I believe the 103 engine is a pretty good/ dependable unit. I have ALOT of these coming in the shop with well over 200k on them.

yeah,some had valve guide probs & gasket leaks,,,,,but repairing that is reasonable (compared to most other brands) and once the repairs are performed you're good-to-go for a long time.

On thing I have noticed though,,,,,It seems like nearly EVERY 4-matic with the 103 engine has more head gasket probs than the other models. I don't really know why, but it seems like I've had to pull the head on every 4-matic in town.

My Dad's racecar is a 190 2.6 and it runs very strong. His 2.6 can stay right with my 16 valve racecar on the longest straight at heartland park.

IMHO- the guys at Mercedes completely RUINED their straight six on the day they introduced the 104 engine. The lower end on a 103 and 104 are very similar (104 has valve reliefs for the 4-valve per cyl head).
Not only does the 104 series engine suffer from alot more problems, it is also alot more expensive to do repairs on. I just can't figue out what they were thinking when they put the 4-valve head on an engine that was already "known" for having some head gasket problems.



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