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Auto-Trend Repairs and Service Information Forums -> 1979-1991 Mercedes-Benz R107 + W126 -> 1990 560sel from California, the "clean" oneto
Post Info TOPIC: 1990 560sel from California, the "clean" oneto
fonzi


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1990 560sel from California, the "clean" oneto
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My handyman roofer "bought" my 1982 euro 500sec, but is short on the full payment.  He says he wants to keep the car but make sure his pregnant worker doesn't trash it.  So he wants tobout her in a sedan. I took him down to the shop to pick one out, he didn't really investigate, but liked that the 1990 560sel started right up and ran.  That car has been driven probably less than 5 miles since that big bastard delivered it on my sight unseen purchase.  i only drove it around the block and ALL of my driving of the vehicle was recorded on video and posted on YouTube.  That's when I lovtced the transmission was dry besides a splash drop on the dip stick.  Take note it was advertised as "clean" and "no leaks", yet there were three bottles of power steering fluid in the engine bay and a small funnel.  

So the slate roofer guy asks me to bring the car up to my house, so he doesn't have to go all the way to the shop when he comes back to give me the coupe back (to store, at least until he pays me for it).  So I stuffed the last of my w126 parts into my 280se stick and drove it down to the shop.  Then proceeded to take off all the things that could have any value to turn this thing into the cheapest beater I can.  

euro headlights: swapped with busted up US ones from my 1983 380se

front bumper: put on a rusty one I got in exchange for selling euro gen2 off my 1986 300se

 

took the black 1989 300se metal sunroof panel to replace the glass w140 roof for several reasons. Hopefully to make the thing seal, and also to take the possibly more valuable glass roof for myself or sale.

 

ok. Departing the warehouse / shop.  Yes, I should have put trans fluid in, but "what's another 2 miles when this car was driven 3 hours on not trans fluid?"  

It was low on oil, so I put a quart in, and drove it home.  It was smelling like burning oil from the engine bay, surely burning oil on the exhaust manifold. 

It it made it home fine, but just as before was flaring above 2000 rpm.

 

the radio displays "wait" when turned on, and the antenna goes up half way.  Take note the ad said the radio and antenna work. 

 

There's one window switch missing (back driver).  

 

I cant remember why I decided to put the driver window all the way down after I got the car home, but guess what... it would only got half way up and was making bad noises.  Hmm... shit.  All I wanted was to get rid of this thing.  

 

Sone of a bitch, a plume of oil smoke came out the dash vents when I was playing with them, on cool temp setting I believe.  "Ughh!!  I can't put a pregnant girl in this thing!  Shit!"

 

the weekend goes.  Sunday night arrives with fortunately no rain.  I had the window down because it simply would not go back up.  We have lots of car break in thieves, so I was surprised to see the car was still locked.  I guess they took one look at that driver seat and knew there's nothing of value in there.

A guy called me about the car possibly wanting to buy the engine, and while on the phone with him, without the key, I popped the hood.  Oops.  Alarm went off, but sounded really weak.  When I got back wth the key, the battery was too weak to crank the car, despite previously sitting for weeks.  Hmm... I wonder if the alarm was going off over the weekend.

Anyway, I was much more excited about the idea of ripping the heart out of this SEL than selling it as a driver for someone.  It's a mess.  The guy just wants some compression numbers, and maybe it will be a go, but I will have to pull the engine.  Hmm...

 

 

ok.  Now for progress, and something worth noting. 

 

The power steering fluid fluid level was fine, topped off, and a good bright red.  Hmm... small funnel.  No trans fluid.  Three bottles of PS fluid with "stop leak" in it.  Hmm...  I'm not on a talking basis with fatass anymore, so I can't ask him a few things that would have been nice to ask like:

"were you putting PS fluid in your transmission?". Yes obviously.

"what's the fucking radio code?  You know, the one that would be in the service books that were pictured in the ad for the car that you didn't include?"  I realized that after putting a charged battery in, the radio asks for a code. I entered three stupid guess codes and then it again said "wait".  Ahhh... 

