C class bits into E class?

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mj2k

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2000 Subaru Legacy GT (remapped to 300bhp)
Not sure if the 1st part of this question really belongs here or in the interior section, but since it's a performance mod, thought I'd stick it here...

My w210 corners very nicely indeed on it's AMG wheels and lowered suspension, so well in fact that I'm the weakest link :rolleyes: I've got nice leather powered seats in the front, but under heavy cornering I almost slide off the seat, so can't really push the car to it's limits.

W210 AMG seats look almost identical to the ones already fitted, but W202 AMG C class seats look like they've got a lot more lateral support. Will they fit a W210 without major modification? If not, does anyone know of any other seats which will fit a W210?

I guess if there's no better alternative for the seats I could try wearing rubber trousers to improve my grip, but I suspect a photo thread about fitting C class seats to a W210 will be a whole lot more palatable than a photo thread about fitting a middle-aged man into rubber trousers :D

And the second, more exciting but more pipe-dreaming part - I noticed the W203 C32 AMG uses the same engine as my E320 W210, so presumably I could drop the C32's supercharger (and block if necessary) straight into my W210. Probably not viable since scrap C32s are rarer than hen's teeth, but has anyone tried dropping a C32 engine into another model? And yes, I know I could stick the 5.5 v8 in there instead, but I like the car's balance with the smaller, lighter v6 under the bonnet
 
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Nobody got any thoughts?

Ok, it's "fit middle aged man into rubber trousers" thread time then :eek:
 
Get some rubber trousers:D

You may strike lucky but I doubt the seat frames are exactly the same in a W202 and a W210. You may be the first to want to try this mod:dk:

Re the C32 engine, nothing is impossible, but you'd need all the C32 ancilliaries,the gearbox, the prop altered,different engine mounting points, some of the wiring loom and a heat exchanger just to start with. The brakes may also need an upgrade.

Really way too expensive and difficult, and selling your car and getting a W210 E55 would make far more sense IMHO.
 
Uneconomic conversion....

Don't forget that you'll also need to modify the suspension - which is not the same as having "just lowered it."

It's a completely uneconomic conversion that will result in a car which will have a seriously damaged resale value, because buyers will wonder if you have created a car as well built as an AMG. Even a few tiny mistakes would / could be very expensive.

If you want a car that has nearly double the power of your existing car, just buy a C32. It may be more money, but the running costs will be far cheaper than trying to build your own.




.....
Re the C32 engine, nothing is impossible, but you'd need all the C32 ancilliaries,the gearbox, the prop altered,different engine mounting points, some of the wiring loom and a heat exchanger just to start with. The brakes may also need an upgrade.

Really way too expensive and difficult, and selling your car and getting a W210 E55 would make far more sense IMHO.
 
Get some rubber trousers:D

You may strike lucky but I doubt the seat frames are exactly the same in a W202 and a W210. You may be the first to want to try this mod:dk:

Re the C32 engine, nothing is impossible, but you'd need all the C32 ancilliaries,the gearbox, the prop altered,different engine mounting points, some of the wiring loom and a heat exchanger just to start with. The brakes may also need an upgrade.

Really way too expensive and difficult, and selling your car and getting a W210 E55 would make far more sense IMHO.

The engine mounts and gearbox shouldn't be too much of a problem since the E320's already an M113, unless MB 'did a Vauxhall' and changed the block casting half way through the production run. There's plenty of room to mount a heat exchange in the spare 'real estate' under the bonnet and a brake upgrade wouldn't be too much hassle since the E55 AMG brakes would be bolt-on, but the two really big issues from what I can see are the cost of finding a C32 donor to get the engine and all the ancillaries from, and the electronics. It'd potentially be a 'bolt on' conversion but for one thing - the W210's CAN bus. It'd need a lot of expertise to reprogram the ex-C32 ecu to mimic the existing one, so it'd potentially end up as an impressive non-runner.

As for buying an E55 outright - that'd be a v cheap option (a couple of decent-looking ones went on Ebay recently for 2.5k!) but I'd still have the slidy seat issue, and the V8 W210 I drove briefly didn't feel as nimble as the E320 because of the extra weight hanging out over the front wheels.

And as for the seat swap - welding on new runners wouldn't be a major issue, but once again I could fall foul of the CAN bus with the seat electronics, and it might potentially look quite daft if the C43 seats are narrower :)

Time for a rethink maybe...
 
Don't forget that you'll also need to modify the suspension - which is not the same as having "just lowered it."

It's a completely uneconomic conversion that will result in a car which will have a seriously damaged resale value, because buyers will wonder if you have created a car as well built as an AMG. Even a few tiny mistakes would / could be very expensive.

If you want a car that has nearly double the power of your existing car, just buy a C32. It may be more money, but the running costs will be far cheaper than trying to build your own.

Economically I'm not worried - the whole car's worth 1/3 the 2nd hand value of it's factory-fitted AMG pack, so everything I do to it which doesn't involve breaking it for spares is a 'labour of love' anyway.

And the suspension shouldn't prove too much of an issue - it's already got the same suspension as the E55 AMG from the factory, but I've fitted uprated E55 springs, am polybushing it, plan to fit uprated shocks when funds allow and would fit thicker ARBs if I can find them, all to handle the exceptionally twisty roads round here. And that's why I'm looking at possible modifications - at the moment the limiting factor when it goes round corners is me sliding out of the seat, and it'll be spectacularly 'over-suspensioned' for the power when I've finished.

But the electronics could prove an issue with the C32 conversion (as well as the seats looking naff if they're too small for the car), and it'd be a major guilt trip if I had to kill off a decent C32 just to modify a crumbly old W210, so I might need to do a rethink...

Hmm, how about a W202 C43 with the E55 engine? :D
 
Hmm, how about a W202 C43 with the E55 engine? :D

That has been done by at least two people on here.
If you are really interested, contact BlackC55, the owner of PCS in Horndean.
I think he did that conversion.
 
That has been done by at least two people on here.
If you are really interested, contact BlackC55, the owner of PCS in Horndean.
I think he did that conversion.

Mmm, could be tempting, I'm really not feeling the love for my modified Alfa 156 GTA since getting it back from being restored, so a tyre-burner with an MB logo on the front may be in order to replace it ;)
 
Watching Wheeler Dealers has made me realise anything is possible if you have the skill and time. With seats the issue will probably be the runners, but if you can swap or weld in these from a doner car you might be ok.
 
Watching Wheeler Dealers has made me realise anything is possible if you have the skill and time. With seats the issue will probably be the runners, but if you can swap or weld in these from a doner car you might be ok.

Mmm, true, though weirdly from what I've seen it's normally the electrics which seem to defeat engine conversions. I'm fine with most normal rewiring, but I'd forgotten most post-1995 Mercs have a CAN bus.

In theory the CAN bus should make car electrics simpler and more reliable since there are only 2 wires connecting all the ECUs rather than an entire bird's nest, but the trouble is everything on the CAN bus has to respond in the correct fashion with the correct ID, otherwise nothing works. So as well as the mechanical and electrical skills you'd normally need to do a conversion, you also need to be an automotive programmer and electronic engineer.

I'd be really impressed with myself if I could pull it off, esp since I know there are only a handful of people in the world with the right skillset to do it without a huge team around them, but it's probably something I'd leave for a retirement project rather than a weekend fiddle-about.
 

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