This engine was originally meant for my 5-speed EFI build but I ended up having to reuse my original 2.6 in my 90K mile Sportline because once we got the 3.0L all resealed and into my car, it ran horribly. Even though it had near perfect results from a leak down and compression test, the original camshaft had a severely flattened lobe (early cams were known to fail) and the headgasket that was put in the engine shortly before I bought it for $100 wasn't the updated style and had already failed.




My mom's car was going to get my 2.6 as hers had 235K miles on it and had been neglected by one of the previous owners and therefore was severely down on power. Haven't done a leakdown test on it yet but we'll see how off it was.


The 3.0L had over 200K miles as well but had been religiously maintained so the bottom end and cylinder walls were still within factory spec. I ordered a remanufactured cylinder head off of eBay when there was a 15% coupon so it came out to be around $380. I used the updated style head gasket and we installed it in my mom's car with the stock 2.6 ECU and EZL, plus didn't touch any of the adjustments on the CIS as the CIS wasn't the issue on the old motor and I had spent a considerable amount of time getting it to work properly. It runs great, doesn't seem to be too rich or too lean and makes great power, I'm surprised I didn't have to adjust anything to get it to that point since this engine would require more fuel since it is bigger displacement.



This was a reassembly shot. As you can see, we've done a few modifications. That's a Toyota Sienna trans cooler, and oil thermostat for it is mounted on the engine cross member. This is probably overkill but allows the transmission to warm up faster and keeps the heat of the transmission out of the radiator because the cooling system for the engine is overstressed as it is in a 190E 2.6. We replaced the original AC condenser with a parallel flow unit from a W202. It actually makes it so the AC running R134 refrigerant gets nice and freezing cold in the summer here in Georgia. Soon, I'll probably add an aux radiator or oil cooler or both to help increase heat dissipation for Atlanta traffic.

Since we also used the 90K mile auto transmission out of my car and ran new vacuum lines to it, it shifts much better than before. These auto transmissions, when getting proper vacuum, are really very good, especially compared the transmissions Ford used in the Crown Vics.

The power increase is very nice. They should have offered the 3.0L in the 190E from the factory. To give an idea of the performance gain from the worn out 2.6 to the fresh 3.0L, before this swap in similar weather conditions, the 0-60 with one 200lb passenger and probably 100lbs of my mom's junk was 11.03 seconds. After, with two 200lb passengers and the same amount of junk, the 0-60 time was 8.65 seconds. Not fast, but fast for a W201.

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Current: 1975 450SEL, 83 300D, 88 Yugo GVX, 90 300D OM603 swap, 91 F150 4.6 4v swap, 93 190E Sportline LE 3.0L M104 swap, 93 190E Sportline LE Megasquirt, 03 Sprinter, 06 E500 4Matic wagon.

Aux fan shrouds w/ engine weather strip....I remember doing that and also shrouding everything with aluminum tape to get the max amount of airflow to radiator and condenser. Ditch the aux fans and throw in the 600w w203 fan.

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1990 190E 3.0L

Go Jackets!

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Prost!

Still planning on doing that in my car but unfortunately on my mom's car we had to weld in a new radiator cross member and didn't get it lined up properly so the radiator sits further in at the bottom by a few mm, just enough to make it where the stock shroud won't even fit.

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Current: 1975 450SEL, 83 300D, 88 Yugo GVX, 90 300D OM603 swap, 91 F150 4.6 4v swap, 93 190E Sportline LE 3.0L M104 swap, 93 190E Sportline LE Megasquirt, 03 Sprinter, 06 E500 4Matic wagon.

Or was that tilt to deflect radar like in the vettes?

You won't need to use the stock radiator support holes at the bottom. In order to get that massive fan in you will need to remove those 2 plastic posts on the bottom of the radiator and slide it forward.

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1990 190E 3.0L

I just noticed something. Look at the arrows in the pic, the surfaces are fretted and the dowel sleeve looks to be sheared off or missing.

The chain of events could have been:

1) Bolts holding the rocker stand work loose, oil flow to the lobe squirter is diminished / lost , cam lobe wears out. ( oil is fed from the small hole near the right hand bolt hole.

2) Cam wears for some reason, odd shaped lobe causes rapid acceleration of the valve / hammering , bolts work loose.

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CSI Miami !!