I've got the 380 motor in my 190. It wasn't a terribly difficult swap but I had some serious "connections" that might not be available to everyone. (Father-in-law owns MB repair shop, uncle-in-law owns Mercedes junk yard, cousin-in-law did the work for me... he's a Mercedes freak.) I will be upgrading to the 500 Euro motor sometime soon as I plan on doing a 560 swap into my 500SEC. The 380 seems to put plenty of power out though. I've been to the 1/4 mile and can't seem to get good traction since I'm too cheap to burn the tires before each run and I don't have limited-slip. With a good run its in the high 14's. I thought it would be faster but I'm not that discouraged. The 5.0 from 126 cars is basically the same block so I shouldn't have a problem fitting one. (There's an old Brabus 5.0L 190E with nitrous that comes into the shop sometimes and he says he hasn't had any major problems.) As far as ease of repair, the older 126 V8's are much more cost effective/simple to work on than the 124 V8's. My only problem seems to be the rear end... The stock differential is still holding up but I doubt it will like the 5.0L, nor will the suspension.

__________________
Mike
-W126C 560SEC 040 Black
*6.0L AMG M117 32v Hammer
-W163 ML320 Brilliant Silver
-W124 300E Pearl Black

Damn! are any of your female inlaws available? I DEFINITELY want to marry into THAT family!

Sorry, no sisters or female cousins in the family. Guess I got lucky. 3 years ago I knew where the gas pedal and brake were on my Honda and that was the extent of my car knowledge until her cousin brainwashed me into a Benz junkie... I'm not complaining.
Fogot to mention on the topic of bigger motors into the 190E, I have another friend who did a 300E motor swap as well and the car is very quick. Not many mods at all to fit it. I almost wish thats what I would've done simply for the ease of the exchange and the gas mileage but since I have the small V8 in now I may as well go bigger.

__________________
Mike
-W126C 560SEC 040 Black
*6.0L AMG M117 32v Hammer
-W163 ML320 Brilliant Silver
-W124 300E Pearl Black

Details, I want details! It seems more and more like the 300E swap is definitely the way to go, since I am not looking to be the world's most original 190E owner, just a guy who doesn't get left behind by Yugo's (just kidding!) I am now VERY interested in the 3.0L swap, and would like to know what it entails. Computer? Radiator? Air filter box? I feel like Johny 5, I NEED INPUT!

sisco2gs- is your 190E a 4-cylinder or the 6-cylinder 2.6 ?

The 6-cylinder 2.6 is a direct swap plus electronics.

Not sure about the 4-cylinder to 6-cylinder.

:-) neil

I have the 4 cylinder 2.3L 8V engine. What would I need to swap to a 3.0L 300E motor, I would swap over the tranny, too, since my automatic is slipping.

Just about everything.