190E Sportline LE Megasquirt 2 + 5-speed build thread

[w123fanman]

I'll be trying to maintain a build thread over the next few weeks (and beyond) of my M103 Megasquirt 2 build plus 5-speed manual swap for my 190E Sportline LE. I'll probably post this here and on 190Rev.net



Let's start with my car. It's a 1993 190E 2.6 Limited Edition with now 206K miles. I have owned this car for two years and put around 12k miles on it. Last year, I rebuilt the suspension which included every rubber piece plus the shocks and new Goodyear tires. It has brakes from a 1994 E420, adjustable camber arms, and an upgraded rear sway bar, from the stock 13mm Sportline bar to a standard 14.2mm 2.6 bar. Yes, for some reason or another, Mercedes used the smallest W201 rear swaybar on the Sportline models versus the larger 16v bar of even just the regular 2.6 bar. I also have a set of Hella euro headlights installed in it currently.

So as some of you may relate, I have a love-hate relationship with the M103. I previously had a 190D with the OM602 NA and I loved working on that engine because there's not too many access issues but the 2.6 is completely opposite. I hate working on the front end because the lack of space requires you to remove the radiator in order to remove the fan and get at the belt drive. I don't particularly like the belt tensioner design because it has been a PITA for me, even after replacing all of the components with German-made parts, I had the tensioner fail after 6 months. So I've researched if there is a better way and eventually, I found out that the AC compressor/power steering pump/tensioner bracket from a late M104 would fit onto the M103. I gotta thank this forum for great information such as that. The other thing I didn't particularly like about the M103 was the CIS system. I finally got it running 99% correctly about a month ago, previously I had several part failures that meant that the engine ran but not at 100%, besides when my first EHA valve failed. I would commend the CIS system for being pretty robust otherwise, it's incredible it works at all when certain key parts go bad.

So I had always wanted to swap the tensioner bracket and upgrade to Megasquirt but over the past few months, I've had a few lucky breaks.
First I found a 3.0L M103 for $100 that supposedly had a head job done before the car was wrecked. Then last month, a 5-speed for an M103 showed up a state away for a reasonable price. I wasn't really planning on swapping to manual because I've never had luck finding W201 manuals within driving distance of me that were reasonably priced, but I have always wanted to so I could have overdrive. My dad also was really interested in the manual because he misses driving his 240D while we are doing extensive work on it. I'm picking up the transmission on Saturday. It is a 717.432.

I was planning just to run CIS with this setup then later get all of the parts together for a Megasquirt conversion but then Mattmon on 190Rev.net put his setup up for sale for how much I was expecting to spend for the all of the parts I would need for the conversion but this already had the wiring harness and everything else figured out, saving me hundreds of hours of research, parts yard trips, and figuring out how to get it all to work.



The guy who made this did a better job than I ever would have. Every part is high quality and the wiring harness is incredible. He stuffed the Megasquirt board into the stock ECU housing and wired it so that it'll plug into the harness with the stock ECU's connector. I have to splice this harness into mine, mainly at the MAS relay because he designed the MS computer to work in tandem with the car's original systems. I also have to change the crank pulley damper to the modified one in the kit. Here's a video of his setup: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ee8i6BbHbkQ&feature=youtu.be

So I have a few jobs to do in the near future. The first thing after I pick up the manual transmission is to do a leakdown test to determine if the 3.0L M103 I bought is healthy enough to be used in my car. If it is, I am going to spend a few day resealing it. If it isn't, I will be using the 2.6 in the car as it runs great and doesn't lose a measurable amount of oil between oil changes. It had all of the seals in the front replaced a few years ago by the PO. I've got to get the manual transmission mated to whichever engine I decide to use, plus the tensioner bracket. I'm also installing a new AC compressor, the one in the car was starting to make some weird noises. I also have a new fan pulley bearing bracket, which I will install though I am planning to leave off the clutch fan and install some small electric puller fans as lsmalley has done on his 190E 2.6. Also, of course I am installing a new water pump. The hope is to also clean up the engine and engine bay so it is more presentable.