 

so I realized all the trans fluid I had was in another car that a friend was borrowing and it's now 1:30 AM.  I wanted to make sure this thing is not going to flare once it's got fluid.  Hmm... well, if faTass had been putting PS fluid in, and here is about 1.5 quarts worth, it can't hurt too much to dump in the pink STP stuff.  Ok.  Here goes.  Well, after the first small bottle, maybe 10-14 oz, the flare stopped, but after a trip down the road to the gas station, the dip stick wasn't registering at all.  So I dumped the next bottle in.  trans is feeling Good.  "I will add real trans fluid tomorrow before this guy takes the car, if he takes the car."

 

Ok. Now onto the next highest priority... the window.  Google w126 window half way up, and I see someone has an issue with the metal support under the glass hitting the safety bar.  That's not my issue.  I see the nuts have ripped though the sheet metal and have been over toqued so only one of three support nuts is working the way it should.  Bottom sheet metal ripped and I will need an impact to make progress since the whole stud spins.  The top back one wasn't even attached to the regulator anymore.  The regulator itself was mangled and twisted.  So I flattened this incredibly soft metal back into shape with my hands.  I wonder if this is a cheap replacement.  I saw no MB symbols on it.  

 

So around 5:30 am I was finally finishing up, and slapped it back together, and took the driver window switch out of the wiring because the window is up, and it's way too likely to cause another major headache way too soon.  

 

Now that hat I think about it, it makes a lot of sense that the driver seat bottom is so trashed. I bet this happened before and fatass decided not to tell me and probably only put the window down small bits to pay his tolls on the way up from Virginia to Delaware. That would also explain why one switch is missing.  You don't want one in the driver window. 

 

So, I've still got the sunroof panel to swap back in.  I don't know if this car is going to work for the pregnant girl, especially with the driver window not working, but MAN I want this thing gone.  I hate the idea of spending sleepless nights fixing this pile of crap.  

ok.  I think that catches up and comments where I am with this thing.  Hopefully not too much more to come with this thing, but maybe it will get parted.  Time will tell.

 

 



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SELLC


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I'm not so sure selling a pregnant woman Mcliars old car is such a good idea. It goes without saying that since she is pregnant, she's recently been fu@ked already.

I'd offer to buy it, but since I know it was Mcliars car you'd have to pay me to take it! LOL

There aren't many places that a transmission will leak on a Mercedes and usually it's in the cooler lines that they do start leaking, unless of course he screwed up the front seal when he put that SEC engine in the SEL.

The door window and the torn sheet metal is a common problem. You would have to either replace the door or weld washers in to fix the areas that are all torn up. Most people won't allow things to get this bad, but again... look who the P/O was..

As for the seat... I'd just throw that mother fu@ker away after his stinky ass has been in it... You can use a passengers side seat in the drivers side position with a little work.

As for the glass sunroof... Well that's just a flipping joke... and without a headliner I don't see how anyone would be interested anyway - regardless if the roof was glass or just regular.

We are going to need a photo of the pregnant chick before we can make any further determinations...



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fonzi


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1990 560sel from California, the
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So today in the heat I went out into the sun to work on that sunroof. A Cabral had inferred that the swap to a metal panel would be easy. So I dug in with the metal panel in hand. Of course once the glas and sunroof liner were out, that's when I realized that this is not a simple swap of the panels. Honestly at this point, I'm thinking that the car is more likely to get parted out. But I'm thinking I will just drop out the whole sunroof pan and fasten the metal panel in place permanently. That's not the kind of car anyone is really going to want. So this think is scrap yard bound. Crazy since it's apparently rust free. It may proilvide a few thousand mikes of A-to-B for someone, but I'm looking at selling the engine. I was supposed to get compression numbers today but didn't. Maybe tomorrow.

