Glyn:

I have purchased a number of things from this site - www.performanceparts4benz.com They have a catalog that is quite helpful that gets mailed out as you make purchases. Fastlane is very very good and Phil is extremely helpful, so that is normally where I make my 1st visit when looking for parts. There is also www.millermbz.com and I have visited them frequently because they are located right here in Charlotte NC.

BTW, I'm with azurite - I didn't know there was a plastic thermostat housing.

Also, if you get to the point where you really want to fine tune the adjustment on the IACV, Steve Brotherton has a fine article on how to do that. I was quite successful in adjusting mine when I 1st purchased my 300E. You can find the article here on this site (sorry, I can't seem to remember much of the details on how I found the article. Normally when I find these little nuggets I print them out and put them in a binder for later reference).

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92 300E - 116K miles - Sold
77 Euro 350SL - 67k miles
94 Explorer 147k miles
2009 Hyundai Genesis - 65k miles

Well from the part number one can see the aluminum part is for the 104 engine, so its possible our 103 engines originally came with the plastic part. Maybe someone else with the same engine can chip in and post what type of part they have.

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300E 1986 - 117KMi
Sikkens Metallic Azurite Blue
Member #120 of MB Club VE
Caracas, Venezuela

Glyn:
Woops, hope you didn't hurt yourself nearly falling out of the chair, but sorry about the 120 mph, should have been 120 kph - that's what happens when living in a metric country - good luck anyway.

OOPS - sorry, I meant to say - "It you get to the point you want to fine tune your idle mixutre", blah, blah, blah......

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92 300E - 116K miles - Sold
77 Euro 350SL - 67k miles
94 Explorer 147k miles
2009 Hyundai Genesis - 65k miles

Hi Glyn; just a few thoughts - if I missed anything already answered, please ignore
Performance: are the part and full-throttle kickdowns both working? When you floor the throttle, the car should change down two gears and spin the tyres...
Emissions: don't think a cat was required until '92 on UK cars, although you may have the wiring fitted.
Cooling: mine has a plastic thermo housing, due for replacement along with the thermostat 'cos it never goes over 70C; I shouldn't need cardboard in front of the rad on a modern car!
And I get 25mpg out of my 1988 300E, 156,000 miles, 5,000 miles per litre of oil.
Cheers, Pete.

That link takes you to a page of generic searches, not a specific company. Maybe the correct link you meant to post was this?

http://www.performanceproducts4benz.com

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300E 1986 - 117KMi
Sikkens Metallic Azurite Blue
Member #120 of MB Club VE
Caracas, Venezuela

You beat me to it azurite300E in figuring out some domain name squatter has scooped up yet another web address for themselves.

For reference my part number for the plastic thermostat housing is 103-200-0117 (also had 2-2815-000 beneath it) and azurite300E quoted 104-203-0274 in his previous post for the aluminium part (yes, the British spelling! I noticed the way you other guys were spelling it without the "i").

Ah yes, rorypff, being part of the Crown Dependencies we use the UK imperial MPH and even after conversion 70MPH (ish) is double our 'national the speed limit' for this island and probably three months off the roads.

David I looked at the pipes connecting the idle air device and they were very loose on it. They were only held in place by the way they fit. I shall buy some small jubilee clips to secure them down and see if that helps. The other end attaching to the engine manifold looks tricky to get at even with 'piano fingers'...

Thanks for adding your input 2mercspete (not inspired by a certain two Jaguar owning politician, by any chance??!). If I forcefully - like hammer - the accelerator pedal it has a good long think about it before dropping two gears and, in the wet at least, I get a slight sidewards step from the tail-end. However under normal driving, even being slightly demanding on the pushing, it will not shift down a gear, certainly not like my last wagon the Honda Aerodeck. That Honda worked almost like 'gestures' where it knew the difference between gentle acceleration, needing to kick-down a gear or a flat-out go for it.

