John,

The linkage in the 126 is quite a bit different that the 107, plus I have two cables and the TV cable I want to locate at one point. Looking at the heater flow on the 126 I did have the flow backwards, the Y at the back of the engine IS the water in to the heater core. I am building a manifold to join the heater return and the expansion tank hoses with the lower radiator hose. I have not found any radiators that will work in the 107 so far, you might want to go junk yarding before it gets too cold and look around.

I have been hunting for machinery for the last few weeks and the car has sat with no progress. I have done a few little details but no major break troughs.

Steve

Only the engine wiring has been removed so far. It does look a bit empty without an evaporator. It should have only slightly less wiring than a 126. I do belive I will run the car initially without heat or AC just so I have more room to shake down all the wiring issues. Yes that means putting the dash back on without the AC or heater. Thats OK I'm getting used to these dashes. I re did all the vacume elements on this care last year and again on my black one 2 years ago. I guess its a yearly ritual.

John Roncallo

The 126 is a little different in that you dont have an intermidiate bell crank. You will face the same challanges and in fact you can probably do something very similare to what I will be doing. I originally dident want to go under the dash at all, but the arm of the bell crank that protruded into the engine bay interfeared with the heater hoses. My original plan was to actuate a lever mechanism on the firewall just above this point. From there I could run one or two cables as required and if I had a large enough lever radius, the throttle throw would not be an issue. I too will also need two cables in the futer because my plan is to abandon throttle by wire and go with an aftermarket ECU.

The challange to me and I'm assuming you as well will be in getting enough throw. I would like to keep it simple by just extending the arm where I attache the cable to my bell crank. I can double the throw by looping the throttle cable to a grounding point and wraping the cable over a pulley on the bell crank, but I see these techniques as a last resourt in that they really become safety issues an need to be very robust.

In any case for you, if you need to go under the dash, I recomend going under the dash with one simple cable arrangement and splitting under the hood. Where you split is most likely an oportune place to increase throw ratio.

This is an area where you need to pay attension and be very carefull. I've seen too many DIY techs build throttle linkages that have a tendancy of going over center or just near over center and sticking. In fact the 560SL is capable of being adjusted to a neer over center condition which can cause the throttle to stick wide open for a long enough time to stain you shorts.

Yes I will be "T"ing into the hose that goes from my expansion tank to the lower radiator hose or in my case since I need a custom radiator, the hose will just go to another point on the radiator neer the lower hose. Thanks for looking into that radiator for me.

Yes I know how you feel I get depressed when I see that all I really did in the past few weeks was a few brackets. I have been kind of sick lately with sevar sleep apnia. But tomarrow I get a machine wich allegedly will change my life. It's essentially a supercharger for humens. It pumps air down your lungs while you sleep. I will be keeping my eye out for one of those "Kompressor" badges so I can put it on the machine. I'm kind of siked tomarrow I should be back in high gear with a 4 day weekend in front of me. Alright three days, I have to do the Thanksgiving thing, but the wife is working.

My goals for the weekend are to complete fabrication of throttle cable system and radiator supports. With those complete the only fabrication left will be exhaust, oil cooler manifold and AC compressor maniforld. All of which can be done after starting it if I were to get anxious.

John Roncallo

John,

In a post here on on my car I mentioned that issue I was having with the length of throw on the cable and much of that is to minimize the arc so the over center problem is no where possible. The throttle pedal on the 126 is offset to the drivers side a good 4 inches and inside the car the expansion block is right above the pedal, I have thought about something in that area but it just seems too busy. I may have to join the two cables somewhere in the engine area but again I want enough length on the cables so the can move around and not pull individually. I am going to look at a little Hardinge lathe tomorrow not my first choice but it is close by and a good machine. I still have to fix my buddy's lathe but parts are the hold up.

Steve

Today, I got as far as I could go with the throttle cable installation. Which was far enough to measure and size the cable so it could be ordered. The throttle cable installation is really quite simple with the exception of being able to get at it. It is simply a triangulare plate with 3 holes in it that bolts to the bellcrank plus one bent bracket for the cable stop. Once everything is all brained out, and fitted and refitted several times, it can all be fabricated in about 2 hours or a sloppy job in about 15 min. The difficulty is in trying to measure anything and drill and fit under the dash.