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1990 560sel from California, the "clean" oneto
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Don't forget the photo... biggrin



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fonzi


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trying to document some of the history of this pile:

mclare getting cold in the cabin, probably due to the sunroof not closing I'd guess. www.benzworld.org/forums/w126-s-se-sec-sel-sd/2754489-i-am-my-way-dc-3.html

Duct Tape Solution: www.benzworld.org/forums/w126-s-se-sec-sel-sd/2754489-i-am-my-way-dc-3.html

For sale ad: www.benzworld.org/forums/w126-s-se-sec-sel-sd/2749377-clean-1990-560-sel-178k-odo.html

But apparently was using Dragi as a mechanic in 2016/2017 even though he gave him bad reviews around 2010??? www.benzworld.org/forums/w126-s-se-sec-sel-sd/1510287-antelope-valley-mercedes-lancaster-ca.html

Post 31 blames Dragi for selling him the 560sec coupe with a salvage title. www.benzworld.org/forums/w126-s-se-sec-sel-sd/2638033-my-coupe-totaled-4.html So wait? He poured all that money into a salvage title car??? WTF? And wait... How do you "total" a car that already has a salvage title? ???

Interesting there are no pics of this mysterious coupe and the damages: www.benzworld.org/forums/w126-s-se-sec-sel-sd/2595738-got-rear-ended-my-coupe-last.html

Coupe left with Dragi: www.benzworld.org/forums/w126-s-se-sec-sel-sd/2754489-i-am-my-way-dc.html

I am pretty sure he told me on the phone that the transmission in the coupe was bad, which is why he left it out there.

What coupe did this engine come from??? Somewhere someone, like maybe Bondavi posted that, but I think the moderators on BW deleted it.

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fonzi


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I've got this driver window up and left it up. The bottom bolt is ripped out, and I don't care. This car is NOT getting restored.

www.youtube.com/watch

I will take pics when the sunroof pan is ripped out and the car is "simplified".



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fonzi


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RE: 1990 560sel from California, the "clean" oneto
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SELLC wrote:

I'm not so sure selling a pregnant woman Mcliars old car is such a good idea. It goes without saying that since she is pregnant, she's recently been fu@ked already.

I'd offer to buy it, but since I know it was Mcliars car you'd have to pay me to take it! LOL

There aren't many places that a transmission will leak on a Mercedes and usually it's in the cooler lines that they do start leaking, unless of course he screwed up the front seal when he put that SEC engine in the SEL.

The door window and the torn sheet metal is a common problem. You would have to either replace the door or weld washers in to fix the areas that are all torn up. Most people won't allow things to get this bad, but again... look who the P/O was..

As for the seat... I'd just throw that mother fu@ker away after his stinky ass has been in it... You can use a passengers side seat in the drivers side position with a little work.

As for the glass sunroof... Well that's just a flipping joke... and without a headliner I don't see how anyone would be interested anyway - regardless if the roof was glass or just regular.

We are going to need a photo of the pregnant chick before we can make any further determinations...

  True on pregnant girl.  I'm not paid on my 1982 500sec.  So she's likely still driving that car around which I guess is still "mine" and likely coming back to me, hopefully not trashed.   Maybe she will get this thing to beat around, or maybe the 1986 300se, or maybe a w203 I've been offered. 

I will take a look at the transmission, but it's been leaving spots everywhere I park it, no bigger than a tennis ball.  I need to try and track down where they are coming from.  McFatass blamed it all on Dragi claiming he paid him to fix leaks (and advertised the car with no leaks, that liar), not on his POS car or lack of mechanical ability.

The door had definitely been opened before.  So surely the regulator issue popped up sometime in the last 8 years Mcliar owned the car, and he did a bad fix, perhaps right before selling it to me, because it seemed to go up and down a few times, but made clinking noises I was too dumb to see as a warning sign.  I probably made it worse myself.

The seat.  Yeah.  I just realized that to be in that bad of shape, it probably takes more than just a huge ass to do that.  There was probably water getting in on it at one point.  Yes.  The seat is pure garbage.  I don't care.  I do have other black leather Gen2, but I'm NOT restoring this car.  The current seat works.  Most of all, I'm pissed off at myself for wasting ANY time on this car. 

