UtterPiffle

Hi all, I'm UtterPiffle. Some may know me from Benzworld (veteran of 12 years), but I got pointed here, as it appears you guys appreciate a modification or two. Been a lurker for a while, but finally signed up. Hopefully this one is a bit different to the normal mods, and thought you might like to see my sillyness

Quick history. Been a Merc fan for many years - had mostly S-classes, (3x w126c and 4x w140), but I then needed a wagon for family duties.

I had been running around in a '98 e430 wagon that I bought for £500 (about $800). Did about 10k miles with it, bloody good car! Then a friend of a friend offered me a '99 e55 wagon. 87k miles, mint interior with 7 seats, mechanically perfect, but the front corner was missing. However, the price was not much more than I paid for the e430. I had to have it!

So the next bit is pretty much a copy and paste from the other forum, but I am working on the car almost everyday at the moment, so if folk are interested, I will continue to update here...

First view

Not too bad!

Yup, correct engine


Minty interior


Perfect seats with no bolster wear


And the damage


Front corner a bit bent, but nothing structural


Front missing


And the worst bit

A pillar not bent though, and the door still aligns perfectly.

Story goes that the guy lost it and hit a lamppost. The guy I bought it from took it and started fixing it up, new suspension and wheel, although I suspect he did this mostly so he could move it around the workshop. He then ran out of time and/or interest to get it finished. So, it is now mine!

He presented me with the keys. This photo speaks the truth


Firstly, lets get it home...

My trusty £500 e430 wagon doing sterling service as always, 600 mile round trip. Towed at 50mph as if nothing was behind it

On the way home, I stopped in at another e55 (saloon) that was being broken for spares. Getting involved with a 12" petrol cutter the owner cut out the bits that are bent on mine. Took loads of spares inc. mint front wing and also got a spare set of front discs and callipers because... well, they are bloody expensive! Front discs are bespoke to the e55 and cost 600 quid a pair! These ones are better than what's on the car, so I will just reface them on the lathe at some point. All in £170 Result!

And home safe


Front bit of the repair panel is rather rusty, but that can be fixed later. Note, regulation custard creams on air box.


Damn, it took quite a knock here!


Lets have a look at this damage in more detail


It looks like someone has already been at this with a hammer. Hmmm.


Out with the grinder...


Cut as much bent bits out as possible.


And shape the spare part to fit. Measure twice, cut once!


Mock up with an old rusty wing.


Yup, panel gaps look about correct.


But first, need to cut out the rust in the repair panel.


Fixed!


Quick interlude to get rid of an old MX5 shell. Also got rid of my lovely '77 323 (orange bit of this photo). Pity, but it was just too far gone Forgot to get a photo of it's last journey...


For most of the repair, I will overlap the metal slightly to get a good weld, but the front bumper bar really needs a bit more strength than that and would look odd if overlapped. Therefore I will butt weld it, but with some strengthening behind.

So weld in this plate with some spots


Then weld the panel in.

The gap between the two panels there is deliberate enabling a good strong weld between the three bits of metal.

And finally, stitch it all in.


I now used the old wing to ensure everything still lines up correctly as I am welding. By cutting this hole, I can weld this seam without fear of it warping or moving out of shape.


Close up. Approx 5mm overlap to get a nice clean weld.

Once all done, they will all be coated in seam sealer, then lots of rustproofing!

So this is after about 3 evenings work. Unfortunately I ran out of welding gas, so had to to stop for the evening. So, it's time to play with this!

This will allow me to pull out the damaged outrigger as much as possible before then cutting out the damaged section and replacing it.

UtterPiffle

Att that point, I took a break for a few weeks as work/family life got in the way. However, I did fire up the Car-B-Q for the first time


Oh, and this came up cheeeeep, so my lovely wife now has something rather fun to pootle about in.


I then finally got a couple of days to play with the car. Woo!

Forgot to take pictures when playing with the strong arm ram, as it was quite fun pulling it all out. I couldn't get it quite as straight as I wanted, however, it did give me enough to then cut out the really bent bit and weld in the section from the other car.

After many many measurements and eyeing up the lines etc. I got to here

Slight improvement on before!

The inside doesn't look too pretty, but that was because I left sections out to then weld the layers inside the box section/sill section. This is just the patchwork that went in over the top. Wish I'd got some pictures inside as it turned out quite well. Still, I know if nothing else, it is certainly strong!


