Hello, this is my first post here and I wanted to share with you the build I'm doing right now.
It is as the title states an an AMG swap into a W124 coupe.
The car is originally a W124 CE300-24v produced and registered on the 23rd of april 1993 (which coincidently is also the day I was born a year later) and has been driven now around 330.000 km and located in Reykjavík Iceland.
I bought the car at auction in december of 2014 from an insurance company and it was damaged, rusted and needless to say, had seen better days. I then start restoration of the car in the spring of 2015 and finish doing most of the body work and rust repair in about two months. In addition I bought the AMG body kit and had a 3-coat layer candy paint specially made for me.
I was so happy when I starded using the car as probably no one would be surpriced of but always felt that the old school engine and transmission system was missing a little "spunk". I used the car as is for about 1 and a half year and then stored it over the last winter.
During its time in storage it had cought a bad moisture problem, both with interior and in the engine as the seats had gotten a little moldy and the engine shut off when it got warm (electrical issues).
I was at a crossroads. Was I supposed to fix what was wrong with the engine or go in another, more interesting direction? I srtarted looking around for v8's on the internet but didn't really find anything that caught my attention, and in alll honesty what I really wanted was a 6.0 v12 to fully replicate the legendary Hammer we all know and love. After a while I had put the matter behind me and stopped thinking about it as I had untill my best friend told me about an ML55 his cousin had in his yard which he had baught for body parts for his own ML55. My Interest was sparked to say the least so I bought the car. My intentions were set, I was coing to swap over the engine, the Brembo brake kit, and the stainless steel exhaust system. the transmission I got from an e50 AMG. I'm currently at that stage in the swap that I have gotten the new M113 engine into the car and am starting to meet new promlems such as what kind of steering rack to use? I would greatly appreciate all inputs on that. I will try to keep you guys posted as the builds goes on and all ideas are welcome, naysayers however can hold there tounge and go somewhere else.

 

 

I am doing similar i to w201 and use w210 steering rack. Check w201 page for my thread

 

Awesome build - looking forward to the progress!

 

Now the motor is in the final stages of preparations before being dropped in tomorrow, starting to look pretty good if I do say so myself.

 

Wheres the project sitting now? Complete?

 

Sorry for the late update guys but the adventure continues! I have now custom build a compleate stainless steel exhaust system using some magnaflow parts, I have changed the diff to an asd one from a w210 I am currently installing yet another steering rack and using a w210 this time since the w203 had reversed steering (kind of a funny fail to figure out) I have installed my new K&N air intake and custom built a heat and dust cover for it. I have replaced the gas pedal for the one in the ML55 (real hassle but well worth it) as well as the ml brembo brake upgrade. 1 I have booked the car for wiring the monday a week from now. so hopefully I will be able to drive it some in 2 weeks if all goes well. What is planed after the first drive (wich will probalby reveal some issues) is an ecu map and dino testing and the estimate is around 400hp and 570 nm tourqe but the truth will prevail on the dyno bench.

I will not call my baby complete just there (when is the project really over anyways?) because I inted on going for the Hammer widebody modifications next winter and I have already recourced the e500 front fenders and some porche carrera rs rear fender flares to build up the rear arches.

for now i will try to upload what I can of pictures and there may be a few more pics and details on my thread on benzworld.org if you want to check that out. http://www.benzworld.org/forums/w124...-amg-swap.html

 

Love your exhaust setup, I am considering doing the same on my 3.2 twin turbo, can you provide more details?

 

With pleasure. What I did is I used 2.5 inch stainless tubes and welding bends to form the exhaust. But in detail I started off with the original headers from the ML55 and cut the flange of it and turned to a point that suited the coupe chassis and made them point to a suitable direction. after that I just started threading the pipes, piece by peace, along the car and tried my best to make it fallow the original exhaust line (of course a bit harder with two pipes than one) and once it came to the placement of the main muffler (originally) I put my magnaflow one. The main reason I put a 2x1 muffler is that if you have a double exhaust line that doesn't cross paths anywhere the sound is going to be like two 4cyl honda civics racing down the street, a.k.a crap. after the muffler I used a "t-pipe" (also sourced from magnaflow) to devide the pipes again and leading them as equally as possible to the tips taken from the ML55. anything connected to the exhaust I welded with a TIG welder (the only real way to get stainless steal welded clean) and the car was up on my lift the entire time (HIGHLY RECOMENDED!)
anything else you were wondering?

 

Great, thank you. Any problem with clearance between the subframe and the spare tire tub?

 

Not really, I hope these pictures answer your question

 

 

Hey there. Seeing as I haven't even finished mine off myself I can't really claim my qualifications for taking on such a job. But what you are asking is not only an insane amount of work but the cost of it is immense as well. Right now I think I have spent about 350.000 - 400.000 USD on the project and that is with me doing 95% of the work myself. I have had to rebuild a lot of the car to fit the drivetrain and spend weeks on customising things like steering and more. This is something I could never do again, nor do I intend to in the near future. Truth be told I'm just a sheet metal worker who decided to chase the dreams of that little boy who played on the "car street carpet" so many of us had as kids with his matchbox cars, saying to himself "when I get older I'm going to have this kind of car, only cooler and with so and so much horsepower".
I am honored that you would think of me to undertake this challenge for you, but as someone who knows what's included, I'm going to have to respectfully decline.
This project is something that started out with a rusted, banged up coupe that I got for cheep from a damaged auction was only supposed to go to an AMG look and rust repair. And it did, but after a while of driving and getting to know the car, even more than I had stripping it and repairing it, I came to the conclusion that these old merc's were really missing something. That "OOMPH", that edge, and that feeling you get when thr gas pedal hits the floor and you feel like you are going straight into the backseat. That then became the purpose, to get the extra power and you're, but as I had the car in front of me again I started looking it over more and again and again I just couldn't shake the image of that mean looking, and super rare Hammer. I had the dreams of the wide body look lingering since I bought it and saw what had been made, but was devistaded when I found out that there were no possible ways to buy such flares for the rear of the coupe. I fallowed a guy in the US who had done this but wound up going my own way and trusting my knowledge of sheet metal and fabricated my own version of them. Right now the car is going through the final stages of preparation before it goes away for the winter to storage but this spring it will be painted and finished.

 

I have a w124 sedan and an ml55 I plan on placing the engine from in the w124 also! Very happy to come across your post. Few questions, 1. What motor mounts did you use?/modify? 2.transmission isnt useable from the ml? 3. Did you need a custom drive shaft? Thanks in advance! Getting w164 ml soon so once that's home I can start on the 300e. Mine is also going red and already have the AMG body kit . Car is from Tokyo japan 😎✌

 

Hey. I had to rebuild the engine support beam, used a transmission from a W210 E50 amg, and custom made the engine mounts and a custom shaft. I have said it before and say it agaim. This is as far from a straigts swap as you can get so think carefully before starting.

 

Luckily I have a good friend who has been a mercedes tech for over 12 years who always helps me out. Do you have any engine mount specs at all? Do you have Instagram or any other type of way I can contact you besides dm on here ? Thanks man

 

I'll send you a message.

 

What is your plan with getting the engine to run?

I can offer experience with Megasquirt on the M113 if you go that route.

 

It runs just fine.

 

oh... did you use the harness and ECU from the ML?

 

No, I used a custom built ecu and a standalone TCU as well. A guy I know here in Iceland both built and did the wiring.

 

cool! any chance you could share your timing advance and fuel tables??

 

I had nothing to do with wiring and ECU and TCU in this car as I got a specialist to do them, so I don't know them unfortunately.

 

this can be done once in a lifetime))

 

this can be done once in a lifetime))