E-man's FrankenBenz Project

[E-man]

Greetings everyone, I'm E-man.  I've been a Benz fan pretty much all my life, from my dad's '68 280SEL to my E420, 300E, 300TE-4Matic, E320TE, 300CE, and the latest two additions to the stable, a 1979 450 SEL 6.9 and a 1976 450 SE.  This thread will chronicle the journey of my two W116 cars...  it is my hope that it will be informative and educational.. mainly for myself, since up until now I've been a W124 guy, but now I've finally scratched that 6.9 itch, and this will be the story.  A little back history into this project, first:
I picked up the '79 6.9 on auction last month. 

As you can see, there's the small issue of the fire. 

...the rest of the car looked straight...

...the interior didn't look too bad...
The fire started somewhere on the passenger A-pillar, and toasted a bunch of the mechanicals under the hood, and unfortunately inside the dash and partially the cabin as well. 

My original hopes of parts replacement went away after seeing the car in person at the auction lot, which greatly reduced how much I was willing to bid.  Amazingly, I won the car anyways.  We had it towed to my mechanics shop, Gene's Complete Auto in Bellevue.  Gene has worked on my various cars for about seven years now, and he's a good guy.  The verdict:  the engine was good, and up until the fire, someone had really loved the car.  Unfortunately, it was way beyond repair on a limited budget.  The best solution was to find a donor 450, and swap in the motor, tranny, differential, and other various bits.  As much as I think the hydropneumatic suspension is a sweet piece of kit, maintaining a 30 year old example isn't something I was too enthusiastic about.  After a good deal of research, I found that the weight difference between the two engines is only 50kg, and overall the 450 is over 300lbs less than a 6.9.  So, the plan was forming...  find a donor, do the swap, and sell whatever parts I didn't need to help offset the cost. 
Finding the donor was surprisingly simple... I found the 1976 450SE in Tacoma in the exact same color combo as the 6.9. 

sorry for the lousy cell-phone pictures... 

My only disappointment was that it was the short wheelbase version, but on the brighter side it'll be lighter... probably the lightest 6.9 engined W116 once I get done with it.  I drove it back to Gene's, and the part stripping process began.

Here you can see the cooked A-pillar and debris...

front end lightening...

bye bye back seat!

doors and trunk gone...

...and one shot of that monster motor.   

the monster exhaust! 

Diffy goodness....
So that's where the project is up until this point... I'll be updating this as often as I can, as long as there's something interesting to post.  I'll also be starting a post soon in the 'for sale' forum as well, since there will be a lot of 6.9 and 450 bits for sale.  Hydropneumatic suspension bits, brakes and calipers, seat belts, you name it.  Since I'm taking two cars and ending up with one, chances are I'll have a lot of good bits left over.  If there's something specific that anyone is looking for or wants dibs on, just let me know and I'll do my best to set it aside.
Now, as far as performance goes, we all know the difference between the US and Euros, so here's what I've got planned for phase 1 of my quest for ultimate power.  First, air pump, and AC... gone.  From here once it's running I'll get baseline numbers on a dyno... hopefully not too many of the horses will have escaped since leaving the factory. 

Stay tuned for more updates! 

[Niclas]

Hi E-man, welcome to this forum! I have only been around here for a little more than a year but I've learned so far that there are guys here that knows everything you need to know about these cars.

That's one impressive project you have started, I wish you a all good luck. It seams a bit sad to swap the engine, which parts on the engine are crapped?

About the 124:s, most of us has been there

/Niclas

[TJ 450]

Nice project and welcome, E-man!
It's a shame about the 6.9, but at least the M100 is being put to good use. A SWB W116 with an M100 will be an interesting beast, to say the least.

TIm

[Mforcer]

I too am very keen to see the progress on this project. It will be very interesting indeed to see the final SWB 6.9.

[E-man]

Thanks guys!  Yeah, I have this problem... my house has turned into an orphanage for lost and neglected German cars.  I couldn't see that 6.9 going to the crusher or junkyard, so I'm hoping to keep as much as I can and transfer it to the other car.  I forgot to mention that I'll be swapping most of the interior bits as well... dash, seats, and anything that will need replacing.  One thing that I've noticed in this disassembly is that the build quality on these things really is amazing.  I've been shuttling extra parts to my garage in the 4Matic Wagon, and those doors weigh a ton. 