Sill section welded, then smoothed down


Rain didn't stop play. Just add a beer brolley


At least it will never rust!


Inside not too bad with some paint


And with the wing back on, it all looks reasonably straight. Not prefect, but it will do.






Also spent some time rebuilding the front suspension, as it still wasn't quite straight, and nothing was done up tight. New top link, new ARB link, new steering gator - standard stuff, but was nice just to play with normal oily stuff for a couple of hours...

UtterPiffle

So the 55 is beginning to look like a working car again!



I had to borrow the front bumper from my old E430. It is not the correct one, but will have to do for now, as even second hand e55 bumpers seem to sell for about half of what I paid for the whole car. Something will no doubt turn up one day. But in the mean time, this will have to do. I must confess I am half tempted to go for the sleeper look and lose the AMG body kit completely/remove the badges - make it look like a standard e200 or similar. Anyway, need to get it road legal first!

I thought all the welding was complete, but found this little hole behind the rear wheel by the fuel filler this morning, so welded that up.


I've had a good look around it and fixed all the problems I can see ready for MOT. Connected up an old laptop to clear the SRS fault.


It did fail MOT, but only failed on a small patch of welding behind the wheel on the other side and headlight alignment was out. A few hours later, the car was declared roadworthy! It then had to go for another inspection (VIC test), as the car had been previously written off by the insurance company. However, it's now fully road legal.

I then had a result a few weeks later with a badly worded eBay ad. Got a complete AMG body kit in the correct colour - two bumpers and two side skirts for £50! Yeah!
It's from a sedan, so the back bumper is different (back bumper on mine is fine), but the three other parts are the same.
Front bumper is missing the fog lights and tow eye covers. I have ordered new fog lights (cheap on German eBay), but the covers appear to made of unobtainium. Will have to come up with something there...

snooozie

Wow.. Awesome welding job!! Wish you were in the States and close to where I live Great write up and I'm glad you save one of the rare W210 E55 wagon. from been left for dead in the junkyard.

Solo wing

Great job mate ! congrats & welcome.
I have always admired the concept of an AMG wagon.

Cheers

UtterPiffle

Cheers guys.

So, after a few months hooning around, it was time to have some fun with the car. One thing I did notice was how poor it was on fuel compared to the e430. They are essentially the same engine, but the extra 90bhp in the 55 obviously makes it slurp rather more deeply.

Obvious way to fix this - Propane conversion!

Regular unleaded is currently about £1.30 per litre here, LPG is less than half that.

So this pretty much brings us up to date. I started the conversion this week. I need to get it finished by next weekend, as I know full well family Christmas duties will then take over.

Quick run down of the plan. I have a second hand kit to fit. It came originally fitted to a '96 s320 that I bought and was then swapped over to the e430. This will be the kits third car. However, due the increase in power, some new bits will be required and there will be quite a learning curve ahead!

The kit is quite clever. There are a second set of 8 injectors for the LPG plumbed into the inlet manifold. It takes signals from various outputs of the stock ECU - injector pulses, ignition pulses, lambda sensors etc, and some pressure/vacuum references. These signals are the processed by the piggyback LPG ECU and it can then switch between the two fuels without the driver even being aware. Simple huh?
Also, propane/butane has a lower calorific value than unleaded, so power is down by 10% or so. As such, the LPG ECU is clever enough to squirt unleaded in when you really put your foot down. That way, you never notice a drop in power, and without looking at the switch, you are unaware of what fuel is being used. However, on a cruise, the regular fuel gauge doesn't move! Lets get it fitted then...

UtterPiffle

The e55 has quite a bit of space down to the left as you look in the engine bay - it is where the air box goes on lesser cars. This is where I will put the reducers and solenoid / filters etc.

I went for the Magic Jet 3 reducer as it is physically tiny compared to other reducers and has a reasonably good review. It comes in 250 or 350 bhp varieties. Although my car is rated at 350bhp, I had read that the Magic runs out of puff at it's limits. There were only 45 quid each, so I opted to 2 of the 250Bhp ones. Made the plumbing a little more complicated, but hey, it's all good fun!


So, made a bracket and welded it in


Test fit behind the offside headlight


And painted
Left it to dry overnight.


