I'll be sniffing around a friends 95 E320 wagon, 230k on it, tomorrow night, the price looks right if it can be relatively trouble free.

Some questions
Sparky =8-0- is that too hard to keep running?
He speaks of a leaky gasket on the tranny pan. Is that a big deal?
Things to check or look out fo
Is the amenable to a 60X or 61X swap? I have somewhere between .5 and 2 good 602 spd drivetrains, and an OK 201 body at present. The 616 has a rusty 123 240D around it right now.

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All things are burning, know this and be released.

82 Benz 240 D, Kuan Yin
12 Ford Escape 4wd

You're four times

It's hard to

more likely to

concentrate on

have an accident

two things

when you're on

at the same time.

a cell phone.

www.kiva.org It's not like there's anything wrong with feeling good, is there?

As someone who went from the diesel world to a gasser w124 wagon I can tell you that I hated the gasser engine... although yours will be a M104 engine, and mine was a m103. If it hasn't had it done it will need s complete new engine wiring harness as the original ones were biodegradable and fail as time passes. Same with the throttle actuator.. some one will chime in with a price on both but its not cheap... I it still on its first transmission? If so depending on mileageit could be doomed for a rebuild sooner than later. The transmissions in those cars were not particularly robust in my opinion and regularly loose reverse....

A diesel swap I've been told is harder on the later model w124's, but no one has specifically been able to tell me why... I considered swapping a diesel into my w124 but in the end decided against it...

I suppose the key here is, do you know everything he has had done to it? Service records are key here....

__________________
2004 F150 4.6L -My Daily
2007 Volvo XC70 -Wife's Daily
1998 Ford F150 -Rear ended
1989 J-spec 420SEL -passed onto its new keeper
1982 BMW 733i -fixed and traded for the 420SEL
2003 Volvo V70 5 Speed -scrapped
1997 E290 Turbo Diesel Wagon -traded for above
1992 BMW 525i -traded in
1990 Silver 300TE -hated the M103
1985 Grey 380SE Diesel Conversion, 2.47 rear end, ABS -Sold, really should have kept this one
1979 Silver 300D "The Silver Slug" -Sold

As a side note, you're pretty much tied to doing a 60X engine swap as the 61X series of motors was never fitted to the w124. As such you'd have to fab motor mounts and find some way of converting the wagons Tandem pump to a Vbelt pulley and mounting it on the older engine somewhere... The tandem pump supplied fluid to the power steering system as well as the hydraulic self leveling suspension. You could I suppose use a 61x out of a w123 wagon as it would have a SLS pump built into the head.... still seems like a lot of work...

The 60x engines on the other had should be relatively bolt on as they were fitted to the w124. You would need the basics of course (glow plug relays, idle control system, etc etc) but it should be relatively doable if you had a complete parts car sitting next to the wagon...

__________________
2004 F150 4.6L -My Daily
2007 Volvo XC70 -Wife's Daily
1998 Ford F150 -Rear ended
1989 J-spec 420SEL -passed onto its new keeper
1982 BMW 733i -fixed and traded for the 420SEL
2003 Volvo V70 5 Speed -scrapped
1997 E290 Turbo Diesel Wagon -traded for above
1992 BMW 525i -traded in
1990 Silver 300TE -hated the M103
1985 Grey 380SE Diesel Conversion, 2.47 rear end, ABS -Sold, really should have kept this one
1979 Silver 300D "The Silver Slug" -Sold

I considered doing the same as I loved my '95 E320s' many upgrades over the early 124s, but was less excited over the fuel they burned.

The M104 is powerful, enough of a difference from an M103 car to be a completely different experience to drive. The nicer body trim, the vast difference in headlamp performance, the convenience module changes, better seats, better brakes, on and on and on. The car did see a little "thrifting" as things like headlamp wipers were made optional, but all of that can be added to the late car if you really want to. I decided I'd miss the performance of the M104 also.

