I talked to Jay also. He did not want to help with setting up a w124. I think there would be no problems. I am curious about wheel and tire sizes and
interference also. Jay told be that it could not handle really any larger wheels in front. I have 8.5 inch wide wheels. I might just buy the top plates from them and make my own front inserts with standard strut inserts.

Sometimes it seems like their customer service is a bit hit and miss. No doubt they get a lot of dreamers calling up and wasting time.

Any larger wheels than what? One of the guys on the 190Rev forum is talking about trying to run 245/40R17 tyres all round on his 16v with the GC setup. So he would have to be running at least 8" wide wheels.

I very much doubt they'll sell the top plate separately. They have indicated as much on their Facebook page.

For info, the package with single adjustable Konis was about $1800.

So Jay from Ground Control sent me a teaser photo of my suspension on the weekend.



With luck, it should arrive in my hands later this week. I'd better get busy on some other suspension jobs!

A couple more pictures of the exhaust manifolds





Might need a small bit of tidy up inside.

And some pics of the clutch. This setup cost me $1800, is mostly custom utilising an old cast aluminium Sachs racing pressure plate and provides 4000lbs clamping pressure up from the standard pressure plate which was measured at 1600lbs.






A bit of material has been taken from the flyhweel as well (if you're familiar with the normal appearance of a W201 flywheel, you'll be able to see where the material has been removed.

Nice manifold work! That button puck clutch is what I'm torque'n 'bout

Have you (you prolly have) considered separating the runners from the manifold flange for heat dissipation & prevent possible cracking? I'm going to try & get my fabricator to do this, if I can get him before hand.......

__________________

um.....why have men got nipples

Given how thick the flange is and the fact I used steampipe and the manifolds are so small and light (comparatively), I'm not overly concerned that they'll crack.

Small jobs, but progress!

I had the rear hub assemblies rebuilt with new bearings etc. I asked them to leave the brake backing plate off when the put them back together but it was necessary to have it in order for the handbrake cable to remain in place.

So this:


Becomes this:


Why no backing plates? Because racecar.

Well, actually, the new brakes are too big for the existing backing plates......

Also started getting the suspension arms ready for new bushes. Here are 4 of the five arms that comprise the rear suspension:


Adjustable rear camber arm compared to standard:


The little Supercheap jobbie press with a specially bought socket for pressing


I had a quick go at putting one of the new bushes in the rear arms, but I need to refine my technique a bit and ran out of time. Bushes chilling out in the freezer now.

A bit of fun with a hammer and punch getting the old bushes out of the front lower control arms......


Success!

for the front wishbones, did you use the punch to shift the steel insert, then were able to remove the rubber part?

i have been scratching my head all week wondering how to get the bushes out of there, had to buy a demo saw to get the arms off, three of the four bolts were seized solid!

__________________
ce 320 amg
widebody
tiwn turbo
Mutty 'der nail'
soon to be a six speed nail


"some mods improve your car and make it into something it never was, other mods, however, although essentially the same, are not, and make that car a ricer"

if your car isnt shiny, you dont know what you are talking about, remember; paint shine = knowledge. In order to be taken seriously, you should spend all your money on paint, (and get a dyno reading).
Dont forget to polish it often

The sleeve that goes up the middle is really quite soft. I used the punch to fold over one of the ends. If you have a close look at the two photos I posted, you will see that the raised lip is actually part of the old bush assembly. So I just put the punch on it and bashed it out as well. Getting them all out was probably a 30 minute job.

My car has obviously not seen as hard a life, getting the bolts undone and out was a piece of cake!

Whose rear camber arms are those?

They are from a user AkeRT on the 190Rev forum. He is based in Thailand. I have his whole polyurethane suspension bush kit as well.

thanks for the advice, i am gonna have to buy two new arms, as the old ones are quite rusty, so will be removing new bushes, but will be repalcing them with poly bushes

i also have the complete set from ake, all look good quality, time will tell how they hold up.

__________________
ce 320 amg
widebody
tiwn turbo
Mutty 'der nail'
soon to be a six speed nail


"some mods improve your car and make it into something it never was, other mods, however, although essentially the same, are not, and make that car a ricer"

if your car isnt shiny, you dont know what you are talking about, remember; paint shine = knowledge. In order to be taken seriously, you should spend all your money on paint, (and get a dyno reading).
Dont forget to polish it often

did the front passenger side today, popped the centre tube out as you described, and the factory rubber bush was two piece, same as the poly bush so really easy to remove, i was expecting it to be one piece, and a pita to get out!

the reason for the bolts seizing is the road salt they use in the winter over hear, it causes rust on all cars, a friend did his 190, and two of his bolts were also seized.