Then some plumbing. Not sure if you can see the inlet water pipes and Y'd together underneath. This will then be T'd to the water system just there by the auxillary heater pump (which is the heater inlet).
The high pressure gas inlets are T'd and piped to the Solenoid. Normally, the reducers themselves have a safety solenoid built in, so I will put a second one along the line.


A few hours later, and I had plumbed in the low pressure gas side, silver cans are just filters. I wanted to make sure these are on top, as they are a serviceable items. The two outputs from these will go the two injector rails.
The two pipes around the outside of the filters are the water outlets, which are Y'd together, then go around the back of the engine to the heater outlet. As such the water effectively runs in parallel to the heater system, so it will always get warm water, whether the heater is on or not. What looks like extra outputs on the water outputs are just temporary, as I needed to order some right angle elbows, but the T's were all I had, so used just so I could cut all the pipes and mock it up.


I ran out of parts to finish off the the reducer bit, so cracked on with the injectors. It was dark by the time I took this photo, but it shows the 8 injector pipes coming up ready for the LPG injectors.


The lpg injector adaptors are wonderful things. You pull off the injector rail and injectors, insert the little adaptors with the extra feed, then put the injector rail back on, bolted to little standoffs. The result is firstly that you don't have to drill and tap the inlet manifold (risky and time consuming!), but also, it ensures that the LPG fuel goes in where Mercedes intended - i.e. down the injector hole!

I ran out of light and feeling in my hands. The fog had dropped and started freezing! Hopefully the elbows and extra pipe will arrive tomorrow so I can finish the water system.


So this was the state of play after day 1 (photo taken the following morning)

Solo wing

Ahaah ! fuel cost
This is what I miss from my stay in Saudi Arabia , other than the weather of course
I remember that Octane 95 costs 0.5 SR/L which converts to $ 0.13 /L
filling a Cadillac Escalade came to $ 20
Actually I think that the fuel economy came a long way since the W124s , My 260E consumes a similar amount to my E55 under average driving.

Good luck mate!

UtterPiffle

Day 2

I have finished the water cooling system, started the car and brought it up to temperature. No leaks. Considering I have added 20 jubilee clips to the cooling system, this is good! Also, the reducers are getting nice and warm as required.

I needed to do some wiring next, as the injectors are hard wired to the loom.

This is the loom. Nicely labelled so easy (ish) to fit!

The ECU, with minor tweaking fits just snugly in the box with the other ECU's. Almost like it was meant to be there!

Photo here before loom attached.

By the end of day 2 - actually only got about 3 hours in the end - the loom was roughly laid in place and some of it attached. It is amazingly time consuming laying wires and attaching it so it looks neat. I want it to look as close to a factory install as possible.


Injectors connected up and loom laying roughly where it supposed to go.

Day 3 - again, about 3 hours


Rain didn't stop play!

So the wiring is now complete, except the solenoid and fuel gauge wires that go to the back. I think it looks reasonably neat.


Fuel gauge and selection switch nicely hidden in the ash tray


Gone!

Towards the end of the day, I started playing with the air filter housing. This is the only part I am not sure how to do at the moment. Unfortunately with any LPG install, there is going to be a certainly amount of compromise. On this one, I think I will have to reduce the air input slightly. The e55 has double the air filter surface area of the e430, so I hope it can cope if it looses a bit. If this doesn't work, I will have to come up with some sort of ricer induction kit thing, but would obviously prefer it to look stock in the engine bay...

So, the photo below is where I got too before it got too dark/cold. Or more to the point, it's Friday and my lovely wife wants us to go to the pub!

Rubbish photo, but you can see that I have had to cut out quite a bit to get the housing to fit over the injectors. I don't think it will actually make a massive impact on the air flow, as there is very little input volume in the middle there anyway. In real terms, I reckon less than 10% reduction. Will see in the next few days if it is going to work...

We are now up to date. Next update hopefully Monday evening...

UtterPiffle

Thanks Solo! 13 cents a litre... Sigh, if only!

w124 260e.. Nice car.

UtterPiffle

Small update, as not had much free time the last two days.

However, I finished the air filter, and it fits well around the injectors




Cover to match


Front end complete now

Will get a pic with the complete air filter on tomorrow.

Spent the afternoon running the fuel line to the back of the car and working out where to put the filler.

