Project Special Reserve

[Scott Cee AKA 2drx4]

As to hardware, this kit gives you a bunch of way better quality stuff. ARP Pro fasteners for the flywheel and adapter, Grade 8 and Metric 10.9 for the other stuff.

The only thing it didn't really come with is Jeep dowels. They're bullshit to try to get out of the block, so you can't really reuse them. Here's the P/N for them, dealer only AFAIK. I think the kit will likely include them in the future as Doomsday knows they aren't reusable now.

[Scott Cee AKA 2drx4]

Video on the adapter differences. It's pretty meh and I'd only recommend somebody watch it if they want to do this swap.

https://youtu.be/CXiQFDJMdAo

[Scott Cee AKA 2drx4]

So, the other benefit of being delayed was I found a better transmission for cheap.

It's a TJ NV3550. IMHO they're much superior to the XJ AX-15 I was going to use.

There's some downsides. The TJ transmissions are drilled to a different tcase clocking angle for one. The other is it's Schrödinger's transmission, allegedly was pulled at 120K Kms or so due to shifting issues, and the found the clutch had some bad fingers but had already bought a known good tranny so proceeded to replace it. Well, these were notorious for breaking shift forks (some were defective I think), but a bad clutch would do it to. I should probably have torn it apart, but I just didn't get to it, so I'm going to run it and see what happens.

As far as the adapter goes, the first thing is to throw the plate on the tranny and make sure the top bolts don't protrude. The one on the left (I think) will bottom on the block if they do.

They're good. So moving on.

Then you gotta cut a bunch of the oil pan off to clear the starter.

Ideally you want that all smoothed out nicely to avoid cracks. Something like what I did.

Plate and crank adapter can get bolted on.

Pretty much the usual stuff with this. Loctite, torque wrenches, don't be an idiot. You know how it goes.

[Scott Cee AKA 2drx4]

Then you just put the cover on, the flywheel on, and the clutch. Pretty standard stuff.

I ran into really the only thing I didn't like about the kit at this point.

That adapter plate CS cap screw goes into the oil pan... It's the only one that goes into the oil pan, since you cut the other mount off to clear the starter. Since it's behind the flywheel, you would have to pull everything, trans, clutch, flywheel, etc, to get the oil pan off.

Why is that an issue? Because almost guaranteed I'm going to be pulling that oil pan and modding it for clearance issues.

Then the trans bolts up like it normally would. And I could put the starter on and make sure it cleared.

Yeah, it clears.


So, kinda out of pictures for the moment. I'm tired. Struggling to try to keep this informative.

[Scott Cee AKA 2drx4]

Video on bolting it all together. Plus bonus material on balancing flywheels, which I didn't talk about at all... Oops.

https://youtu.be/MesecU6u8Z4

[Provience]

That MB oil pan is a work of art. somebody brought me an LS1 pan to weld up today, fucker has 2 cracks in it at least 4" long. ugly gm floppy bastard

awesome write up, that first kit....just wow, that sucks. it's amazing how many people think plasma is precise and somehow those same people also think they can start their tool paths on their finish lines :shaking: gross. If i want something shit cut, i'll use my damned hand torch and screw it up for free

glad to see you came up with the second kit excited to see this come together, even your videos don't suck

[HillBilt]

Ive been following along on the vids, which are well done Good to see it here also

[Scott Cee AKA 2drx4]

That MB oil pan is a work of art. somebody brought me an LS1 pan to weld up today, fucker has 2 cracks in it at least 4" long. ugly gm floppy bastard

awesome write up, that first kit....just wow, that sucks. it's amazing how many people think plasma is precise and somehow those same people also think they can start their tool paths on their finish lines :shaking: gross. If i want something shit cut, i'll use my damned hand torch and screw it up for free

glad to see you came up with the second kit excited to see this come together, even your videos don't suck

You think the outside of that pan is a work or art, you should see the inside. Theres windage channels and baffles all throughout the thing. I honestly never thought much of Mercedes until I bought this thing, and let's just say my opinion has changed given that they go pretty overkill on a lot of shit. The fucking oil filter on that engine is a cartridge style that's larger than what's used on a Cummins.

And yeah, plasma is cheap... not precise. Works great for lots of stuff, but not that. I know I could have got better holes using my Chinese drill press than they did with plasma.

[Scott Cee AKA 2drx4]

Ive been following along on the vids, which are well done Good to see it here also

Thanks!

[Mr.gutsy]

Yes they really spared no expense in engineering to make 100hp lol classic eurotrash it works great until you need to buy parts id love to know what one of those pans is worth from the motherland

[Scott Cee AKA 2drx4]

Yes they really spared no expense in engineering to make 100hp lol classic eurotrash it works great until you need to buy parts id love to know what one of those pans is worth from the motherland

I actually need one and I'm probably going to just buy another car to cut the engine out of. At this point it's the most economical option. I did have an eBay dealer down to $200 for one, but they only took payment by postal money order.

The weird thing is some of the dealer parts aren't expensive... others sure as hell are. I should phone the dealer in Calgary and see if the P/N is still active and if they have stock.

[Provience]

Yes they really spared no expense in engineering to make 100hp lol classic eurotrash it works great until you need to buy parts id love to know what one of those pans is worth from the motherland

I actually need one and I'm probably going to just buy another car to cut the engine out of. At this point it's the most economical option. I did have an eBay dealer down to $200 for one, but they only took payment by postal money order.

The weird thing is some of the dealer parts aren't expensive... others sure as hell are. I should phone the dealer in Calgary and see if the P/N is still active and if they have stock.

i had a 79 300 SD, dealer only parts for most things, but damned if the dealer could actually get every single thing. Had to get some pistons seals for the transmission, yup, they could get them. which ones and how many do you need

sure takes a couple weeks to ship from germany, but try getting some obscure 2 or 3 year only things from Ford or GM factory for a 30+ year old car. there are a few places that can do reproduction. pelican parts was a pretty good source for things

if i ever buy another mercedes, it will be a 124 body style wagon :drool:

[ridenby]

That is an interesting read. Thank you.

[Scott Cee AKA 2drx4]

https://youtu.be/16K2I_3gkK4

Video of the more recent work... I'll do a post with pictures shortly.

[pointsnorth]

Awkward hood removal lol


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