M117 V8 into 124
 

A 124 coupe minus engine is available; can get a euro 380SE V8 complete car for cheap; will the 117V8+transmission drop into the 124 engine bay seeing the 400E M119V8 engine was put into 124 same chassis?. Seen quite a few 124's with M119 V8 and even M120V12 conversions in European YouTube. This has to be a low buck project for me. Been into Mercs all my life so it seems keeping all MB will be easier and cheaper than the American V8 engine route. Anyone out there has tried this?

It may fit but the 380 is really the worse engine you want to put in there. It's a M116, not M117. The 380s had many problems with sigle row timing chains.

To fit the M117 into an early 124 requires a great deal of sheet metal modification to the engine bay.

The M119 is a slightly easier fit then the M117

The original W124 AMG Hammers had either an M117 or M116 V8 stuffed into them.

Did they require that much work to fit the engines in?

That is interesting. I fitted an M117 in a W111 Coupe and another one in a W113 Pagoda on the assumption the M119 was not going to fit : the DOHC heads have the exhaust manifolds further on the side and I guess they would have interfered with the chassis rail as I have less than 1/2 inch clearance with the M117 manifolds. The W124 must be different. In what respect is it slightly easier to fit? Do you know if I could fit it in a W113?

I believe all euro 380s had dual row and nearly 50 more HP than the US version.

Oh, it's different then.

Also, sometime around 1984, all U.S. 3.8 liter engines were fitted with dual row timing chains from the factory.

The 380 engine gets a bad rep (well deserved) over the US timing chain and poor performance. Not all 380's have a single chain, they can be converted, and once done it's no worse in that area than a 560. The performance of the US 380 can be blamed on the compression (a little) and the cam (a LOT). I've put Euro cams in a 380 I'm rebuilding, and the lobes are radically different. The US 380 lobes are incredibly pointy with very high ramps, which no doubt leads to the 5500 RPM limit and fast-wear on those cams. I will say that the M116 is little physically smaller than the M117, which might matter. A comparison of the intake manifolds is very revealing.

I suspect but can't prove that if one were to put US 420 cams in a 380 engine and advance the cams a bit, there would probably be a 25-30 HP surprise in it.

M117 5.0 to 6.0 DOHC with a great deal of engine bay modification along with rear subframe changes.

The M119 is slightly easier to fit as it was a factory engine in the 400E, E420, 500E, E500 and E60 W124.

The M117 SOHC and DOHC were only aftermarket AMG installs in the 124.

I think Mechatronik installs the 3.2 V6 in the W113 with success.

Ed A.

Thanks for all comments. I've seen the M119 (400E V8) conversion into 124 but it was very involved requiring changing engine sub-frame plus all electronics? . M117 Euro 380 is double row timing chain + a much narrower (at the heads) engine than a 500-560 engine plus 215HP, + mechanical rather than electronic FI could make it easier swap. There are some YouTube videos of working European M120 V12 conversions into 124 chassis so if that monster V12 fits into a 124 I'm assuming much narrower M117 will fit without much hammering and expense since all parts would come off a Euro 380 126. This has to be a low budget swap to make sense for me; no bottomless cash drawer available.!

it's free to pull a motor and drop it into an engine compartment. Installing an exhaust that fits will cost you 8 gaskets for the exhaust manifolds and a couple of bolts & nuts. So get that far and see what happens.

Fun things will be wires, hoses & the drive shaft hook up.

Presuming it fits, but that will only cost you time and sweat.

-CTH (A guy with coupe in one driveway and a euro M117 5.0 in another)

Not sure the M117 is narrower than the M120. The V12 is A 60* angle V and the M117 is a 90* angle V. the M120 is DOHC though.

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Look at the engine bay on this 124