Dropped off the intake manifold at the Benz shop this morning before work. Fingers crossed. However, the tech said that the one I opened up was leaking substantially along one side. Ah well...

Meantime, over the weekend, I added some stickers to my daughter's ride:



and for the other side of the garage:

 

Ah, looks like the solution is appearing over the horizon.... Patience and you will be soon rewarded

 

Great Thread! Things will work out. Just need patience and perseverance.

 

nice find...

 

This is the post I have been wanting to make for damn near a year - the car runs!!!

The shop was quite busy this week, and just managed to bolt up the manifold off the salvage car. Bloody hell, it was the manifold all along, not sealing properly. BOO. Boo on my workmanship too I guess. Ah well.

A bit busy today - hopefully will be able to grab the car on Monday. Summer's almost out - I will plan to drop the 55 back into it next spring!

 

HORRAY! CONGRATS! SIGH!

Can't wait to hear about the W202 C55 V8 animal!

 

I hate to say it but I told you so I am glad you got it running, now drop that 55 motor in your W202 and make it a BEAST!!!

Keep us posted on the swap progress when it begins

 

Congra. Vince,, lastly that damn nightmare gone....,, intake is always making a bad mysteries trouble,,
waiting for the 5.4L to wake from that looooooooooong sleeeeeeeep.......

ZAYED,,

 

GOOD NEWS at LAST but don't forget to drop the correct intake onto the 55 when switching engines

 

Finally, the ordeal is finished. Congratulations Saab!!!

 

I was gonna wait until next spring to put the 55 back in, but after chatting with my buddy, we may do it in October, after I get back from my 'summer holiday' in September. More later!

 

Yay! I just drove the car back home from the shop. Needs a good cleaning!

 

I'm glad you got it figured out. That is probably the first time you've properly 'drove' it since you got the W203, right?

 

Good work Vince Now you will be needing to change and update the details in your signature....

 

Congrats man! I'm only surprised you did not do this 100 pages back(change the manifold),but anyway,im glad shes running. Now put the 55 motor in and do a nice power comparison between your 203 and 202 when you're done!

Im anxious to know.

 

Yeah, I guess I had figured previously that the manifold was okay. I'm going to tear the old one apart again and try to reseal it. Unfortunately, there aren't many of these kicking around, so the cost was also an issue. I ended up paying C$400 for the used one! Bit expensive, but oh well.

For sure I am going to get the 55 back into the car. Just trying to figure out when - probably in October sometime. We're only taking our 'summer' holiday in September, so it's going to have to wait until we get back at least, as I will be rather busy with work until then.

I have also sold the car to my parents, which will be nice as I have altogether too many cars at our house right now - two AMGs, the Audi, the S2000 and the Land Rover, exactly twice as much garage space as I have! But the good bit about my parents taking over the car is that I will occasionally borrow it. And it would be very much a pity to let someone other than family make use of all the hard work and parts I've spent on the car.

Going to order some new tires for the 18" Monoblocks, finally will be able to get those onto the car too. Gonna be wicked.

 

Good to read the issue was discovered. Looking forward to updates on install of the 55 engine. Have a great vacation.

 

New 18" Yokohama all seasons ordered from Tirerack the other day, should be here Monday. Not going with a summer only performance tire as I want to keep a bit more flexibility with the car, and have told my parents not to drive it in the winter. They have a Land Rover LR2 for those purposes. Should be quite nice on the 18" Monoblocks that have been sitting in my garage for lord knows how long now. Was tempted a couple of times to sell them, but glad I never did.

The staggered 17" Monoblocks with non-staggered winter tires may just be freshened up a bit with Plastidip, plus the bolt holes opened up to 14mm (from the stock 12mm) so that I can fit them onto my Audi. We'll see though, the Audi came with really fresh winter tires, but only 16" so I'm keen to get bigger rubber on there, and the Monoblocks would be perfect to hide the dinky 288mm rotors. LOL at dinky, 288mm is still larger than the 280mm stock brakes on my S2000; and I always find it amusing to compare the stock C43 334mm brakes and stock C55 345mm brakes to the Stoptech 335mm big brake kit I put onto the S2000...

