Whoo hoo! Classic! W115 280C!
 

Hello,

I just wanted to let you all know that I picked up a W115 M110 1975 280C 2 days ago. $1500. Decent shape, minimal rust.

I will clean it up as much as I can, and then post some pictures.

I am extremely excited about it, bogged down a bit with my 300Es frustrating and hard to find coolant leak, but still happy overall.

Can anyone tell me if the timing chain for this car is an issue? My mechanic said it was a weak spot for these engines.

What other areas should I look at? Any common troubles or preventive things I can do?

Actually, it's 114. All of the 115's were sedans.

I have never heard anyone refer to the M110 chain as a problem. I haven't seen a chain problem with any of my cars. It is not long like the V8's and it is dual link. It has a spring-loaded tensioner instead of hydraulic, so the pressure stays constant and there should be no noise at start-up. But if you have the valve cover off, it might be worth lining up the cam marks and see where the timing mark is.

Thank you for correcting me, I did confuse the sedan with the coupe.

I agree, I will remove the valve cover and inspect the valvetrain and chain.

Anybody know of a good online manual or website for the M110?

THIS CAR IS SOO COOL! I LOVE IT! (Though I will need some seat pads lol)

The ultimate guide to the M110 is the "Service Manual Engine M110" from Mercedes, but that may be overkill for you because it has every variant of the carburetor and injection. The Mercedes 114 CD is OK, but does not have all the detail of the engine manual but does have stuff on the body, brakes, elctrical, etc.

The Haynes "280 123 Series" (#63025) is good for the engine, but not the 114chassis. For the chassis you can use Haynes #63020, "230 250 280."

In terms of online resources, you can hang out on the Vintage Forum here where there are a bunch of 114's, or the SL Forum where several people have euro 107's with the M110. Same for this site: http://sl107.com/eve/forums/a/frm/f/2346035941.

As you have probably read, the big problems with this engine are the carburetor and emissions. My advice would be to not mess with these items if the car is running well.