more I can do on a budget. Head must be breathing okay to start with, valve timing is already up the range at 3800-5800, induction is fine and it gets plenty of fuel and plenty of spark. Compression is good for premium unleaded. I think anything else to do for more power is only going to make the returns higher up the range which I don't really need, it's not going to help it in general touring on the roads.

Unless anyone here knows any secrets to the M-103 2.6 I guess I'm sort of stuck other than the cleaner exhaust, until I can afford a kompressor (I can play with cam grinds to bring dynamic compression down a little for a low booster, this works if you don't go silly and I can map it all out on some software I have).
Seems to be the only way I can imagine to crack 200hp which is where I really want an engine in this car, at least, without an engine swap which I don't want to do.

I appreciate engine swaps, and the M-103 comes in 3 litre I've noticed but I'd really prefer the original 2.6 with 200hp than an engine swap to do it. Guess I'll have to weigh up if a kompressor or engine swap is cheaper. But I like the little six.

MBfinatic

I will consider that body kit but it looks like a little to much. Someone on the 190 forums has been making kits for people and everyone has loved the fitment so I may end up going that route. That sounds like a nice project vanir!

vanir

Thank you MB, and I do rather agree with you on bodykits. Personally I prefer the subtler version AMG looks for road going, racy looking Mercs. I've been keeping an eye out for them lately and been seeing all kinds of AMG types, they look just great on the road in any model.

My build is the slow road, a piece by piece rebuild each pay. I just put new brakes in this week. I'm still being impressed by now securely and comfortably these cars drive. Getting more familiar with it I'm finding pleasing results, it seems to have an LSD I found this morning when I tested low gear acceleration onto a wet causeway. That was a nice surprise being I was able to bolt into traffic very tractably when I was expecting nothing but wheelspin, as I discovered the merge lane was so slippery exiting. If that's not enough the rear suspension beautifully soaked up roll rate and prevented fishing with barely a moment off the power and near maximum acceleration. Potential emergency averted with ease, seriously these cars are safe!

I actually managed to find a German tune shop that sells off the shelf performance cams for the M103 and am absolutely thrilled. I got a referral to a local fabricator who can custom build me a tubular extractor manifold with nice square port exits and decent length primaries...well as much as can fit in the tight bay anyways. Between the two it'll cost about 3K but with good plugs that should get me closer to my 200hp ideal whilst keeping the original 2.6 litre engine...well probably more like 185hp but I'm good with that.

It's not like I can financially compete with serious Merc tuners anyway, but if I do it with intelligent parts matching and plenty of hand finished quality work, at least I can have a quick 2.6 that people don't really bother with, but could surprise a few.
And the whole thing is still costing me only a few grand done. Bargain of the century.

MBfinatic

That sounds like a great build! Make a thread to keep me posted on updates!

MBfinatic

Finally got the car into my booth to start working!

DocWalla

So how are you planning to get that rb mounted up?

MBfinatic

Local shop does custom mount kits.

Capn

Very cool project.

MBfinatic

Yes, I may have to abandon it to acquire a skyline. Time will tell when the C350 sells.

DocWalla

What fuel system and ecu are you going to use to intigrate all the lights and electrical into the 201 while powering the rb? And about how much did it cost to get the engine/tranny? And would an rb26 n1 fit in the bay?