420V8 into RHD124

[autounion]

Good day,
Has anyone here fitted a 420 engine (1994) to a 124 sedan in RHD? I have a complete LHD E420 car to swap everything over from. I'm interested in changes needed to the RHD engine bay area etc.

Secondly, has anyone fitted standard front guard flares (cut out) to the rear of a sedan. I'm particularly keen on the E500 style of body, but want to keep it in steel rather than glass.

Thanking you in advance, Kevin.

 

[d w124]

Hi Kevin and welcome to the forum.You`ll need a bit of work because of the steering,that`s wahy they`ve never made a rhd V8 124.
Since someone put an m119 on a rhd 190,it can be done

Iwas going to put rear 500e arches on my car,but I found it difficult to get them at the time

 

[AndrewsSL/SEL]

You`ll need a bit of work because of the steering, that`s why they`ve never made a rhd V8 124.

I believe that unfortunately only two RHD w124's were ever made.

One was bought by Jeff Lynne from ELO and written off, the other was for sale in the UK about 2 years ago for about £30K. Below is some info I got with a google search from here

Well, 2.5 years after I first bought this car with a broken engine I have finally completed my AMG Hammer and as it was such a beautiful day today, I thought I would go out and burn some rubber and take some pics.

For those not familiar with this car, the AMG Hammer was developed by AMG back in the mid 80's, before they were owned by Mercedes.

AMG wanted to develop a car that would become a signature car for them and would demonstrate to the world what lengths they could go to if a customer requested it....the result was the AMG Hammer.

The idea was actually suggested to AMG by Ron Stratton the UK Agent for AMG at the time. He had converted and sold a handfull of W126 saloons and SEC Coupes, which used AMG's own Quad Cam 5.0 V8....these engines used AMG's own design of cylinder head (48 valve, twin cam heads) which they then fitted to a standard Mercedes 5.0 M117 V8 engine block, albeit with AMG pistons and Crankshaft etc etc. As a result of the conversion power was lifted to 340-355bhp....every engine produced slightly differing power levels as they were handbuilt. Interestingly second hand engine blocks were always used as they were "seasoned", ie all of the stresses and strains of a new engine block had settled down.....this is commonly used when building race engines.

Ron Stratton suggested to AMG that they convert the newly introduced W124and fit the Quad Cam engine, which they duly did and it became their most heavily modified car, right up and to the time they were taken over by Mercedes in the mid 90's.

The modification resulted in a base W124 2.0 (3.0 in the US) being completely stripped and all of the mechanicals being thrown away. The engine bay was then heavily modified to take the much larger and wider Quad Cam engine. An S Class Automatic Gearbox with AMG valve bodies was then fitted. The rear axle carrier was modified and strengthend to cope with the extra power and a Gleason limited slip diff was also fitted. Brakes from the SL were also fitted and AMG's own suspension was fitted.

An AMG free flow exhaust system and manifolds was also fitted and lastly a customer could then request further changes to the interior and could also choose what bodykit they wanted fitting, along with Alloy Wheels.

Having tracked back the history on my car, it turns out that it was the original AMG press car and used to carry the registration/licence plate "1 AMG". Interestingly it turns out to be the first ever W124 Hammer conversion, having been built in Autumn 1985 at the AMG factory in Germany as the prototype. Its also a very very early right hand drive W124 in its own right, as it was registered in October 1985...the same month that right hand drive W124's went on sale in the UK.

Only 29 AMG Hammers were made, of which only 2 were right hand drive....the other right hand drive Hammer was a later car that was owned by Jeff Lynne, the lead singer in ELO.....he subsequently wrote that car off.

Of the 29 cars built, 5 were saloons and the rest were Coupe's. Two Thirds of the production was sold to the US, where the cars were converted by the AMG North American agents.

Of the 29 that were built only a handful are left with the original Quad Cam engines.....its reckoned that 6-8 original cars are left.