While the engine is out, I will be attending to a few other issues on the car. The first and most important is replacing the radiator crossmember. I have no other rust on the car but this crossmember is rusted out and is dangerously close to breaking off. I found a car in the parts yard that had a rust-free crossmember with the mounting bolts for the OM602 turbo oil cooler (not sure why it was on a 2.6 but it was) so I cut that off of the car. I'll need to trim off the excess then either learn how to weld or find someone who can weld it for me. It's the wrong color so I need to paint it black as well. I'll try to strip it before I weld it, that way I can start with a base coat of Corroseal then probably some black Rustoleum. The other issue I'll attend to is the blower motor. Mine is squealing so I picked up a new German-made Behr blower motor assembly for $95 on a site that was for some reason clearancing that part for 1/3 of the normal cost. I'll also clean out the evaporator box because that is leaking into the cabin and my attempts to clear the drains were fruitless even though I pulled a ton of gunk out.

The last project I have to work on outside the drivetrain job is fixing the sunroof, I ordered all new felt pads ($120 for all of them, ouch) and pulled a good used cassette out of a 190E in the parts yard. Hopefully I can get my sunroof to work and seal correctly.

[lsmalley]

Yep, Matt spent a lot of time with that set up. Congrats. I remember the early stages when there were just wires that hadn't even been a harness on it. He was working on that the same time I was trying to get the e-fans up which are up and running (although, I'm determined to get that w220 fan installed).

[w123fanman]

Originally Posted by lsmalley

Yep, Matt spent a lot of time with that set up. Congrats. I remember the early stages when there were just wires that hadn't even been a harness on it. He was working on that the same time I was trying to get the e-fans up which are up and running (although, I'm determined to get that w220 fan installed).

How do you plan to do that? Would it fit?

[Chris W.]

Carry on sir, will watch your thread with interest. Pleasure to see someone with some "experience" doing these mods, i.e. someone of roughly my vintage...

Rgds,
Chris W.
ex E300D 467K

[w123fanman]

ww

[w123fanman]

Yesterday, my brother and went up and picked up the transmission, I didn't get many pictures of the haul of parts but I will tomorrow. Here's one of the pieces, cost me $60.



Today, I did a leak down test on the 3.0L engine.The first two cylinders, I was getting ~10% leak down, but on the last four, I was getting ~4%. We did a better job finding TDC on the last four so I think the other two would have tested closer to 4% but even at 10%, that's still usable. These numbers are great on an engine that's been sitting for at least 2 years and it was just a dry test, I was going to put a bit of oil down in the cylinders if the results were not good.

I also stripped almost everything off of the engine, the intake and exhaust manifolds, the water pump, the broken engine mount arm, the fan bearing bracket, AC bracket, tensioner, oil filter housing. Everything needs to be cleaned plus all of that is being cleaned or replaced. The oil filter had to come off to get the intake manifold off and I couldn't find my oil filter wrench so I tried using a c-clamp which worked but not very well.


I've got to figure out how to use the fan bracket I ordered, I ordered it a month ago with the intention of keeping the CIS so I intended to put the emissions control stuff from my 2.6 to the 3.0 but with the Megasquirt, I really shouldn't need it to pass emissions in GA. The alternator bracket is different enough between the EGR/air pump engine and non-egr/air pump engine that the fan pulley bracket won't fit, at least not without modification. I also discovered that the stock M103 AC compressor will not actually bolt into the front two mounting holes on the late M104 AC bracket so I am going to have to send back the M103 AC compressor I ordered and buy the M104 compressor yet again. Thankfully Amazon doesn't charge for shipping returns if you use an Amazon store.

Also I cannot tell you how much quicker you can get and engine stripped if you use a cordless impact. My Rigid 1/4 impact driver has plenty of torque for most of those bolts. I am going to have to remove the crank bolt, hopefully my Nitrocat can do that.

Tomorrow, I am helping my friend change the tie rods and brakes on his 89 Celica which he is going to lend me to drive while my car is being worked on. I am also going to send out my shifter to have it rebuilt and the levers lengthened to make the throw shorter.

[Stretch]

Nice thread - I will be following

(Any chance you can make the big pictures just a little smaller so they fit on one page? Makes reading a bit easier)

[w123fanman]

Originally Posted by Stretch

Nice thread - I will be following

(Any chance you can make the big pictures just a little smaller so they fit on one page? Makes reading a bit easier)

I just tried resizing them, is that better?

[Stretch]

Originally Posted by w123fanman

I just tried resizing them, is that better?

Much better - nice one.

I think there's a trick when linking to an external server which will resize pictures to the chosen page size of the viewer. I can't remember what it is though...