On my last car, I had one of these sneakily hidden behind the fuel flap:


However, I have since found out these are not CoP-11 compliant (the UK LPG approval body) as you need to always use an adaptor which is frowned upon. You should also mount the filler so that it has more than a 50kg breaking strain in case you forget to detach the filler and drive off (as if!).
So I think I will just mount a conventional one to the tow bar, but set it back under the bumper.

Weather is supposed to nice for the next few days, so hope to make some progress...

ghiaguy

I want a w210 e55 wagon!! That is sweet!

Solo wing

Amazing work ! I wish I had the space+ tools+ knowledge to work on my car like that.

Faiz

UtterPiffle

Cheers guys...

Finally got a full day on the car - well, until it got dark at 15:30.

Got a little distracted though. The suspension arm I'd finally got round to ordering turned up. I had been meaning to replace it since the car was on the road. The guy who crashed obviously also hit a curb or something with the rear, as one of the top links was a bit bent. Actually, when I took it off, I saw that it was a lot bent...

Explains the negative camber and twitchy handling under power.

OK, time to don the fire retardant suit before posting the next bit

Whilst I was there I also noticed the rear spring was broken. Only slightly broken, but of course it needed to be cleaned up. Just to be sure, I cut a whole loop off the spring


Obviously, this would imbalance the car, so I had to also cut the others



I would like to point out before you shoot me down in flames that spring cutting on Mercs is perfectly safe. Two reasons for this. Firstly the ends of the coils are not tapered, so they will still seat correctly. Secondly, the cut coils, even with all four wheels off the ground are still very solidly mounted, and there is absolutely no way they can fall out. Thirdly, (I said two reasons, right?) this is a temporary measure. I do have a set of very nice Lorinser coils on my old car in the barn that I plan to fit to the 55, the only minor issue being that I have lost the locking wheel nut spanner so can't curently get to them. The Lorinsers will go on the 55 at some point...

However, the car is on axle stands so I can work under it. Will find out later if the spring adjustment was successful...

Ah yes, the fog lights also arrived from Germany this morning, so I removed my temporary bumper and fitted the AMG one (purchased for £50 from a badly worded eBay ad ). I am still missing the towing eye covers, but it looks better than the standard one that was on there as it flows nicely with the rest of the AMG body kit. The towing eye covers are made from unobtanium however, so I will have to make something to go in there. This can wait for now though...

Time was obviously getting on by this point, so I got on with the worstest, ****tiest job of any LPG install: Running the fuel line. It is always a heinous task! This is two hours lying on ones back, swearing and trying to mould the copper pipe to the contours of the car without kinking it. I am pleased to announce that this is the first time I have ever laid an LPG pipe, and not had to cut it off half way along and put in a joiner. There is one continuous piece from the front solenoid to the hole through the floor at the back. Woo!

Oh, I also welded on the filler.

It is tucked back quite a long way under the bumper, so not too obvious. There are the 4 wires from the tank to connect to the front loom and fit the tank. I think we are then good to start it up and see what happens! Full days work tomorrow to fit the tank though. Probably won't start it up until Friday.

Oh yeah, I couldn't resist taking it off the axle stands to see the effect of the spring cutting. Photos taken in the dark, but... Yay!



It will settle slightly once moved, but far less arch gap, which can only be a good thing. Something I forgot to say which took a little head scratching was that the rear has self levelling hydraulics. As such, I had to work out how to adjust the sensor so it now self levels to the new height. Think this one will be a bit of trial and error, but I made a new bracket which allows me to adjust the levelling sensor.

I should get a full day again tomorrow, weather allowing. More soon...

cm60k

What a great jooob MaaaaN...-,

this E55 should hug you for [-!-[back in life with action]-!-]

............

ZAYED,,

C_DirtyTwo

love it. great write up, I enjoyed it.

snooozie

Once again....awesome pictures and great descriptions....keep it coming my man

UtterPiffle

Nice comments. Thanks guys...

Finished off the wiring up front today, tidied up a few bits and put the air filter back on etc.

Apart from the bits down to the left, it looks pretty much standard. Now I think about it, I should have housed all those gubbins inside a standard air filter box. It would have all been completely hidden then. Job for the future maybe...

Anyway, engine bay looking reasonably tidy?


I then took it out for a little test drive. It has settled a little at the front. May have to take it down slightly more, but it drives nice, so will see how it goes for a while


OK, last bit - tank. Here is the little beauty. Trouble is, it is almost completely full of gas, so it is bloody heavy!


