PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum - View Single Post - 190e 2.0 and 2.3 8v cylinder head differences

400Eric · #12 06-10-2011, 09:48 AM

Thanks!

97mm X .0394 = 3.82"! That's barely bigger than the 2.3's bore of 3.76"! (95.503mm) It would seem that the 4 cyl does indeed have a larger bore spacing than the 6 does in order to accommodate it's much larger bore!

Having both the 4 and the 6 on the same bore spacing would've allowed MB to enjoy greater cost savings by having more shared tooling and shared tooling costs, and more and greater shared economies of scale. It just seems so odd that MB did not take advantage of this. It would also have left us with a better foundation to build killer 6s on, with displacement available to us through a larger bore, instead of having to stroke the thing so much thus screwing up our bore to stroke ratios and rod length to stroke ratios so badly. A bigger bore would also really help the breathing too, but we all already know this stuff, how come MB doesn't seem to? It's too bad really, it could have been a win/win for all of us and them.

During this same time period (80s-90s), BMW had two 6s, a "big block" 6 and a "small block" 6. That is something else that MB could have done, building their three liter, and three and a half liter 6s on a block that had the larger bore spacing of the 4 cyl. How hard would that have been to do? BMW did it! (Their 2.5 6s were on their small block and their 3.3, 3.4, and 3.5 6s were on their big block.) I guess they felt they didn't need to bother because they had a V8. Still, it sucks though, thinking about what could have been.
Regards, Eric