Also have determined the weekend after Canadian Thanksgiving in mid October to do the 55 engine swap. Start Friday night, hopefully have the engine out that night or early Saturday, accessories all swapped over and motor back in by Saturday night, fire up Sunday night. The biggest pain will be swapping over the accessories - a lot of stuff to do.

Speaking of which, the thousands of dollars spent on suspension components and new engine bits and pieces (belt tensioner, idler pulley, power steering pump, crank pulley, cleaned injectors, seals everywhere) is the main reason I don't really want to sell the car to a 'third party'. Sell to my parents still basically means I can enjoy the car on occasion. The performance is lost on my parents, but they will get to enjoy a nicely engineered German car. My mother is especially looking forward to it. My wife drove the car one whole summer and loved it too. So you don't have to be a 'car guy' to enjoy an AMG, but it does help....

 

Some pictures of the two AMGs, and glimpses of the other cars in my stable too!

















The C43 now belongs to my parents, but I still think of it as mine! Today all I managed to do was top up the ATF, found out two older MAFs don't work very well so need cleaning, and tidied up an exhaust pipe clamp. Managed to lose three of the four screws that hold the plastic undertray in place so I need to hunt down replacements.

To do still: get that undertray in place, clean the original and the other MAF that came with the 55 motor, swap the C32/55 calipers from side to side for the proper piston orientation, use new brake lines and then bleed. Then I'll start getting the 55 motor ready for the swap, should be in October. Hope it stays relatively warm when my buddy and I do that...I also have another set of the 5.5 badges ready to go onto the C43 when the swap is done. I figure it's not a true W202 C55, so the trunk badge will stay C43, but under the hood it'll be 55 motor, so the fender badges will testify to that!

More pix when the 'proper' 18" tires get mounted on the 18" Monoblocks. Should be cool. In all likelihood the 17" Monoblocks with non-stagger winter tires will make their way onto my Audi Avant, with the bolt holes suitably drilled out for VAG standard 14mm diameter bolts....

 

why does that black c43 have a more vicious look than your C55?
is it because w202 looks better than w203

about your c32 calipers are you going to disasemble calipers and move parts from left caliper to right and the same from the other one?

 

No caliper disassembly, just going to swap them side to side, with the custom lines and fittings I've come up with, then bleed with the calipers off the car, so that the bleeder valves point upwards.

 

In the pic above, are those the original Stock calipers painted or are those dual piston calipers from another MB?

The two cars next to each other really makes the C43 look like a classic AMG MB and a keeper compared to the C55 even though I do like both cars.

 

Yeah, the 202 body style looks great in AMG guise, especially with the C43 specific bumpers and skirts. Very classic, but not really old like 124s. The tech was telling me the 202 was still built like the 124s, pretty tough. But my car is showing its age. The KMacs make it squeak too. Boo.

Anyway, yes, I put C32/55 calipers on it last year. Some better pix here:

https://mbworld.org/forums/4819060-post428.html

But I'm not 100% happy with it, as I want to swap the calipers from side to side for the proper piston stagger orientation. Right now they are mounted to allow the bleeding to occur fine, with the bleeders pointed upwards. To get the proper piston orientation, I'm going to need to bleed with the calipers off the car.

 

Frustrating! Yesterday morning I dropped the new Yokohamas and the 18" Monoblocks at the tire shop a block from the office. Have used them extensively in the past. Picked up the wheels at the end of the day, got home and noticed that while two of them were properly mounted, two were not. Someone was inattentive!! Did not pay attention to the tire direction or the stagger. So there was one 225 mounted on the 18x9 and the one 255 mounted on the 18x8. So - stretch and bulge, respectively. And to top it off, the tire installer didn't pay attention to the tire direction either.

Was all looking forward to bolting them up finally to the C43 - been a long time coming. Going to have to wait until tonight.

 

I hope they didn't scratch the rims too. Jeez what bad luck