Right now everything is cleco in place waiting for the throttle cable to arive so I can finish the last tweeks. I used a washer hose just screwed right to the throtle stop bracket so I could route the hose and get a cable length measurement. The cable will be comming in through an existing hole in the fire wall. The hole is originally used for the cruise control harness, which I spent several hours carefully removing.

Since this is a throttle by wire system, I cannot use the cruise system from the 560SL, however when I switch computers and go with standard throttle bodies, I will have to reinstall the harness and use the 560SL system. The harness and throttle cable are able to go through the same hole by simply modifying the harness pass through gromet.

Tomarrow I will be making side brackets for an aluminum radiator. Once I get those made, I will be able precicely measure the radiator size. The side brakets will weld right to the side of an aluminum radiator and allow the radiator to be mounted using the existing MB mounting rubbers. Lower brackets will also be required but those will have to be made when I see the radiator. The lower brackets are very simple and may just be two 1/4" lengths of 1.5" ID aluminum tube welded to the bottom of the radiator.

John Roncallo

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Today I completed the radiator side brakets. These will be used to weld onto the side of an aluminum radiator, allowing the radiator to be supported in the same rubber mounts the stock BEHR radiator is supported in.

John Roncallo

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Wow....money must really not be an issue for you if you are running Catia out of your home

__________________
1999 C43 AMG ~~~ 744 on black, mostly stock
1991 190e 2.6 ~~~ m117 5.6 project car

Throttle cable complete.

Those 2 brackets in the attached picture are probably the simplest fabrication pices I made so far and to reproduce would be real simple. But the entire throttle cable job was a real pain in the butt. Mostly due to the impossibility of measuring anything. Everything was just a matter of patiently cuting and trying. And then of course there was removal of the evaporator.

In the goals of this cable were to have a simple solution with as few pivot points as possible. Get full throttle with enough overtravel for kickdown and return to idel with minimal slop. The other goal was to pass the cable throught the cruise control harness port in such a way that the cruise control harness can be reinstalled at a later date. I will most likely have to go back to the 560SL cruise system when I go to an aftermarket ECU.

Now I'm looking for a guy to build a good quality radiator. Copper brass with 5/16" OC tubes is prefered. Anyone?

John Roncallo

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Catia is actually from work, I have taken the opertunity to practice using it by making some of the part designs like the radiator support.

As far as money not being an issue. Well it is but I paid the price up front when I bought the doner car. The doner car cost about $8300 delivered. But I have been slowly parting it out to pay for the project.

The only expenses I have really incurred to this date is stuff on the engine that was damaged in the accident, which amounted to about $1000.00. It does add up fast on an M120. Exhaust system stainless steel was about $500.00. I also purchased stuff to do complete front end overhaul, not part of the modification but about $1000.00 just to make it good (I only use genuine MB parts). Tools and equipment and consumable stuff like welding supplies, I bought to do the job were probably my biggest expenses. So so far I have pretty much stayed within the amount of money I got parting out the doner. I have one more big expense comming up and thats the radiator. If I can find someone to build what I'm looking for I do belive it will be over $600.00. From that point on its all nickle and dime stuff up to when I get it running.

Now when the car is running and well shaken out, then will come the refinancing of the house. Thats when it all comes appart right down to the last nut an bolt to get repainted, rechromed, rewheeled retired etc.

John Roncallo

I have since modified the radiator drawing as shown. I do belive there are still a few tweaks involved. I will have to find someone with an SL600 that I can take some measurments of. But this latest radiator config appears to be within scope of what the builders can make. The reason I need to find an SL600 is because I want to make this configuration usable with the stock SL600 upper hose. The lower hose will use the stock SL600 hose but cut and a 19mm "T" put in for the expansion tank port. The expansion tank port in the drawing will be removed.

