Not "another" diesel 107!!

[Druk]

I’ll start by saying it’s November 2011. For a long time I’ve been toying with the notion of fitting a diesel engine to my R107 280SL. So now I’ve made a start.
Hopefully I’ll keep the words to a minimum and let the pictures do the talking.

Out with the old. It helps to have a two post hoist in the house garage. The easiest way is raise the car and leave the engine/subframe complete sitting on blocks.





The chosen new engine. An OM606.962 from a 1999 E Class W210 mated to a Getrag 717.412 ‘dog-leg’ box rescued from a W124 320TE complete with changer turret and flywheel/clutch.






Initial fitting determined the sump was badly fouling the 107 crossmember and that the easy way out would be to cut a largish chunk from the crossmember. Having just done that and welded up the damage I then discovered a recent upgrade to the UK annual vehicle testing regime (MOT) expressly prohibited modifications to any chassis member to within 12” of a suspension or brake mounting point. The car would never pass it’s test. Off to the breakers yard for another subframe and off with the sump for modifications and welding.



Despite being bolted back-to-back with a spare sump and having post-weld heat treatment the flange of the sump distorted more than ½” over it’s length. Back to the drawing board.

Construct new sump from 1” flatbar flange and 2mm steel plate. .




Note the exponential slope to the rear shallow part to allow for good oil drainage.



PortaPower hydraulic body kit and homemade press stand makes for easy metal forming.



With the engine now clearing the body and subframe a few tests with a straightedge shows that there is little hope of the original driveshaft being anywhere near close enough to align properly. There’s no choice but to make completely new engine feet and eventually a totally different design driveshaft.




Fabricated from 6mm and 4mm steel here are the new engine feet.







All sat on new mounts from a 500SL with new brackets to connect to the engine shockers.




And a new rear crossmember after I discovered some bad corrosion in the original..





More later...



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[tjts1]

Thats some impressive work. Is this going to be a turbo engine or NA?

[Druk]

Thanks. Hopefully better still to come. It's the turbo and intercooled 300TD engine but with the IP from a 606 N/A suitably uprated.



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[DeliveryValve]

Great job so far, thanks for sharing your work!

[charmalu]

This looks great, and you are an incredible fabricator and welder.
Very clean looking installation.


Charlie

[Stretch]

Looks like fun

Originally Posted by Druk

... but with the IP from a 606 N/A suitably uprated.

.

Who did this?

[t walgamuth]

Cool stuff!

[gatorblue92]

Impressive work! That is a clean looking M110 BTW!

[JB3]

fantastic job! this thing will be a blast to drive!

[zakkkk]

Top quality work.
The car will fly with that turbodiesel engine and be quieter then the 110 .
What was the reason for the swap, may I ask ?

[Druk]

So far...

I'll update tomorrow (UK time ).

Did it just because I thought I could, and...a distaste for petrol engines. The M110 is very rev conscious with not much oomph below 3000rpm: which makes for stressful driving on most UK roads. Much better with dollops of torque and low revs. The pump was converted by a local pump shop, but more on that later.....

[mike-81-240d]

Amazing

[Druk]

This engine change is an ideal opportunity to do some detailing work around the engine bay. When the car was originally rebuilt back in 2004 it was repainted in Toyota Hilux ‘Taliban Silver’ and this is a shade or two darker than the Bright Silver original of the bay. The power steering box was sent away for recon and the brake servo removed prior to fitting the new pedal box with clutch. What I suppose is Merc’s idea of a sound deadening membrane had mostly detached itself from the bulkhead so this was removed and after degreasing and masking a coat of (supposedly) inert primer sprayed on.




Inert my arse! The whole thing blistered up. After consulting my sprayer mate it was all rubbed back and stripped properly this time including the wiring looms, which involves removing the headlights.




and painted properly by said mate who gave it a barcoat, a primer, two colour coats and three of two pack lacquer. The vacuum water valve here seen on the bulkhead (this is a UK non-aircon car) was later to be removed and replaced by electric control.




As above: the bulkhead is now covered with marine sound deadening foam. Double layer stuff with a center lead-loaded membrane. Being ¾” thick it need special extended fixings for bulkhead mounted wiring clamps and pipes etc.



And the gearbox tunnel was de-rusted, painted, and covered in insulating foam.




Two buckets of nuts, bolts and fixings went off to the platers for passivated zinc coating.




Now is time to remove the petrol pump pack and tank fittings and convert to diesel.
This is when I discovered the diesel in-tank filter is a different mesh count to the petrol one. Diesel on the right. You might have seen this pic before on Mach 4’s excellent conversion thread. Around this time was when we first made email contact exchanging ideas as we went. I would like at this point to publicly thank him for all the support he’s provided along the way.



And my interpretation of the tank outlet pipe. A bit of a Christmas tree but made easier by the ready availability of matching metric components within the UK.



The steering box returns, brake booster painted and installed and the header tank from the W210 donor fitted to the inner wing on home-made brackets. I think it looks nicer then the original 107 and takes up less room across the bay. Separate clutch fluid tank on the bulkhead later repositioned to alongside the header. I dislike Merc's method of feeding the clutch from the brake fluid tank.

[mach4]

Originally Posted by Druk

....you might have seen this pic before on Mach 4’s excellent conversion thread. Around this time was when we first made email contact exchanging ideas as we went. I would like at the point to publicly thank him for all the support he’s provided along the way.

I can assure you that from my perspective you provided a heck of a lot more support in the process. But alas, both cars are done and the 107 diesel club is quite an exclusive one at this point in time - but always room for more enterprising souls to be a part of a most amazing driving experience.

[ROLLGUY]

WOW!!! I can't wait to see the results of all your work. The project is very impressive so far. Your attention to detail is nice to see, with all the parts being plated and such. Keep up the good work!