Right about time I started a build thread seeing as it's all starting to kick off over here! So... I'm a qualified technician for Mercedes Benz and decided to have a dig at this 20v conversion thing. Bought a 20v AMK S3 lump, complete with loom, ECU & pedal last weekend, and so the fun begins..... A bit of history to start with... it's a 1990 1.8 8v. I bought the car off an older couple (2 years ago) who had owned it 9 years, car had 83,000 on the clock was in pretty much immaculate condition. When I got it home, decided to sort out the bodywork. It had the standard rust around the windscreen, someone had done a smart repair on the N/S rear quarter, there was a bit of rust on the tailgate also. Had it booked into the body-shop where a few quid later the rust around the screen had been sorted, with spare wiper hole smoothed, roof painted, rear quarter painted, tailgate 'frenched' & rear badges smoothed. All in all, body is now rust free and pretty tidy Started to strip the car out a little, just un-necessary digging really, looking for more rust problems. Mainly rust on the floor pan etc. All was fine asides copious amounts of water. This started a rampage on sorting every leak out on the car, which was insane. I'm pretty sure the Mk2 is 100% waterproof now, as all the screens have been sealed, grommets replaced, light gaskets silicone sealed. Pretty much everything. That stemmed off to something else... Because of the water ingress, all the soundproofing had become rotten and damaged & didn't really fancy putting back in the car. So I started looking at soundproofing. (During this, I replaced the exhaust as it was blowing, fitted a Jetex catback). Driving 16 miles on the motorway every day in a bare metal shell with an after-market exhaust system really spurred on the search for more soundproofing to! Found a company in the states after mucho research called RAAMmat. Ended up purchasing 125sq ft of the butyl based soundproofing & 7 yards of ensolite (closed foam). Fitted this everywhere apart from the bulkhead and the roof! Also spent 8quid on some carpet underlay, as despite the soundproofing, the trim needed a little bit of padding out to stop rattles etc. Also wrapped the ensolite in polythene for inside the door so it doesn't act like a sponge! Before I finished the soundproofing, I took the car off the road to save for 'minor' improvements . That was last March, in the meantime I've been driving (shamefully) in a 1.1 Rover metro [:^(] - still it's been a cracking motor for 180! This brings me up to the present day. Saturday I began to strip the Mk2. I have until December time this year, that's when the insurance renewal is up and want to be driving it then so I'll be taking it steady and trying to enjoy it on the weekends. Sort of lost motivation before, sure a lot of guys in the trade get sick of the sight of cars! Dirty scruffy 8v engine. Eating & leaking coolant, tappets are completely foobar'd. Anyone want this when its out? Still good working parts on it. Coil, alternator (had new reg) etc etc.. let me know. The engine, and workplace... tiny garage lol ONE plug socket ONE light... nightmare haha. All part of the fun though eh!? Tools for working. Small selection of work tools I ferry to and from, but couldn't be doing with carrying millions of sockets so just bought the Halfords set. Very nice for the money After day one, quite a slow day spent most of it sorting the space out so I create enough room to store parts coming off the car and actually be able to move! managed to get all the cables & loom disconnected from the car to body, front end loose ready for removal. Next step will be to take off the box, and remove the engine. Actually quite interesting to work on, nothing like modern day mercs So that's all for now End goal is to get the engine in and running on OEM management at about 280bhp. Car needs fully upgrading, so wheels, suspension (complete), brakes, audio the whole sha-bang. Everything I'll be doing myself asides any body work so should be a interesting build with a decent result Chris
Just from the local 'County furnishings' 8 quid, they gave me a load of off cuts. Very messy stuff though, gets everywhere. I think maybe next time I might try some different type of underlay - they do some soft foamy stuff for the same price, however not sure if it would be AS flexible. Ta
Watching this one intently...could be shaping up to join the "build threads you must see before you die" catagory Keep it up man! plenty of pictures!!
Ha, was looking through some of those threads the other day. Very high standard in there! Still will try my best to keep the thread updated with plenty of info & pics. Hope to get a fair bit done this weekend want two full days on it!
Small update guys: Bit ****ed off with today... spent a lot of time getting not a lot done. Just having to contend with dodgy bolts and fixing other things along the way. Got to the garage at 1'o'clock after popping to machine mart to buy some spline tools for the drive shafts. Ended up leaving about 5.30/6. So in the end I managed to drain/disconnect the PAS lines. Took out the drive shafts WHAT A MISSION! This took most of my time, having a few bolts sort of fall to pieces! Also had to find a way of putting the brakes on ridiculously hard so I could undo the hub nuts. And not having a lot of head room to work. What I thought would be a hour MAX job took like 2 hours maybe even 3. Drained the gearbox. Removed the front end completely. (Spent additional 30 minutes repairing those ridiculous bolts that hold the bracket on to the bumper.) Started to disconnect the gearbox from the engine, then the f*cking MRS shows up and within 20 minutes is moaning she's freezing and hungry so had to pack everything up and go home :@! Think I'm going to take the engine & gearbox out together as well now. Only 1 picture today. Hoping to have an early start tomorrow. Want the engine/gearbox out! So hopefully big update
Good day today Objective completed at least! Started a bit late as well again today... finished earlier though for the Sunday roast Removed downpipe & engine mounts from the engine - Used about half a can of butane gas and penetrating grease managed to not snap any exhaust manifold/engine mounting bolts. Christ they were tight! Loosened PAS bracket Removed the front supporting members Removed the engine Crane in the position! Engine out. Note ghetto engine hoist Also took me 10 minutes to move the crane 180* because not enough room to turn it lol! Two engines together. Bit more space to get the car back in. Empty bay :mellow: Check out the gap :blink: The old 8v motor. 92k on the clock. All parts available if anyone is interested! So next is to get the 20v on a stand and start stripping it. Begin sorting out the wiring loom in the mk2. Most of it is intermingled with chassis loom as well, so will need to start cutting the protecting hose to find the right wires to keep - Also need to clean the bay, although I'm heavily considering getting it sprayed! Need to find out some costs ^_^ S'all for now B)
Good build thread. Some good ideas there regarding soundproofing and foam. I was on the lookout for replacement sections to replace the old bits of underfelt in the Syncro, but I'm tempted to try out some of the materials you've used instead.