My biggest concern now is finding someone to build this and is willing to pay attension to the fine details of this radiator configuration. I also have 5 pages of write up and pictures to go with it.

I have couple of questions for the audiance that perhaps someone can help with.

1) The drawing show a double pass radiator with a short trans cooler in the lower end of the second pass. Has anyone seen this done and is it more effective than a long cooler in the opposite side of the radiator (higher temperature side). I can put the cooler on the other side.

2) Both hoses are inset into the tanks, meaning the hose outlet edge ends up about flush with the tank back surface. Has anyone seen this done, and does anyone know of a radiator shop that will do this without having a heart attack and messing it up.

John Roncallo

Attached Files

Radiator Drawing Rev1.pdf (60.6 KB, 298 views)

Hot-rodders need custom built radiators all the time. Contact your local Speed Equipment shop, they should have a line.

well...i finally browsed onto this thread for the first time (and visited the site for the first time in 6 months!)..

Anyhow, here's some pointers with your ME-controlled M120 with 5-speed 722.6 transmission integration:

1. No, you cannot use the existing wheel speed sensors in your car (the front ABS ones), the ESP system uses different pulses at different rates and frequency. The ESP will be in limp mode, you'll have no throttle.

2. No, you cannot just install rear wheel speed sensors and expect the ESP system to work without all the yaw sensors, steering angle sensor (which goes in the steering column and integrates with a second generation airbag clock springs), the ESP electrohydraulic pump must be used and you need to use a master cylinder/brake booster assembly from an ESP car because it has a pressure release switch that is monitored by the ESP brain. If any of these items are not working, ESP is off, trans doesn't shift, car is in limp mode.

3. Yes, you MUST have STAR Diagnosis with DAS to go into the Development mode and version code the ME to delete features that it may no longer have (various additional sensors, etc.) otherwise count on permanent check engine lamps and possible limp mode condition. The development mode is only on Engineering versions of the DAS. We have one if you need any screen references, I can attempt to find them.

4. Yes, you must use the EIS system with ignition key otherwise, the ME will not receive a start authorization signal and will not fire the engine. It won't even crank.

5. In addition, the rear differential ratio MUST match the one from the donor vehicle or the transmission control unit will detect a mismatch ratio error and shut down the transmission completely and place the engine into limp mode.

There are several other items but these initial ones came to mind within seconds. I would probably forgoe the ESP system, simulate/generate wheel speeds, and go with an aftermarket system to manage the electronics (aka Steve Lemberg).

Satish

Thanks Satish

You just confirmed my worst fears. Actually ESP would be a nice thing to have and I do have all the sensors pump, brake cylinders and booster yaw sensors, steering angle sensors etc. My only problem is I would like to do this after the fact. But it seams the only way to do this is to go all or nothing. Complete MB ECU, Trans Control and ESP system. And if it doesn't work I would at least need the MB Star diagnostic system to do any trouble shooting. ESP would be a very cool feature to have. I believe Motec may have solutions for after market ESP however there stuff is way over my budget.

Plan right now is to just get it running any way possible and even that looks daunting. I will give it a shot with the MB ECU's and Trans controller and as you say fabricated signals or re-adapted wheel speed sensors. If that doesn't work I will go right to a Megasquirt unit. That still will leave me with the transmission to deal with. The new GPIO board from Megasquirt may take care of that if I can figure out the signals or the quick fall back may be the older 4 speed non electronic transmission.

Thanks for the replay
John Roncallo

Dang, the legendary Satish.... Hows that M120 W126 treating you?





John, you wanna make a trip out to the west coast so I can check out that beast of a 107?

__________________
-Justin

91 560 SEC AMG - other dogs dd
01 Honda S2000 - dogs dd
07 MB ML320 CDI - dd
16 Lexus IS250 - wifes dd

it's automatic.

If the ME controller doesn't get a signal from the Transmission control unit, the car will most likely go into limp mode. Therefore, using the older 722.3 4-speed transmission with the newer ME engine management unit may not work correctly.

Satish

....and yes, the V12 SEC runs nice...here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SAn4S-lntM