The reason why so few cars were made was down to price....my car cost
£65K in 1985 and the last Hammer sold in 1990, was sold for $160,000, that particular car being a 6.0 Quad Cam CE Coupe.

In its day these were seriously quick motors.....infact it had the title of being the quickest four door saloon in the world.....The Vauxhaull Lotus Carlton had the title of quickest production 4 door saloon with a top speed of 175mph...the Hammer, not being a production car had a top speed of 186mph, which was achieved at the Nardo test track in Italy.

Performance through the gears was pretty spectacular with the 50-70 increment being faster than a Ferrari Testarossa, Lamborgini Countach and a Porsche Turbo.....not bad for a 4 door automatic.

Even now, its still a very very fast car and is a blast to drive as other drivers in much newer machinery can't understand why an old 1985 W124 is out accelerating them......its also very understressed with 100mph equating to just under 3000rpm and 125mph equating to 3500rpm.

Sound wise, the car does give the game away, for if you blip the accelerator it sounds like a full on Nascar V8.....sounds nothing like a Mercedes!

Anyway here's some pics, showing the finished car!....if you do a search under AMG Hammer you will find some old photos of what the car looked like 2.5 years ago.

ps.....car is as shown on dials, 45,000 miles from new and full service history.

pps....car will be coming up for sale in due course...needs must....

 

[d w124]

The one ^ is a Hammer and I think more than two were made.
I`m talking about a rhd 124 with m119,and none was made

 

[AndrewsSL/SEL]

The one ^ is a Hammer and I think more than two were made.
I`m talking about a rhd 124 with m119,and none was made

Sorry mate....... my bad

I based your comment on any RHD V8 w124 not just the 500E.

I love'em and wish we had them over here in OZ as it seems a TT M103 is our only option.

 

[Howard]

That Hammer in the picture was owned by Vlad , a member on here , it isn't the ELO car. He sold it and it went abroad ( Europe possibly )

I think Talbir , another member on here owns the ELO car , and it wasn't written off. He bought it for a song at an auction.

 

[d w124]

Sorry mate....... my bad

I based your comment on any RHD V8 w124 not just the 500E.

I love'em and wish we had them over here in OZ as it seems a TT M103 is our only option.

Don`t need to apologise mate and yes is a shame we don`t have them
It can be done though,have a look here http://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/general-discussion/51098-awesome-190e-5-0-32v.html

 

[grober]

It can be done ---with a lot of work. Motorwerks Group, Inc - Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi Sales and Service Center all the pictures are not too clear but the last one shows the new panel changes to the engine cross member and bulkhead.

 

[ched999uk]

AndrewsSL/SEL it looks great. Any chance of some under bonnet images?

 

[Howard]

Here is the (long) thread about where the 'missing' one turned up and how Talbir bought it....

http://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/general-discussion/48308-missing-rhd-amg-hammer.html

 

[OneCarefulOwner]

I've been thinking about this; as other RHD cars use the bigger engines, would their steering parts be usable when converting a W124?

 

[grober]

There were no factory RHD W124 V8 models. The only RHD V8 cars are "custom one-offs" such as the AMG cars. The reason for this was the oil crisis at the time the car was designed, and it was never envisaged that it would have anything more than a straight 6 engine. Commercial pressures from the states mainly meant some major redesign work of the engine compartment was needed to fit V8 ENGINES in the W124, but it was not deemed economical to do this for RHD. The next model W210 was designed from the start with a engine compartment for V6 and V8 engines and the steering is completely different using a rack and pinion system rather than the steering box+idler system of the W124 series so would not be easily transferred.

 

[autounion]

I'm fully aware of the probability of changing the pre-firewall and crossmember, no clues on the steering box in RHD. This is where I need any experiences.
Thanks, Kevin

 

[OneCarefulOwner]

That's where I thought using the parts from another model with the same engine would help; not necessarily a later model, as I'd have expected contemporaries to have used similar steering mechanicals. The M119 was fitted to a few cars that were available in RHD, would any of their parts have been used by the tuners when uprating RHD W124s?