The tank sits inside the cabin of the car, so it has to be gas tight. If there is a fault with the tank and gas escapes, it must obviously do so to the outside of the car. As such, the two gas pipes (fill and out) and two wires (fuel gauge and solenoid) have to come up through the safety hose.


It is a pig of a job to get the copper pipes up through the tube to the tank, but managed it in the end. Unfortunately, the 8mm adaptor hasn't turned up today, so that stopped play. I literally now need ten minutes to fit this and I can then plug in the computer and get the LPG configured. Hope it turns up tomorrow!


So, the tank is now safely bolted in to the car:


And it tucks away nicely in the boot


Rear seats still work!


As such, I had time to have a little tidy up in my barn. Man space!


So assuming this part turns up, tomorrow is the make or break day. Will the system work? Find out tomorrow!

Neanicu888

WOW!
I gotta give it to you man,you really made an entrance on this forum!!!
Awesome work and skills!
Keep up the good work!

BTW,I can't see the air pump that sends fresh air into the exhaust on a cold start up. It usually sits on that bracket in front of the engine. Is it in a different place on European models?

IanB

No air pumps on Euro models, my Japanese import included.


This thread needs an update, what happened with the LPG?

wasp01amg

interesting read. Did the LPG work?

UtterPiffle

Hi all, I'd forgotten about this thread, then got an email this morning from mbworld saying there were new replies...

So, updates. Yes, I got the LPG working - it took some time, as I was using the wrong injector nozzles, so the engine ran very weak to start with. I finally resolved this (drilled nozzles out from 1.5mm to 2.5mm) and it has been working fine ever since.

At the last update, the car had 87500 miles on the clock, it now has around 112000. 25k totally trouble free miles in just over a year, mostly going back and forth between the UK(home) and Germany(work).

I average around 19 mpg on LPG, which is a little low, but it's still running a flat map (i.e. it squirts the same amount of fuel in whatever the revs/load). Really need to find some time and play with the LPG mapping. Sure I could get as high as mid 20's if I get involved. It's not bothered me particularly, because the car runs so well on the current setup - and also LPG is currently 39c a litre in Belgium - so the car is cheaper to run than my old Passat TDi.

Other stuff... Well, it now sits a bit lower at the front with Lorinser springs all round, but left the rear in the end as it often gets quite a bit of weight thrown in there


New genuine AMG brake discs all round (that wasn't cheap!), yellow stuff pads and braided hoses made a massive difference!


I had a stainless exhaust made. Turns out that a car running on LPG doesn't need cats to be legal in the UK, so all four of those went in the bin! Resonators binned too. Now runs straight pipes from the manifold to the original stainless AMG rear box.


I think it sounds ace! I put some audio on my Instagram feed:
http://instagram.com/p/t-ZVGiJLfq/?modal=true

I doubt many on here would approve of this. I started painting the car because... well I can... Being a write off (I guess the equivalent of having a salvage title in the US?), the car is worthless, so I thought I'd have a little fun with it. And all the w210's here are silver. Brown is a far better colour!

Needed winter tyres (legal requirement in Germany), so found a second set of staggered AMG wheels. They were in really good condition and cheap, so they will be the summer wheels next year. This meant I could paint the old ones.


Now fitted with Continental TS830 WinterContact tyres that are amazing in the snow, and even on cold wet mornings make so much difference. They are noisy though!

Haven't got too far with the body yet, but the evenings will start to draw out soon...




My son being useful and scraping the ice off:


It's MTN 94 graffiti paint BTW. Really tough paint, long lasting, quick drying, easy to cover large areas (with fat caps) and works out cheap to do the whole car. That'll do then!


Oh yeah, and had an interesting blowout at 70mph on Friday. Not overly impressed as the tyre was only 4 months old. Although the car weaved and slapped across three lanes, it was quite entertaining bringing it to a stop. Quite grateful it happened then, as a few hours earlier I was cruising at 130mph across Germany.


Thats about it for now. I know the car looks a bit crap half painted, but bare with me. If it comes out similar to the photoshop renders, it should look rather good when finished. Or not.

OOgsAggie

Bravo! Great story. Look forward to continuing updates.

SleepersRock

That an awesome conversion. Sounds amazing also. Thanks for the write up!

UtterPiffle

Tadaaa!


Still got the other side and the boot lid to go, but so long as you look from this angle...