I figure many of you will get a kick out of seeing how this is done.
I have a Weistec supercharger en route and while it will be going on the cars stock engine, along with some long tube headers and a dedicated IC coolant circuit, I am building a better engine to replace the stocker so that the blower can be pullied down for more power.

The one thing I don't like about the factory block is the open deck. My instinct wants to design a block guard and have the bores dry sleeved, but Dartons MID is superior to even that for forced induction in my opinion. MID is a little misleading in the case of the 55K, as the sleeves only touch the block in four places each, but it's more than enough to stabilize the tops of the sleeves/bores and signifigantly stronger from a perspective of stiffness than dry sleeving the open deck.

So I bought a complete 26k mile engine to use, so that I can have as much as possible built on an engine stand to minimize down time, plus I get a bunch of free spares like alternator, starter, water pump, etc and can sell off a lot of things that I don't need doubles of like the blower and such. This engine came from Germany , well I know they all come from Germany, I mean this engine was owned by a kraut it's whole life until he wrecked the car. On the boat freight ride over the blocks exterior got oxidized somewhat by the salty sea air so it needed to be soda blasted and glass beaded to remove the yuk, but the inside still looked practically new.

Here's it when I got it last month


And here it is ready to take another long trip to SoCal, to the masterful hands of Steve at Race Engine Development (RED). Steve is the one who engineers the sleeves for Darton and holds the patent on the design. Anyone other than RED doing the block work is like a cover band singing your favorite band's song.

Not really but you get the point



Here's a close up of the oxidation from the salty air. Won't be there for long but it's ugly now.


Block all set up ready to be bored by RED (not mine)


No turning back now. Boring out the complete factory sleeves. Did I mention I got a quote from MB for a replacement block for UPS insurance?

$16,700 I get a little discount through AutoNation , homeboy hookup price is only $13,100



And here's the CNC mill cutting the notches for the modular deck to lock into.


And here she sits gutted


The sleeves get bored to whatever you want, up to almost 4" but only for NA. I'm keeping the stock bore.


And then it gets decked to your spec. I don't even know what MB spec is and don't care, I typically like a positive .006-.009 deck depending on the head gasket used, to put the quench height where I want it. This helps with detonation sensitivity.


Boom.

 

I'm pretty sure I could sit in that shop and watch that machine work all day long. That's engine **** right there.

Where in SoCal is this located? Might be worth a field trip.

 

Right down the street from my uncle in Oceanside. You can look up their number and give them a call but I wouldn't recommend just dropping by and asking for a tour.

 

Can't wait to see some of these blocks getting used like they should making a bunch of power. I got to see a little of how it was done when they did mine but not to much.

 

Nice build and will be nice to see more big power 55`s at the track in the near future. Check out the sleeve lenght as well, When we had Steve D with Race engine development design the program and sleeves for darton, he was suposed to squeeze a little more sleeve lenght in as well, to help piston stability at the bottom. There was not much room, unless piston oilers were removed but I think some was added. We had four 55 blocks sleeved and one more going out soon.

I had a video of the machining process sent last year, but not sure were that went. Sure is cool to see those weak **** open deck aluminum sleeves go away! I have miced stock bores on 550 hp failed engines, and even at that power, the bores are moving around. NOT GOOD!

Here is a close up.


Then they all arrive in this nice big red palstic block shipping containers!

 

Chris / Steve / et al - For those of you building blocks and planning on serious power, what are you doing with your fuel delivery system ? Are you designing a new setup (return) with much larger volume and external pumps ?

 

I'm going to monitor fuel pressure under load as I progress with things. My first choice is a boost a pump module that I have from another build. It steps up the voltage to the pumps when you see a positive manifold pressure to increase output. If that's not enough then a new fuel system is next but I want to avoid that on a 100% street car like mine.

If I were trying to set the mile on fire like Brooke the big braided standalone system is the way to go for sure. BTW anyone who runs a Darton MID sleeved Mercedes owes Brooke a huge thanks for his efforts in getting RED and Darton to make the sleeves. He gave them a block to use for engineering as well if I recall correctly

 

This is awesome. Hotrodding is alive and well!

 

How much for the Darton MID sleeves?

 

I think the cost was a little under $3000USD installed for the sleeves.

 

Woah...crazy!

 

When are we gonna get a vid of this beast

 

Now I know where to send my 5.7L VRP block to get re-sleeved! Thanks for that info Sir!