...I'll try and find out

[w123fanman]

Hit a couple snags on getting parts. I put in an order earlier in the week at the dealer but they emailed me wanting credit card verification. My email service didn't actually send it and I found out last night, so I sent it again. Within an hour, I had $3000 charged to the card for an online order at a Minnesota Best Buy. Pretty sure that was on the end of my email service Yahoo though I'm completely up to date with their security protocals so I am in the process of changing over to another email service. I don't think Yahoo has done enough to update their security since the hacks from a few years ago that we just found out about in the past two months.

So I finally did get the order in today and they said it may be the first week of January before everything comes in from Germany. That order mostly contains the engine seals so at least the engine work besides degreasing it and getting stuff painted is sidelined until that comes in. I started degreasing a lot of the parts last night in my new parts washer and though I wore latex gloves, I should have worn chemical gloves as the degreaser wasn't too kind to my skin. I got the Harbor Freight 6.5 gallon washer, it's great for most everything except the valve cover which is way too big to fit inside. I also picked up the well-rated Harbor Freight powdercoating gun, I have access to a source of high quality powder coat paint so I'll be using that to paint the valve cover and pulleys.

On Monday, I hope to talk to a shop that welded my exhaust for me (which by my own fault is a poorly designed system that drones, but the welds were great) and see if he can weld in my rust-free radiator crossmember. The best hope would be if he would allow us to drive the car over then remove the radiator and condenser (I'll have already evacuated the AC) behind his shop, other option would be to go ahead and get the engine out and rent a trailer to get it over there.

I also ordered the AC compressor from a 1993-1995 e320 that has the rpm sensor in the back of the compressor to check if it will mount to my late M104 bracket. I think it should given that the bolt pattern on it is much wider than the M103 AC compressor and the late M104 bracket has two unused holes that look like they'll line up with the early bracket. I'm determined to get this updated bracket to work. Thankfully I have an Amazon Prime pickup/dropoff location near my house so I can make returns without paying shipping. That should arrive tomorrow.

I finally got the flywheel lock today, so maybe tomorrow but more likely Monday I will pull the crank bolt so I can get the lower timing/crank cover off. I pulled the upper timing cover off last night and found that the seal was still pliable so it seems it was probably replaced fairly recently. The timing chain guides and rails looked like they are fairly new but I'll know for sure when I get that lower timing cover off.

[w123fanman]

Not a ton of progress today but figured out the AC compressor/tensioner bracket issue. In order for the AC compressor to work with the MAS relay, it must have the RPM sensor on the back. Most of the cars with the modern tensioner design have a AC compressor with no RPM sensor because Mercedes got rid of the MAS relay. The AC bracket on those cars will not fit any of the compressors with the RPM sensor. I found that the 1995 E320 W124 had the MAS relay (though it had been already done away with on other M104 cars) but also the updated tensioner design. Not sure why they redesigned the bracket for a single model year instead of updating the wiring harness to what the other cars already had. You also need the AC compressor from a 1993-1995 E320. Thankfully the has the same manifold as a M103 compressor so no AC line modifications are required. Some people may wonder why I'd go through the trouble and expense to put in the updated tensioner but I hate the old design plus my AC compressor was on the way out anyway. Here's a picture of the bracket and my new compressor:

I had already degreased the other bracket that won't work, I'll get this one cleaned up tomorrow probably.

The main reason I didn't get much done today was we were working on getting a 2001 Chevy Malibu back together so my friend can get his spare car back. Thaty so I can borrow it so I can take the Sportline out service and get the drivetrain out. The headsgaskets on that 3.1 had failed so my friend tried to convince the owners to take it to the junkyard but they insisted on him working on it. We had gone to the parts yard mainly to pull a new fuel line for it, but grabbing that AC bracket was secondary. We put in the new line, fought getting the intake manifold back on, then tried starting it and it ran like crap. We tried everything we could think of, still ran poorly. We're doing a leak down test on it tomorrow but we think it has a compression leak. Those old GMs are so poorly designed compared to our Mercedes, I know changing the belt on the M103 is a pain (but better with the updated tensioner!) But on this POS is worse, you have to remove the passenger side motor mount to replace the belt. My friend works as a technician at a GM dealer and tells me he would never buy a pre-recession GM product that isn't a truck or a Saturn. He says that though GMs are more reliable now, he isn't sure the build quality has really gotten that much better since then as he's worked on new cars missing bolts or things like exhaust brackets that were never connected up. Moral of the story is don't buy or work on crappy cars if you don't have to because they limit the time you have to work on cars you actually want to work on.

[Ferdman]

w123fanman, I agree the newer style belt tensioners are a much better design.