305hp 450se. 0-100km/hr in 5.4s

[oscar]

What may be the first W116 race car.  A d-jet 450se with some pretty impressive figures. 

Can someone that can translate quicker than me and my dictionary please explain what has been done to the engine?  How has the power been achieved?  And where's the radiator? 

I know it says they dropped 340kg from the car.  That's gotta help but what's going on with the twin intake?  Some d-jet components are still there.

BTW, notice the middle page's number

[SELfor50]

Ok.... so I might have found a little information about this car.

That manifold is a 6.9 manifold.  On the front it has 2 x M110 (280) Throttle bodies....with the 2 pod filters hanging off that.

And yes, the car has NO Radiator!

I've also been advised that there is no need to put EFI on Team w116 Car 1 to increase performance or fuel delivery.. simply put a bigger throttle body on it, or even just put a spacer plate between throttle body and manifold...i think i got that right?

Thoughts??

[nathan]

5.4 seconds? holy shit, you have some catching up to do Cam!

when dad had our kermit the frog green 123 (/rustic brown) repainted a few years back, i stripped everything before it went to the paint shop...i drove it round the block on
one of those plastic crates the big glass coke bottles used to come in...weight loss certainly made a difference!  just look at that pic how high its sitting in the front...

[500eguy]

wow that is a crazy time! I wonder if we could do some of these mods to our cars to achieve better performance. I would be interested to experiment.

[oscar]

Cheers guys. 

I wonder if we could do some of these mods to our cars to achieve better performance. I would be interested to experiment.

That's the only reason I bought this article is to find out what they did way back then.  I mean, I'd like to try tuning a 450 d-jet without turbo or supercharging.  So keep it naturally aspirated with tweaks in other areas.  I want a flying 450

The engine bay is the most interesting pic.   I thought those filter elbows looked like d-jet m110 pieces.  But 6.9 manifold?  That's stumped me.  In a decent pic the manifold looks some kind of custom job but I'll see what you lot think.  See below.

I get the impression too that the standard 3spd auto and standard diff was retained?  But I can't get over this engine being air cooled.  Maybe the radiator is in the back seat like other offroad racers but I can't make out what's happening around the water pump area or see any lines.  Just power steering lines and breather hoses.  Though there is a thick black hose or conduit tracking over the right side wheel well into the firewall. 

Also, apart from the MPS, the throttle position sensor is retained as well.  It's still a d-jet setup and considering this is a 1975 article, I can't imagine there'd be much available to modify the FI with aftermarket gear.

[Nutz]

That looks like a homemade plenum and runner setup, with old BMW intake bellows and throttle bodies.

[arman]

The German text explains that in order to get more weight on the rear wheels (to handle the impressive torque and get sufficient traction) they placed the 2(!) radiators + electric fans (one of a Ro80 and one of a ford 20M), the brake servo, the battery and a "scheibenwaschanlage(disc brakes wascher?)" in the trunk of the car. They got 52% of the weight on the front wheels and 48% on the rear.
The car weighs 1400kg including 20 liters of gasoline.

The article mentions that the driver is also a test engineer at Daimler Benz. Well that explains a lot! A nice source of know-how and large technical and financial resources.

The cylinder heads are modified by milling bigger air inlets and using thinner valve shafts to increase the max flow. The cam shafts have steeper curves to open the valves faster. They used titanium disc springs to lower spring mass etc. The compression is 10,4:1 and they enlarged the exhaust pipes (diam 45x2mm). This engine is able to rev up to 6800rpm!

[oscar]

That's great Arman thanks!  I read "bohrung x hub = 92mm x 85mm" and a dispacement of "4520ccm" to be original so was glad to see there was no increase in bore size.  But there sounds like a hell of a lot of work to the heads.  Skimmed I suppose plus the valve work and taller cams etc.  I wonder what the cam part number is   Can't imagine there were anymore than a handful custom made just for this project.  I wonder if new pistions were needed regardles to avoid contact with the valves.

Thanks for clearing up the mystery about the radiator too.  No wonder the tail lights are missing.

[SELfor50]

Nice work Arman!!

The speccy work on the manifold is tech as!  Just how it sits on top of the rocker covers etc..  Would this mean the 450manifold has just been adapted up to that?  I'm a little confused.

Anyway..

Also the boot located radiator and fans etc is a great idea.  Weight transfer is definately on the cards.

We need to find the part number for those cams!   
If only there was..

Have to say great work again to Oscar for finding this article.. it's renewed my confidence in the whole project...i no longer feel so 'in the dark'. 

Cam.

[oscar]

Nice work Arman!!

The speccy work on the manifold is tech as!  Just how it sits on top of the rocker covers etc..  Would this mean the 450manifold has just been adapted up to that?  I'm a little confused.

My guess is that the whole manifold has been removed and the pipes you see criss-cross go directly to the heads.  These pics below are from "Michael Schuch's 450slc k-jet megasquirt conversion site".  A fantastic resource IMO.

So although a k-jet, things are the same for the d-jet autocross 450 if intakes are removed on both.   An important fact amongst many I've learnt from Michael's site is that the intake is water cooled or should I say water warmed.  I believe it stops the fuel/air mixture from condensing on the walls of the plenum chamber.  EDIT:  Strike that sentence.  I forgot, but that statement may be true for carburettor applications but not for fuel injection where the fuel is delivered directly to the cylinders.  So I got no idea why the intakes need coolant circulating to them in the stock setup.
However, one feat of attaching a custom intake setup would be to either block or, plumb and utilise those coolant channels coming from the heads.
 



The stock manifolds of a k-jet are different to the d-jet whereby a d-jet's throttle body is centrally located.  Comparing the 8 intakes and the throttle body size, is it any wonder the autocross 450 breathes better with its two throttle bodies and volumous manifold.

Lower Manifold


Upper Manifold