[pez]

Let me know if you care to part with the 6.9's Limited Slip Rear Diff....thanks!

[Papalangi]

Dang it!

I growed up on Bellevue and now that I'm living in Des Moines am only 20 minutes from Tacoma and had to go to Texas to find my 450SEL.  I hate it when that happens.

I reposted a craigslist post for 6.9 parts for sale in the shop forum.  Not my stuff and I don't know the guy but you might be interested.

Michael

[Big_Richard]

excellent project -

there are some minor considerations such as the right hand inner fender will have to be swapped over so the oil tank can be mounted, and also the steering box, track rods and drag link will be different. Also may require a customised drive shaft. Im sure theres more but nothing that cant be done 

It will be quite a wild animal, because the cats are what rob all the power on the US versions, the power output will be the same as an australian version without them, ie, around 198Kw and the suspension pump isnt easy to turn either! 

[E-man]

Great, thanks everyone for all the kind words and tips!  Today we removed the rest of the interior... front seats, belts, door surround trim, center console, and started on the dash.  I'm a little bummed that there's a bit of bubbling in the dash, so I might not end up swapping it over... the other one has cracks in it, so it's a tossup as to which looks better, and whether or not it's worth the effort.  I just don't like dash mats...  look too cheesy for me.  Most of the screws under the dash have never been touched.  Also, they were all there... nothing missing so far. 
BTW, this car had 120k miles before the fire department decided to turn it into a swimming pool, so hopefully there's still a lot of life left in the engine. 
We also found 86 rusty cents under the seats. 

[nathan]

nice work,
what the hell started the fire?
keep the pics coming!

[E-man]

Fluid dripping down on the cats started the fire.  Wonder if anyone else has seen this before....
The front right brake was pretty much cooked as well as the tire, and of course the hood liner melted.  The windshield also cracked under the heat, and you can see the headliner in the other picture above. 

[E-man]

Here's some pictures of this week's progress!  Got the interior pretty much stripped out, as well as any salvageable trim and carpeting pieces.  You can really see the damage behind the dash and center console.  Next up is pulling the dashboard, and then it's on to the engine and tranny!

interior, sans seating, carpeting, and center console

Center console... note the crispy bits

Crispy bits, drivers side

Back window, sans glass, chrome, and pretty much everything else

In front of the passenger A-pillar...  ground zero for crispy goodness

[E-man]

The engine is out!  Again, sorry for the crappy cel-phone pictures... my digital camera crapped out and subsuquently just signed up to be the "first thing I run over" when my 6.9 is completed. 

[E-man]

Lots more done today...  pictures and descriptions below! 

The 450SE in the shop being inspected...

Here's the 450SE alongside the 6.9 gettin ready to have it's exhaust removed.

Check out the *sweet* homemade dual exhaust job the previous owner did!

The amount of pipe pieces used is almost comical.  Fortunately the rest of the underside was rust free and in good condition. 

Ah... more homemade goodness...

Here's a decent shot of the engine...

CHOMP!  Mmmm... fender goodness...

Lot of crispy bits hiding behind the instrument cluster, too. 

[E-man]

Lots more progress today! 

Finally finished pulling that pesky dashboard.  What a pain! 

detail shot of dash

pulled the blower motor too...

back bumper and bumperettes pulled....

The dashboard...  don't think I'm going to put it into the other car... too much hassle, and it's got some blistering and melting on the underside.  It's a shame, because otherwise there's no cracks in it, and the wood is in great shape.

The gauge cluster is in great shape, and the blower motor tested out fine too!

draining the tranny...

parts to be cleaned/reused...

More parts... note the new oil hoses on the left next to the kentucky-fried ones.  I got the new hoses from the guy in Bremerton with the 6.9 parts... I have a feeling that I'll be calling him a lot more as this project progresses...

So that's it for today.... not much left to pull from the donor car, and then it'll be on to the engine swap!