__________________
ce 320 amg
widebody
tiwn turbo
Mutty 'der nail'
soon to be a six speed nail


"some mods improve your car and make it into something it never was, other mods, however, although essentially the same, are not, and make that car a ricer"

if your car isnt shiny, you dont know what you are talking about, remember; paint shine = knowledge. In order to be taken seriously, you should spend all your money on paint, (and get a dyno reading).
Dont forget to polish it often

Been beavering away on this getting some more small jobs done. Spent a bit of time organising and photographing a bunch of nuts, bolts, washers and brackets so I could chuck them all in a box and send them away to be zinc plated. Should be a fun job sorting them out when they come back!

Managed to spend an hour or so bashing the old bushes out of the rear subframe. MIG welder is back from repair today so I can make a start on the reinforcement of the subframe.

I also started rebuilding my shifter with new Delrin bushes from a guy in the US. I also had a go at lengthening the lower shift arms, but I suck at TIG welding still. Will cut and have another go at it with the MIG.

Finally, my suspension kit arrived today! 5 days to get from US to AUS then 2 weeks for customs to screw me!

One of the problems I have with my lack of time to make good progress on this project is that I have way to much time to think about different ideas and this leads me to uncertainty in whatever my current chosen direction is. One thing that doesn't change is this is gonna be a track car. But where I am at right now is do I pursue the turbo path or do I stick with NA.

NA
To my mind, an NA is a bit more pure, more sticking with the whole racing 190E thing (even if I am going a 6cyl variant), not likely to overpower the chassis and have me constantly worrying about breaking drivetrain components etc. With a set of ITB's and a nice set of tuned length headers, it'll sound pretty awesome and along with the weight reductions I'm doing, probably go ok too. Be able to run on readily available pump fuel etc.

But if I want more power, things start to get a bit spendy. I could chuck a C36 engine in, but if I wanted more power again, then higher compression pistons, cams etc are all gonna be custom. And maybe, just maybe, I could get 400hp at the engine for a lot of $$$$.

Turbo
I'm not aiming for big goals here, was looking at more strong mid range torque than top end power. Stock internals M104 with a new headgasket and head stud kit. Keep 10.0:1 compression ratio and run E85 fuel which is not available in many locations here.

Probably something like 400 - 450hp at the engine quite easy, but potential for lots of driveline damaging torque. I'll have to be a bit sympathetic to keep it all in line.

Will still sound good no doubt. Power level more likely to keep me happy for longer.

However, that kind of turbo power is gonna generate a lot of heat. And there's **** all room at the front of a 6 cyl W201 as it is before you try and add decent thickness radiators, intercoolers, oil coolers, fans etc. etc. And all that extra weight from the turbos and coolers, a lot of which is in front of the front axle line, when I'm already handling compromised from the 6cyl engine....and I've got to fit two turbos and all the associated plumbing down the right hand side of the engine - where my steering box is!

Lots of potential for expensive broken bits and lots of down time.

Verdict?
If I'm spending all this time and by my standards a decent amount of money building this car, I want to be able to take it to as many track days as I can afford and be able to rape it all day. And I want to get the ****ing thing on track as soon as I can as well! What lot of people I think don't understand is that turbo or supercharged motor on the street or in a drag race is only ever getting a full throttle squirt for a short period of time and then a decent rest.

A circuit car is going to be at full throttle for somewhere between 50 and 80% of a lap and is going to be doing that lap after lap after lap.

The heat and stresses are so much greater and I think many people don't realise that. I got so excited about more power that I overlooked it myself.

After a lot of soul searching, I think, and some close friends are in agreement, that I'd be better served going back to a mild NA build for now, try and add as much lightness as possible and get out there and enjoy it.

In other news, I did do some things and bought some stuffs.

I finished rebuilding my shifter mechanism with new bushes, regreased and lengthened the shift arms to shorten the throw.

Goes from this:


To this:


Bit of a **** to get it all back together. Lots of rods, springs and slots to get all lined up.

We'll see if it all works!


I have a goal in mind to get all of the suspension and brakes done so i can put the car back on the ground by the end of the year. To this end, I picked up some tyres that should be fine for a bit of driving on the street when I eventually get it back on the road to iron the bugs out and alright for a few initial track days as well.

For the front:


And the rear:


I was gonna get the tyres mounted on the wheels so they were all ready to go. But while I liked the Work wheels as they were, they didn't quite fit the picture I had in my head of how I wanted the completed car to look. So I changed the colour of them!





I've started sandblasting my calipers and they are currently sitting in my parts washer (mostly so they don't get rusty again!) waiting a quick rebuild and a lick of paint.