The best MB engine by decade
 

Whats your opinion for the best built gas motor and why, starting from the 70 models on up to current MB ones.

Late 60's early 70'6s M100 Because its built like a brick **** house and looks cool.

80's like most auto engines of the day they all sucked.

90's M120 V12. Last MB engine to look good without plastic covers. Runs gracefully smooth, has the right sound and looks awesome. And it has 12 cylinders. See "M120 into 560SL with pic's" Thread for picture.

00's M275. 600+ HP, 12 cylinders. Plastic cover not worth including a photo. Looks like my Nissan engine cover.

m104 still cast iron,3.6 amg

One needs to define " Best XXXX " ( Power , economy , durability , art qualities. )

A friend of mine has a mid 2000 Dodge pickup with whatever V8 gas motor was installed in those years. It has over 300,000 miles and has never come apart for internal repairs.

The one with the most cylinders wins:)

M110 with D-jet. Easy megasquirt conversion to sequential injection and COP.
Cast iron, borable block, everything else aluminum. DOHC, friend who rebuilt it said it's one of the best castings he's ever seen. Downers; getting hard to find, impossible with D-jet.

70s m110 because its a good higher revving engine and I can't really count the m100 as a 70s engine.

80s 16v Cosworth engine wins based on specific output and actual racing heritage

90s 3.2 or 3.6 M104. Its a DOHC iron block aluminum head I6 that can handle boost and has real EFI. Forged crank and rods like any other merc.

00's M113 5.5. The M113 is considered a fairly efficient engine and I haven't heard one that sounds bad.

Obviously biased but I like this list. +1

With the metric of being "best built" I'd rank the following:

70's before my time, and rarely worked on any so no real opinions.

80's I'd give it to the M103. Single cam over an inline 6 cyl engine puts the least dynamic load into the timing drive. Head gaskets and valve guides are inherent problems of all engines of the era.

90's M112. Great utilitarian motor that just never has any problems with the basic powerplant unit.

00's 113K The 113 Kompressor motor is goddamned bulletproof.

10's They all suck.

Almost everything Mercedes had in the 70s actually came out in the 60s, so 70s is tough for me to answer. The M127/129/130 is a personal favorite from owning and restoring W113s. The M116/117s are also very durable, but those came out in the end of the 60s as well.

Personally I don't care for the M110, especially in USA trim, its heavier and dramatically more complicated than the M130 and in USA trim makes a lot less power. In Euro trim, its a lot of weight and hassle for like 10HP. I've rebuilt one M110 and though it was a giant pain, but I've only done one. Whereas you can do and M127/129/130 in a fraction of the time it takes to get the head and cam carrier together on a 110.

Though I also don't know that Mercedes made anything inherently "bad" up until the mid 2000s. They all sort of just did their job. As duxthe1 said, people dog M103s for HG issues, talk to every other 80s car enthusiast of a car with an alloy head, its a thing.

For 80s, 90s, and 00s, I'll second duxthe1's choices. I'd throw the M113 and M102 in there as well since they're modular engines.

Funny thread. Me I would say diesels. om617, om603, om606, om648.
What ever was earlier was probably awesome to. I was always eh on them before pretty recently. yeah the 617 was a run for ever work horse But in the last couple of years I have been playing with them and I am making around 700ft/lb wtq with a stock om606 and have a 648 swap in my own car. I threw the 603 in there because after it has a good head or never gets warm they really are quiet and smooth.
Gas. The 6.3 in the 60s.. Just awesome looking engine. 70s the mechanical injected inline engines are all great. 80s 16v. 90s m104. 2000s m275.

I'd have to disagree with you guys about the 102 motor. The piston is too heavy for the amount of stroke it has. Keep winding one up and it will eventually spit out a rod.

This question is highly subjective. To me, "best" means that if I had a car from that decade, I would wish it had this engine in it:

70s: the 6.9 M100 is awesome but expensive, low revving, and paired with a loaf of a trans. In the end I think I'd take an injected M110.

80s: M117

90s: M113. Even though I think the M120 is really cool, I can't call it better than the M113.

00s: M113, or the AMG M156

10s: M159

Hard to define a "best" since that means different things to different folks. What's the criteria? For me, "best" motor excludes gasoline models. ;)

For the 90s, I'd have to say the om606. Can tune to 500 hp and 700 ft/lb with just bolt-on mods. And still deliver 35 mpg.
For the 00's, it's the om648.

If Mercedes is the best or nothing...

Whatever engines are in their flagships should be easy enough.

6.9s m100
5.6s m117
5.0-6.0 m119s
6.0-7.3 m120s
Supercharged m113s
Etc.
Compared to what else was being built at the time of the above engines were released, those Benz motors are complex, powerful, no expense spared pieces of mechanical art.

M102,3,4 are great utilitarian engines. Can't say the cosworth is the best Mercedes motor, with English design head.