(crossposted from Tech Help per suggestion
by another member, plus I've added one of
the T/H responses after the original post
and a few follow-up comments of my own)

ORIGINAL POST:
Found a very clean and uncrashed but
high mileage (190K) 500E recently. It
has been dealer-serviced for its whole life
and seems like a fine fast vehicle. Asking
around $19K.
However, what gives me pause is that I
know that this car is on the back end of
engine -and- transmission life expectancy,
even assuming no overheating or abuse.

For any other E-classe of that generation
I have a fairly good idea of how much it
would cost to rebuild. For the Porsche-
built mill and special slushbox of a 500E
I'm clueless and kinda nervous. The rebuild
shop I've used won't even quote it. A friend
bought a late-life BMW M5 once and found
himself hit with a $11K bill after the
head was warped at rebuild time -- just
for a new head, excluding the rebuild!

While I think the 500E is an exciting car,
I'm not up for quite that much excitement :-)

Can any of the shop-experienced 500e owners
fill me in on what to expect in this line?
(Frankly, given that my local rebuilders
aren't up for the job, I'm perfectly ready
to pull, crate and ship the cores if needed.)

Ron H

FOLLOWUP POST (from Tech Help by yhliem):

Ron,
I can understand your concern, however you've made one small error. The 500E engine is a stock MB engine. The fuel injection system was upgraded from the Bosch CIS, but that was an upgrade that, if i remember correctly, applied to the SL's as well. It was not built by, nor was it altered by Porsche. In fact, almost the entire drivetrain was donated by the R129 series SL, so the cost of reworking the engine and transmission should be identical to the cost of doing the same work on a 500SL.

And as Eric said, if you have the inclination, this could be an opportunity to go to an aftermarket shop and have some "extra" work done.

One thing I will warn you of, and I'm speaking from experience, modified vehicles and become very difficult to sell if you need/want to. If the car is a collector, it is usually easier to sell a good original example than a restored.
Just my 2 cents :-)

COMMENTS:
Really? I knew that the 500e drivetrain was
derivative from the other five-liter cars,
but I had been told that the Porsche assembly
mods to the drivetrain included altered cam
profiles and exhaust, and different valve
bodies in the transmission. The fellow who
described this was a 500e owner not given
to boastfulness.

Can anyone clarify matters for me?

And yeah, I don't typically buy cars with
an eye to making significant modifications.

Minor tuning only. A warning for those of
you who do: I have heard that not only will
you take a hit at resale time, but that
there is an increasing chance that your
insurer will bail on you if you're in an
at-fault accident. Synopsis: "this isn't
the car we originally insured". Small mods
won't get noticed but if you've bumped the
horsepower fifty percent, well...

Ron H

--

The motor & tranny are sourced from the W140 500SEL...early SLs didn't have LH fuel injection so were down on torque vs. 500E/500SELs with the LH hot wire injection setup. Many front suspension bits were also pilfered from the 500SL, however many were adapted (Porsche spec'd, MBZ produced) specifically for the 500E.

Power output was supposed to be identical, but I've heard from solid sources at MBZ that the strongest-running 5.0 liter motors were tagged for 500E duty. Further, the 500E exhaust system is HUGE, and likely helped power output. If my car's indicative of the breed, I believe it. But it's also as docile as can be, and I'm almost certain cams etc. are the same as 500SELs or 500SLs.

------------------
All the best, Michael
500E
300TE

$19k sounds awfully expensive for a nearly 200k mile car.

But, if you could buy it for the right price, send it too Renntech, mix in another $30k and you will have a six speed manual, 6 litre 450hp monster.

Or keep the slushbox, send it to Brabus and for $20k you will have a 6.5 litre crackerjack!!

David Hendy
'92 500E 64k miles