Could that be part of the problem? If driving at 35-40MPH with revs around 1600-1700rpm (off the top of my head, and yes it's slightly speeding shhh!) and I try to pull away the gearbox doesn't do any work and it simple tries to 'accelerate' away in 4th. In my mind a 3.0L engine should have the muscle to blast up the revs, perhaps I'm wrong?

I adjusted the gearbox cable at the throttle linkage and the up-change on the gearing is now set around 3000rpm and the gear changes are quite sharp (which I read is a good thing to save wear on the clutches) and I have no issue with that.

As a side question and from what I've read it pulls off in 2nd gear in "E" switch mode, which in some way improves economy. In a stop-start urban driving is it better to set it to "S" to allow 1st gear starting, or a better term, crawling?

Kind regards,

Glyn B., wondering if the weather will hold off this weekend to install the all essential boom-box in the Benz.

But that's the kind of engineering that made Britain great!

i'm surprised that nobody's suggested a clogged catalytic converter or exhaust yet, drop the exhaust from before the cat and see how it runs

Glyn, my nickname was indeed inspired by a certain politician - not my idea - some of my mates started it and it seems to have stuck!
It seems that your box's behaviour is at least partly to blame; with mine, a small increase in pressure on the pedal when I'm doing 35-ish results in an instant downchange and if I use full throttle (without kickdown) it will hold the lower gear to the redline. I was going to suggest adjusting the control pressure cable but you say you've already done that; also, with mine, the changes are almost imperceptible.
The S/E switch has been the subject of much debate; in theory you get a first gear start in S but if you blink you'll miss it, also the box holds on to lower gears slightly longer, in the end it doesn't seem to make a great deal of difference, on mine anyway.
My replacement thermostat housing just arrived from Eurocarparts, it's a nice alloy one for under £8, pleased with that.
Cheers, Pete.

I might be wrong, but I seem to recall that this is a non-"Kat" car.

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300E 1986 - 117KMi
Sikkens Metallic Azurite Blue
Member #120 of MB Club VE
Caracas, Venezuela

[quote=DrModiford;1793769]Thank you for your responses TVPierce and Johnatahn1.

There does appear to be a cat but certainly no position to fix a lambda sensor in. I have checked under the carpet and found wiring for one, attached to one side in a special holder.

I

Running a Cat without o2 sensor being installed is a sure way to easily damage it if the max temperature of the converter is exceeded due to a continued overly lean mixture. In worst cases it may even melt down internally, and partially or totally block the exhaust flow.

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300E 1986 - 117KMi
Sikkens Metallic Azurite Blue
Member #120 of MB Club VE
Caracas, Venezuela

Just to clarify the "has it got a 'kat' or not" the twin pipes drop from the manifold into a box beneath the drivers possition (British car, so that's the right hand side guys! ) which twin pipes to the other side of the car at another box before going up and over in a single pipe to the rear box beneath the bumper / boot exiting as twin tail pipes. The first box has a heat shield over it but this has recently become lose and the rattling is driving me mad! That's a 'to do' for a dry day... Are there any characteristics that denote whether it's a cat by looking at it?

I have been pondering taking a learning curve in pipe bending and fabricating a homemade de-cat from ERW or similar steel tubing but that will be when I'm rich again (it's the being a new daddy money vanishing problem, sure most of us here know that feeling). Aside from the environmental (and possibly legal, such as certain US states) is there any need for the cat? Will an o2 sensor work without one? That is to say if I ever constructed the de-cat would I benefit from installing an o2 mount in one of the pipes?

Thanks for your continued input,

Glyn B.

P.S. the weather never held out for installing the sounds

Manifold -> KAT -> Central Muffler -> Rear Muffler

What you describe as the rattling box with the heat shield under the passenger side, that's you Cat converter. From what you say, its obviously deteriorated, probably damaged internally, and is most probably also blocking a great deal of the exhaust system.

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300E 1986 - 117KMi
Sikkens Metallic Azurite Blue
Member #120 of MB Club VE
Caracas, Venezuela