My Recent Purchase

[TJ 450]

I went for a drive with MT 6.9 to pick up the W201 190E on Friday evening. MT drove the 190 back, and just made it into the driveway before it stalled!

The issues with the engine are quite a loud knock and oil in the coolant. However, I'm very impressed with the three-figure purchase, as it is a great vehicle otherwise, with only 125,000km the clock.

I have already started on the engine, and MT assisted me with the head removal today. The issue was obviously a blown gasket, but the bore of #4 is in poor shape, with uneven wear and a very pronounced lip in the region of .5mm... I think this may have something to do with the knock! Pics of work to come later. I am preparing for engine + trans removal.

Here's some pics;













A small rust repair require under the battery tray... this area was neglected;


The engine bay before I started work on it;

[TJ 450]

Here are the engine pics;

It is unbelievable how close the high pressure oil feed is to the water jacket... I believe some corrosion here is the cause of the coolant contamination. Allegedly, this is a bit of a problem with these engines, as well as the M103;





Tim

[Mforcer]

Looks like a nice clean car!

[s class]

That does look nice indeed TJ.  There's a lot of brown/rust coloured discolouration of the right hand side of the engine bay.  Is it in any way related to the problems?  Do you know why the gasket blew?

[WGB]

Hi Tim,

At least it has an iron block.

Oil seep from that high pressure line are  noted fault of that engine series - 4 and 6 cylinder.

Bill

[TJ 450]

The brown stain is indeed from water/coolant spewing out the pressure cap. I never got confirmation, but I reckon it boiled over at least once.

Yes, the cast iron block is great news. About the oil feed, I was unaware of this common issue until a few nights ago... it is so close to the water jacket that I wonder what the MB engineers were thinking.

Tim

[nathan]

Out of interest, how much do u think an engine like this weighs? It looks pretty light! Is this the same block as whats in our 230 e w123? U will have this thing purring in no time.

[TJ 450]

I think it is only about 100kgs... It is indeed the same basic engine as in your 230, just a 2L version of it. The 230 will drop straight in as well.

Tim

[Big_Richard]

Working on TJ's 190 has made me want to get one too 

I cant beleive how easy they are to work on, i wonder if there are any modernish mb straight 6's with cast iron blocks too..

[TJ 450]

The M130 inline six was the last of the cast iron blocks for the six cylinder engines. Then they went to all alloy with the 320 V6.

I reckon you should look out for a W124 300E-24, if you go down that path. As said before, the basic design theme is shared with the M102 four cylinder as in the 190E. They also share the issue of occasional head gasket failure. I don't see this as anything other than something to be aware of though.

Tim

[craigb]

Have heard very positive things about the performance of the 2.3 (8v) in these light bodies, but they are few and far between. Always seemed like a logical swap from a w123.

But I noticed your map pockets behind the front seat and just thought I would say that I did a very neat repair on my W126 ones using a double run of round black elastic from a draper. Cost was something like $2 and you would be hard pressed to see it and it has also seen the test of my enthusiastic 3 and 5yo. I used heavy staples as the locking mechanism for the ends hidden behind the plastic covers.

[TJ 450]

I am indeed considering the 2.3... This car is set up for the KE-Jet version with catalyst, so the best bet for a replacement is actually from a W124 or another post 1987 W201.

This weekend was quite an event. Major Tom and I removed the short block by hand, but we were too busy to take photos.

The issue with the engine is at cylinders no. 3 & 4. We concluded that water was entering the combustion chambers and lead to the excessive bore wear on #4. This is what happens to a perfectly good engine when, a) You use tap water in the cooling system, and; b) You drive the car when you know that the head gasket has blown.

Anyhow, I knew the engine wasn't great, so now I'm going to fix it or get a replacement. This will be awesome when I've finished.

Tim

[oscar]

Tap water in the coolant I'm guilty.  Must change that habbit.

Congrats on the purchase though TJ.  Ever since 13B got one I've added the odd 190 on my watchlist on ebay   They're pretty cool, I want to deck one out.  All you have to do is watch some historical DTM footage on youtube and the urge grows.

[koan]

Tap water in the coolant I'm guilty

My handbook says to use "potable" water, water that you can drink, tap water.

koan

[Big_Richard]

I have been told by MB that when using the genuine coolant tap water is fine. Although i wouldnt put it in there anyway.

If you arent using genuine MB coolant you should be following the directions of your chosen coolant, not those in the cars user manual.