The above post that you will need a combination pump is true, but these are on any '87 300TD, on the 350SD/SDL with ASR or self-leveling, same with the W140 with the 603 engine and self-leveling suspension. Not easy to find, but they are out there and bolt on to any OM602/OM603. No head changes, just the pump, possibly reservoir, and plumbing. Mounts, linkages, plumbing, oil cooler, radiator, all will need to come from the engine donor (again preferably an '87 wagon to make it "easy"). You will need some harness pieces from the donor to run the engine, glowplugs, dash and gauges, need some of the gauges, vacuum solenoid, valves, and plumbing, and the ignition switch assembly with the vacuum shutoff. The transmission is the same final drive, same series, AFAIK the major difference will be the lack of rear pump which was a cost-reduction. Same 2:65:1 differential ratio.

Now the tough stuff: The '94/'95 car is a CanBus car, which is to say it has a body harness that connects the engine, ABS, throttle, A/C, SRS, etc. How much of this requires signals from the original engine I do not know, but this is where many of us gave up.

As I mentioned, I wanted a late car with a diesel, and was willing to build one. A '94/'95 wagon with good body/interior but bad engine or harness, bad transmission is fairly easy to find. An '87 300TD donor also fairly easy as you don't need a good body or straight title for this one (salvage okay), and an '87 300D is even easier, just need to find some of the wagon parts to make it work. However, I eventually decided that I would have a better vehicle with everything working properly if I simply started with a straight '87 300TD, gut the thing, put in a late interior and some of the electrics/electronics, rebuild suspension and brakes to a late car, build a 603 and transmission the way I want it (can even go manual if you want), put the late body parts on, have it painted and roll into the sunset. It wasn't that bad, I would estimate that I have too much money in it but it is saleable as it has an '87 diesel title ('95 would have a gas title, a problem in some states/counties/cities), it all works, and it's plated/insured as Historical (laws vary from 20-25years old).

I don't think I'd consider putting an OM602 in, just because the car weighs 300# more than the sedan (close to a 126 weight), but if you tune it well I'm sure a 602 will haul the groceries, ... but you'd have a slightly rear-heavy wagon (603 balances it nicely).

Best of luck and keep us posted, ...

__________________

Gone to the dark side

- Jeff

Wagons have the self leveling suspension in the rear. It's not rocket science, but there's a lot of plumbing and some of it is expensive. Make sure it's working before you put your money down.

Does it have 4matic? I've not owned an early car with 4matic, but you may want to ask about that if it's applicable.

V8 w124s were canbus the M104 cars were not

I believe that I was told that the computer control system in my '94 & '95 was canbus, need to step back a lot of years to when I had those cars.

The ACC, CC, ABS, SRS & Engine were all centrally diagnosed through the silly blink-code connection, was some cross-talk between the systems, ... not canbus?

Even if not canbus, the brain trust here had cautioned that I could not abandon part of the system (ECU etc.) and keep the remainder (ACC, SRS, ABS, CC). The electronic controls would need to be pretty much stripped with the harnesses and control units and back-dated to the systems that matched the diesel. I know that my W140 has a similar system (can't remember what they call that), but it has the mechanical-throttled diesel.

Perhaps a better swap would be using a '95 E300 sedan donor, more of the systems should be common between that car and the M104 car, ... but then you're stuck with a NA 606.

__________________

Gone to the dark side

- Jeff

And a 722.4 IIRC.

Sixto
83 300SD

What babymog said.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk

There was one floating around on eBay a few months ago that was converted and it sounds like a rather challenging job. Personally I think the gas W124 is a fantastic engine and when its mated to a 5 speed its a special car. Granted mine is a M103 which lots of folks don't like but I am rather fond of.

Would that bolt up to the 5spd from a 190D?

__________________
CC: NSA

All things are burning, know this and be released.

82 Benz 240 D, Kuan Yin
12 Ford Escape 4wd

You're four times

It's hard to

more likely to

concentrate on

have an accident

two things

when you're on

at the same time.

a cell phone.

www.kiva.org It's not like there's anything wrong with feeling good, is there?

You're now looking at a different thread, need to search 5 speed conversion topics as this has been covered several times and quite completely. The short version is that it has been done, not sure which ones transfer but IIRC the pedal set and all comes from the donor and the 201 matches the 124 body there. I'm only going from memory, looked into doing the conversion as I had a non-running 190D 2.5 5-speed available for close to free, ... but decided that the turbo-lag is better put into an automatic transmission for my purposes. I would like overdrive though, ... don't like seeing the tach pointing skyward on the freeway.

__________________

Gone to the dark side

- Jeff