'69 230 w/m110 build/swap

[Coasttocoast]

I was able to spend a couple hours today stripping the engine. It turns over without resistance (other than compression). Amazing amount of weight in all the accessories.

[Coasttocoast]

Amazing amount of hoses, tubing, brackets etc for the injection/intake system, now gone.

[Coasttocoast]

Under the valve cover looks pretty clean. Looking forward to the rest of the tear down.

[Jezzma]

Very interesting project. I myself have a similar one going on. Ross pistons, triple webers, custom cams etc, chassis is C123. Anything new about the the torque plate?

[Coasttocoast]

Originally Posted by Jezzma

Very interesting project. I myself have a similar one going on. Ross pistons, triple webers, custom cams etc, chassis is C123. Anything new about the the torque plate?

Thanks. Sounds like your going to have fun too! Can you tell more about your project? Similar piston shape or custom? How are you picking your cam profile? Very little info out there.

Still early in my build process, so haven't inquired directly yet. The local machine shop here in Honolulu uses torque plates from a known manufacturer that makes custom ones. So I'm planning on having to get one made.

The car I bought to put this engine into has arrived, going to the port today and pick it up.

I'll post some pics after I get time to clean it up.

[Coasttocoast]

I picked up the car today from the port. I was a little anxious as this was an EBay purchase. The Matson team pulled the car out for me to inspect, all was well and I drove it about 10 miles to my little shop. It smoked a little for the first 1/2 mile or so and then cleared up. Oil pressure well above the midway point and the water temp stayed just as smidge above the midway point. Steering and brakes felt good. The transmission was slow to change gears at first, and it took a couple stop lights before it finally decided to change up to 4th gear. Toward the end of the short drive the trans seemed to stabilize. But of course, I've never driven one of these cars before, so not sure what I should feel.

If I would have paid 3 times what I did I would be happy. Not a spec of rust anywhere. Not even a door ding. The paint on the hood, trunk and roof is peeling a little. I'm not sure that this original paint of not. After a good wash I can't see any signs of a repaint, but the hood, truck and roof looks like clear coat peeling/lifting. Did Mercedes use two stage paint back in 69?

The car is complete, nothing missing, all trim, good bumpers, and other than the a/c everything works.

The interior is almost perfect. Looks way better than my 2006, 99k mile C class does now.

Here is a side pic

[Coasttocoast]

Under hood pic. Pretty clean. Everything was a lot simpler back in 1969!

I do have the filter assembly, off while I clean.

[Roil]

Looks awesome! Keep us posted.

[Coasttocoast]

I had a couple hours today to start looking over the engine a little closer to see what it needed to stay running a few months more before the new engine is ready.

It has had the Weber carb swap and the PO told me they need to be adjusted. I went ahead and bought rebuilt kits, but not enough time today. The choke and timing needed some adjustment too, so looked at that first to generate a list for an Oreily run.

Pulled off the distributor cap to look at the points and realized the rotor didn't fit right, real loose, loose enough that I can't believe it didn't take out the cap. After purchasing a new one to compare, it definitely was way wrong. Some people shouldn't be allowed to own tools!

Went ahead and picked up a new condenser too, as the old one was going bad, acting up after a few miles of driving.

Changed the oil and filter too. Didn't look bad, no chunks cam out, so good sign. Coolant good, don't really need antifreeze in Hawaii though.

Whoever designed the location and direction of the oil filter should be shot! What a pain. Must of been a time when MB was trying to get more customers into the shop!

Over the next couple of weeks I'll flush the brake lines with new fluid, change the trans and rear diff fluid, and adjust the valves.

Not enough time into this yet, to verify, but has a little smoke on startup, not sure if fuel or oil.

I haven't driven the car 15 miles yet and have been asked about the car at least 5 times so far. Pretty cool.

Off to Kauai for a three day weekend for a little R & R.

[Coasttocoast]

I'm stuck on the disassembly of the M110 engine until I receive the spring compressor I ordered to pull out the rocker arms.

I had a little time today to perform some more maintenance on the car. I swapped the points and condenser for the Hot Spark unit and new coil. Quick and easy install. Less than an hour including resetting the timing.

Then I went on to do a compression test while I was changing plugs.

1 - 155 lbs
2 - 100 lbs
3 - 160 lbs
4 - 160 lbs
5 - 100 lbs
6 - 150 lbs

I tested by removing all plugs, opening up the throttle, cranked 8 times.

As number 2 and 5 are low I dropped in about a teaspoon of oil into both of those cylinders. Retested, 2 went up to 160 lbs and 5 went up to 170 lbs. The oil test shows a problem with the rings, not the valves, FYI.

Since this car has been sitting for a while, and maybe even driven little in the past few years, I hoping that maybe a little use might free up the rings. For good measure I sprayed in a bit of WD40 and let it sit a bit, WD40 fixes everything, right��.

Seems to run a little better, I'll check the compression again in a week or so and see if it comes up. But still runs pretty good, good enough to drive around and get used to the car and modify while I'm building the new engine.

Tomorrow I'm rebuilding the two Webers and adjusting the valves. We will see if that adds any performance increase or not.

[Coasttocoast]

For the carburetor rebuilds I purchased rebuild kits, power valves and new filters. To clean them I picked up one of those gallon containers of carburetor parts cleaner that you can let the parts soak in and a couple of carb cleaner spray cans.

I don't think I've rebuilt a carb since high school on a VW. I did watch a couple YouTube videos, was a good refresher and pointed out a couple things specific to these carbs.

Was nice rebuilding two as I did one at a time so I always had a reference.

Overall they were very dirty, but nothing else appeared out of place or any apparent issues.

I followed the instructions on first settings for idle speed and idle mixture, disconnected the coil to cap lead, and let it crank a minute or so to fill the fuel bowls, reconnected the wire, and started right up.

The engine is now more responsive to throttle input, but I have a slight hesitation just off idle. I ran out of time to continue setting, and I need to adjust the valves first before any fine tuning and synchronizing.

One dirty one clean, and the rags

[jack.stew48]

Really cool project! i wish i had the time and money to do something like this!

[Coasttocoast]

Originally Posted by jack.stew48

Really cool project! i wish i had the time and money to do something like this!

Thanks! Yea, time and money pretty much controls everything, doesn't it? Right now my real job is taking all my time. At least for another week.

[Coasttocoast]

I haven't had enough time at once to feel comfortable to adjust the valves. But I did go ahead and spend some more time on the carbs. Using a Baum synchronizer I adjusted the linkage to even the pair out. The slight hesitation off throttle is 90% gone now. Tidied up the engine bay a bit and reinstalled the filter assembly.

[Coasttocoast]

The car is really clean, thought I would share some current pics.