Thanks guys. Bad news today though - Got threatened with redundancy with 10 months left of my apprenticeship It's either me or the other apprentice - will know on the 20th. SO... This build is now pretty much going to grind to a sudden holt until I know I have a reliable source of income. F**king sods law.
shame.... such a mint car to start a project with too... best of luck with the job. As you probably already know - start looking now just in case
Started having a look around already. However, the motor trade is seriously dead atm and chance of me finding somewhere to finish off my apprenticeship is slim to none. Still, trying to remain optimistic. Might go back to college/university
The boss said a few nice words about me and I've still got a job... builds back on Will update over the weekend, tonight I shall celebrate!!!
Gonna get a stand today, remove all the excessive engine loom today and start cleaning the bay up a little. Few more pictures for fun as I've got no updates until tonight: This leak... just as bad both sides inspired the entire strip & soundproofing process. I spent months driving around with no carpets/doorcards/trim. Took the dash out to find the leak in the end! Protecting the 'ensolite' closed cell foam from the water inside the door. The rest of the car. The original carpet sits on the underlay to pad out. Picture taken before storage after a weekend cleaning.
Well.. bought a stand at the weekend for the 20v. Need to get hold of bolts to mount it thou (any one got any idea on size other wise it'll be a bit of trial & error). Moved a bit of the loom out the way and sorted it out a little so I know what's what. Got rid of the engine loom for the 8v out of the equation as well. Removed the wipers & the motor. Started to cut thru the standard wire protection as ideally I want it re-routed elsewhere - thru the chassis leg most likely That was it really! Got there late Saturday afternoon and wanted to clean the bay up a little to see what it would come up like but cos of the time it got dark & didn't fancy cleaning in the dark. Need to get some cleaning products for the paint and maybe a pressure washer too. Today was so busy didn't even have chance to go up there :/
nice work so far matey, very impressive stuff to mount the 20v on your stand, you're best to use some M12 threaded rod & nuts instead of bolts. Its cheaper, and can be cut to whatever length you need. Normally comes in a metre length. HTH
Productive day today B) Put a shelf up first as I'm seriously lacking on space as I'm sure you've seen. So managed to free up a bit of space to get some parts stored on the shelf, make a bit of room for the parts off the 20v! Must say.. proper ghetto bodge shelf though, it will do! Managed to get the 20v engine mounted on the stand. I went to Screw Fix Tuesday and bought 5, 300mm M12 threaded rod and a box of 50 M12 nuts. This obviously fits the bell housing mounting holes. So after I removed the clutch/flywheel got it on the stand with the threaded rods. Had to be cut down after as it was obviously too long for the handle to turn Also bought some tools today... just a few as still building the collection at work The Clamp pliers are a god send... beats using side cutters anyway! Needed the saw for cutting the rod... arm ache or what! After I spent a good hour moving 8v parts on to the wooden shelving unit & chucking out bits no one will ever want, I started to have a better look at the 20v to begin start stripping it. So far I've found out that the turbo impeller has excessive play (school boy error on my behalf, seriously f*cked off about that) excuse for a re-build or bigger turbo thou.. maybe? The tensioner is strange... Nothing to actually manoeuvre it to release tension? No bolt no nothing? So just moved it with a screwdriver & took it off! Removed the AC compressor and alternator also. All the intake pipes on the top. Bit's taken off... Random picture of loom & gearbox All packed away for the day... 8v bits on the shelf. So basically, going to be compiling a list of 20v parts needed now. Going to do a few big jobs purely for my own piece of mind and I want to know the engine is in good condition before I put it in. I'm also trying to get a quote for spraying the engine bay So far here's the list: Re-con current turbo, buy new K04 (possibly bigger turbo depending on time-scale -deadline is 12/09.) Head-gasket Water pump Cam-belt + tensioner Cam cover plastic trim Intake pipes re-con/plastic new Random gaskets/seals to be replace whilst doing the jobs. That's based on the engine only... and problems seen so far. Which I've only spent 20 minutes stripping a few things, so hopefully there isn't to many other broken bits :angry: Got sold a broken engine cover as well with the engine :blink: ... realized that today, so cleaned it up and mounted it to the wall
