landspeed124

Recently I discovered that the ticking noise coming from the number five cylinder was not a bad lifter, but in fact a ground down cam lobe. The head gasket was leaking coolant on both sides and since the motor has 300k+ miles on it, now would be a good time to replace the head. There are a few w124s at the junkyard with good heads, but since it may be hard to find a 2.6, I'll use a 3.0 head. Is there any reason I should not use a 3.0 head, or are they about identical. I also thought that maybe the 3.0 head might flow more due to the added displacement, but that might be wishful thinking.

ps2cho

Off topic, but looks like I got a lot of life left in my 260E

landspeed124

Yeah probably.

neanderthal

Remember that 190Es also use the 2.6 liter engine.

landspeed124

I am aware. I was also curious if a 3.0 head would be a higher flowing head on a 2.6.

landspeed124

Anybody else? I just want to keep my options open in case there isn't a 2.6 head available.

whipplem104

They are the same. The only difference in the motors is the stroke.
Piston size and the heads are identical. The head and valves will surely be the same. I would assume the came is the same also, but it is possibly different.

landspeed124

Thank you.

Chris Gemmell

The m103 3.0 has larger intake valve and exhaust and depending on where the destination of the vehicle when it was mfg an what country it was made for some of the 2.6 and 3.0 had a open or closed chamber head the easiest way to determine Wich one is Wich is the air pipes on the exhaust side of the head there will be a secondary air pump right above the alternator (88 - 93 m103 2.6,3.0 in the United States I believe they all had air pumps for us emissions standards