lack of power on 280e euro

[harvey chupin]

Recently bought 1980 280e euro with manual transmission. The specs say it should have 182 bhp but it certainly doesn't feel like it. What adjustments are exactly made to an engine of a grey market car like this? This one arrived to US 5 years after it was bought brand new in Germany.
Do they retard or replace cams, adjust ignition timing or replace sparkplugs or more? The car was made for 98 octane gas consumption widely used in Europe at that time. It was pinging so my mechanic adjusted ignition timing (advanced or retarded, not sure) and it was gone, having a smoother ride and more power at low rpm. It still feels like it needs more power though.
What can I do to get back the original 182 bhp(without putting in super chargers, etc.) or is it just impossible because of the low octane gasoline here in the US? Can I advance cam timing by simply adjusting timing gear?

Thanks.

[t walgamuth]

I have an 84 euro 280e which I am pretty sure was never federalized. It has a lot of power. It does not have a distributor which retards at high rpm like my 74 bavaria BMW did. I wouldn't be surprised if your car has a distributor which has a advance curve which is very detrimental to power production especailly if it was changed to make it us legal.

On my Bavaria I modified the advance characteristics so that it operated exactly as they did before the emission control days. I am sure you can do that too.

I used several distributors, one from an old vw that I bought from a salvage yard and one from a '60 mb 220s, they basically are all the same with different vac advances and different weights that cause the advance to occur at various rpm. I looked at my reference books and mixed and matched until I had that beemer screaming. The difference was like night and day.

I imagine you can get a distributor from a vw high performance parts supplier and interchange caps etc to get what you need.

I have the old books so if you have questions about what you need to make her hum pm me and I'll be glad to help or I'll post here if you like.

Tom W

[ctaylor738]

I have had a bunch of euro 280's and they all ran like scalded dogs (Larry Bible expression). None had the slightest problem running on 91 octane gas at the timing spec. I think you have your octane measures mixed up.

You may have a lean mixture, carbon build-up, cooling probems, or other issues causing spark knock.

But to answer your question. A catalytic converter was always added. Some cars got oxygen sensors connected to an aftermarket lambda computer and frequency valve. Some got cannisters for fuel and crankcase emissions.