Greetings from Aus, questions on W202 C180

[Buckna]

Hey everyone, name is Daniel (Buckna) from the east coast of australia!

About to come into possesion of a very clean W202 C180 rolling on 20's and slammed on its ass giving it that "pimp" look people drive benz's for

hehe, well anyway, I've built a few cars over my time and done everything myself, I noticed that the puss box merc motor that comes with this cool mafia looking car is... well... slow, under powered and expected to move a whole lot of car with no real... power.

So after spending the last 3 hours looking for information or help on topics like this (but sadly, getting nowhere fast) I thought screw it, I'll come here and see what you guys can do for me.

I am chasing some general information about the car, weight and dimensions, and possibly dimensions of the current motor and approx dimensions of the engine bay so I can have a look at what I can get in there. I have a couple options available, some more realistic than others...

I was hoping of going with the "Ls1" Motor built by chev? Possibly you might have received it in your rebadge of our monaro the "pontiac GTO" or "Vauxhall GTO"? yes, no maybe, either way it's a all alloy 5.7 litre v8. It not to heavy, has a 6 speed behind it and can make insane power very easily. oh and it sounds tough this I think could be a long shot for the old C180 as it's not the biggest merc around.

So my next option is the Nissan SR20, RB20 and RB25 with a 5 speed behind them, very common and cheap, easy to buy parts for (go the jap import market) and easy to work on. Not to big and far from heavy. (motors came in things such as Nissan 180sx, Silvia, skyline HR32, HR33, Cefiro, Stagea, etc..) this would be my best option as I have done a holden gemini (opel kaddett) with one of these motors in it in standard form making just over 200rwhp on 800kg worth of car (needless to say, lots of wheel spin and fun to be had)

So I was hoping I could fit in a RB25DET twincam 2.5 litre motor with single turbo into my C180 to make it... well move. And be a little bit different. Has anyone got any information on engine transplants in these cars. Anything at all would be a great help to get me started in the right direction rather than spending many man hours on the trial and error side of things. I am hoping to get somewhere near 300-350rwhp out of the motor and change to a full spool 4:11 diff ratio to get some traction and get the car moving down the line that little bit quicker.

Thanks in advance to any help at all!

Daniel

 

[scotth_uk]

Hey Daniel,

I am an ex-Brisbane boy myself. Welcome to the best MB forum around. Couple of other Aussies around here (Miro is one).

[Nice choice of car BTW, my mother rolls 18's on her W202 C240!]

You'll probably find that Japanese websites will have the most information about engine swaps to Nissan/Toyota. Personally I'd look at grabbing an RB26DETT, although your RB25DET suggestion is solid. There's a few current threads looking at Supra engines in older cars.

In real terms, you are going to essentially kill the value of your car. Unless you know of someone else who wants to buy it when you are done, the car's going to be worth close to zero when you've swapped the donk. I figured that you've already understood and disregarded this.

There's a couple of old 70's model Mercs rolling around South Brisbane, but they had huge engine bays and no electronics, so the Chev donks went in without much resistance at all. You'll be looking at complete wiring harness work, which will be very costly and fiddly + adapters + transmission + + +. Your Gemini will look like a walk in the park compared to the Merc. Also depending on who your mechanic is, you may end up paying a lot for the Merc-aware integration labour.

To be honest - whilst I admire your angle, I'd probably just sell the C180 and go get a C36/C43 and supercharge it.

 

[Buckna]

Interesting, I'm a brisbane boy and have no idea why anyone in their right mind would even contemplate moving to the united kingdom of crappy weather haha!

Hmm, I do see where you are coming from, the gemini showed on resistance in the installation of the nissan donk, no original motor wiring (go the carby fed 1600 ISUZU donk) and it was simply, put in, line up, wire, and intercool... Where as with the merc it probably has those annoying features most cars seem to have such as ABS and a ton of sensors and immobilisers and stuff, stupid euro cars. I was also looking into E36 BMW's as they hold the same "im a euro rich car so back off ****er" appeal and look like they have a nice enough sized engine bay..

And as for teh RB26DETT, beleive it or not, they aren't to common over here, seems they get snapped up very quickly by all the skyrice Gt-Ahh owners over here to forge and replace, and then the spare RB26 goes into a silvia which looks standard and then demolishes your M5 off the lights, lol. Plus I don't want to spend to much on the build up of the car, ~3000 for front cut and do everything else myself. Not to difficult, but with all the electrical problems I could run into when ripping out the patheticly slow mercedes motor.

Why can't elagance and performance meet at some point and have a car that has a motor with endless possibilities (such as the CA/SR/RB nissan range, 1JZ/2JZ/1GGTE toyota range, LS1/LS2 chevrolet range etc) into something with class and elagance (without the M3, M5 price tag)

Or why didn't they build the W202 with a carby fed 1600 donk that comes out in the same amount of time it takes to do a spark plug and oil change. Hehe.

So without a big wallet and lots and lots of time spent wiring the conversion isn't the best of Ideas?

 

[scotth_uk]

I cam for cash, not the weather!!!! Currently in the New York, although the money's not as good as London. Oh well - back in London on Saturday.

The RB26DETT situation doesn't surprise me, as they are a very desirable engine. I had a 1995 200SX with an SR20DET, which was great but I didn't have a lot of cash at the time, and eventually it had to go (damn you AGC finance!). Still, it was good for 13.89 down the strip at Willowbank - I was happy. Even managed a 4th place in the Yokohama Shootout in 1996.

Not sure if you are aware of http://www.pms.net.au - it's a guy I used know (Robin) who has done some serious stuff with Subarus and Nissans. He setup a WRX for my friend Shane Pavey, which runs a 10.7 on Optimax (V8 EATR / 41 OHP).

I really liked this Datsun 1600, which did 11's:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hammo_abroad/144105503/in/set-72057594131161668/

He might be worth a visit for some inspiration and advice.