I'm in the middle of replacing the head gasket on my 1993 190e 2.3 with M102 engine. It has 105k miles and the head gasket was weeping oil from under 4th exhaust port. Disassembling the head, I found this 1/4" think spacer between the intake ports and the the manifold. It looks like some kind of heater to help vaporize fuel on cold starts. Made by Texas Instruments. It has these pipe looking things that stick out into the the airflow which I want to cut out before re installing it. The question is, has anybody dealt with these before? Did all M102s have these? What about M103 or 16 valve? The reason I put think in performance section is because I assume removing these out of the air stream would free up some airflow into the head the head. I'm planning to megasquirt the engine this summer. I can't ditch the spacer all together because it creates some problems with mounting the manifold. I'll have to cut each port out with a dremel.




thanks
Justin

If I remember correctly not all 102s had these. It is a heater. I agree it can not be good for flow. You should look at the epc to see what other options you have or better yet have a phenolic spacer made to take its place.

Well I cut it out, replaced the head gasket and the car runs great. It definitely has a bit more throttle response than before. There was no ill effects.

Greetings, and sorry for reviving an old thread.

So what's the consensus regarding the intake heater? I fear that a old one may cause oil leaks or a vacuum leak. I put mine back on when I did my head gasket but I noticed that the heater is not a solid metal piece. There is plastic sandwiched between the aluminum. The plastic on mine was falling off and very brittle and I am contemplating removing it all together. Can anyone specify exactly what clearance issues I may run into??

thanks

Ricardo