Building a w124 drift car
 

I've been talking about doing this for a while and I'm ready to pull the trigger.

These are the options I was thinking...

M103 with a redrilled diesel manifold to run turbo at low boost. However manual transmissions are nearly impossible to find. Why does no one make bellhousing adapters??

Or

Yank out the MB powertrain, sell it, and drop in a SBC/T5.
This solves both the transmission and aftermarket search hurdle I'd run into with a m103 or M104.

Can I get the scoop on the diff? How much abuse can it take, and can it be welded? Will it work with a Chevy application?

Also is there a quick and easy way to improve steering radius? I remember reading up on that s123 diesel drift wagon running Volvo 240 components, however I'm not sure how much fabrication was involved, and if the w123 is similar to the w124.

If I were you, I'd start with a 400e. The engine bay is much bigger and ready for almost any motor swap. The differential is stronger, and I've welded one before.

A m103 is a gutless turd. I wouldn't waste time with one.

400e's are not easy to find. I did find however a 94 e320 running for $250.
The engine bay should be the same aside from the core support and cross member no?
I think I'm gonna go LS3/T56. It's much more expensive but I think the best option. Maybe I can even try and find a 400e diff.

The 400/500e's have a different firewall to give more space for a v8 engine. They also have bigger spindles, different sway bars,, hub bearings, a stronger rear subframe, and the bigger 1.3L differential. They also come with a rear mounted battery already.

The only reason I would consider dealing with a 6cyl car is because that's all the coupes came in.

But if 4 doors don't bother you, find a beater 400e.

Hmm. Well there's no 400e's even for sale near me... so I guess maybe I can build a tubular subframe and order a 400e sway bar and spindles, then maybe take the angle grinder to the firewall if I have to haha.

V8 cars do have a bigger hole for swaps.

Turbobandit makes insane power on a m104 w124 with the 210mm diff. Not all w124s have this diff and no m103 cars do but the v8s should. A big downside to this is you can't find 210mm lsds like you can 185mm. The rear end ratios also suck on v8 210mm diffs.

As for the trans you can cut and adapter and use a custom flywheel on the flex plate. Ive seen this done on other applications with good results. Starter mounting does become difficult however.

If I were doing this Id get a late m104 w124, they make 217hp, and swap in a welded 3.07 210mm diff from a v6 w210 4 matic. For the trans I'd go with a getrag from a v8 e34 and bellhousing adapter plate like I mentioned above. Or just do what everyone else does and get a s chassis.

A V8 e34 getrag will bolt to an m104 with an adapter plate? Where do I find the adapter plate?

You'll have to make the plate and flywheel. Like I was saying you can make the plate out of 3/8" to 1/2" aluminum and use some countersunk holes, dowels, and creativity to line it up. Then decide what clutch you want on your transmission. With that you can either modify an oem flywheel to bolt to the flex plate, machine a steel round to convert the flex plate to a flywheel, or have a sexy custom flywheel made for $$$$. Then you need to decide where the starter goes.

Someone at some point made an adapter to put a mk3 supra trans on a om617. A friend seems to have located one but that's not something I'd count on finding.

Some people say to heck with it and weld bellhousings and make flywheel spacers/adapers for the crank. That's not a preferred option. You'll never get things concentric and when the clutch flys apart the modified bellhousing isn't stopping it.

This isn't s13 cheap or easy. That's why I've driven to Virginia from Indiana to get a rust free manual 2.6 190e for what people ask for the transmission on the forums. I also went to Georgia to get a hardtop hatch S12 200sx 5 speed 4 banger rice rocket.

The m103 seems to be a good choice, turbobandit uses it and some other swedish/norwegian guys, i spoke to a guy that made a 'budget' drift build i cant remember the name anymore.
The stock engine on e85 is capable of at least 500hp, the thing with using the stock engine for drifting is the oil will be pushed to the back so there might be a chance of loosing oil pressure, the m104 engine doesnt have this problem.

You can just use the aluminium m103 plenum right? its a start, you can always upgrade to a turbobandit-like plenum.

About the adapter plates, there are definately some on the market for bmw gearboxes, gs5 and gs6. Dieselpumpuk and bakaxel sell these (im not sure if im allowed to mention it here).
I've looked for this myself, but its still a bit too expensive including the sachs, there is a kit of it.

Turbobandit manifolds are expensive and they're overseas. I've learned I can redrill a OM606 turbo manifold for the M104.

Not really, this was tried before but the 606 ports are round and smaller than the 104 rectangular. Compare exhaust manifold gaskets.

Maybe you can get a flange laser-cut and then weld a log manifold with weld-els? Not optimal flow, but it would certainly work.

A 7m and 2jz have simmilar port spacing. If you wanted to chop and weld rather than custom fab something maybe you could use m104 flanges on a 2jz manifold. Bonus points for twin turbo action.

I mean not really. Despite the fact that the 2JZ has a big space between the 3-4 cylinder, the 2JZ is a much smaller bore space block.

If your'e thinking it has a similar bore space to an RB26 block, that would be correct however, as you can in fact bolt an M104/M103 head on an L-series, or RB block.

Interesting. I had a 7M and when cleaning out the garage I placed the exhaust manifold gasket on my m104 head and remember it was very close. Maybe the 2jz has a smaller bore spacing. Either way adapting a manifold with m104 flanges seems like a good option.