The sunroof is a real clusterfuck  I'm REALLY pissed off at myself for wanting to keep the glass roof, and not just running a fat bead of caulk around it and forgetting about it.  I'm at the point where the car just has a big hole in the top.  So I've got to do something now.  I'm not planning on reinstalling a sunroof pan in this.  It looks like the pan in the 1990 560sel has a w140 pan, but I haven't compared it to the pan in my garage from the 1989 300se. 

I better get a pic of the pregnant girl before she gets too big.  I only noticed her being pregnant when she was sitting in the truck.  My friend didn't notice when she was standing, but after he saw the guy buying the car for her.  He did say "That little girl must be filleting his fish pretty good!".  LOL  (FYI: She is 28, not a pedophile thing.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



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fonzi


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Ok. I don't RTFM. So I kind of went ape shit on the sunroof motor to get the cable out. I think that the motor was the only casualty in the whole disassembly. I got the w140 glass roof pan out which is clearly different than a 1989 300se pan. I have the two side by side here. I haven't read mcliar's sunroof thread out of pure disrespect for the man. I do feel a great sense of pride and joy in undoing his apparent greatest accomplishment on the vehicle.

Next up will be installing support bars to hold the 300se metal sunroof panel up and caulking it into place with say maybe some fat bead of caulk. That seems to fit with the rest of the condition of the car.

Removed the half-functional antenna.  

Need to get the Becker radio to stop saying "wait" so I can enter the code written on it to see if it works.  I had it offer an option to enter the code while I drove it after the battery died and I charged it for a day or so.  

The picture of the sunroof panel is how the POS was sitting overnight before I pulled the pan.  



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fonzi


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Oh. The picture of where it's dripping and making a mess...

 

and heres that awesome broken rear glass... 

 

hmm... my 500se could use a windshield, because it's cracked below where you can see it from the inside.  I wonder if I should take the windshield out of this.  hmm... the dash has no cracks also.  I wonder if it would be worth swapping or trying to swap dashes with the 1982 500sec if I end up with that again.

I've got some busted up tail lights I'm go



-- Edited by fonzi on Tuesday 26th of September 2017 02:58:24 PM

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fonzi


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Here's a video of the sunroof pan comparison. 1989 300se on left. Bastardized 1990 560sel with w140 glass pan on the right.
www.youtube.com/watch


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fonzi


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Reading up on sunroof conversion, I see driver window failed, stated in post #1. Surely a hack job repair was done some point later.

www.benzworld.org/forums/w126-s-se-sec-sel-sd/1654573-metal-glass-sunroof-conversion-diy-gen.html

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fonzi


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I hope you guys love this. Here's how far I got with duct work sheet metal and self drilling sheet metal screws today.



-- Edited by fonzi on Wednesday 27th of September 2017 04:50:34 PM

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I am going to pretend that I didn't see them photos...

hmm



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fonzi


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Sorry man, but this activity is making me happy. I love the smashed lights and rusty bumper on the front. I may take the fenders for my rusty 280se stick shift also, and maybe put on the smashed and crinkled hood from my 380se euro that had a good spring bust and my stupid fried tried driving down the road with the hood half open. Luckily he didn't bust the windshield.

I figure the more I can really shit this thing up cosmetically, the better. The good parts can be used to save other vehicles that don't piss me off.


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fonzi


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If all works out well, this car will be hauling tools and roofing materials in a couple days.

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How are the hydraulic rams on the back? Are they leaking?

I have some really nasty regular rear shocks you could put in their place... Heck I might even have that tray you need to fix that sunroof proper.

Also sounds like you don't need that 560 engine either... I mean, if you're going to build the biggest piece of $hit out there you can't leave that engine in there! How about the exhaust system? Look nice? If so I got a real rusted out nasty one here I can swap you for...

I want to help as much as possible!



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fonzi


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Great ideas! I have a sunroof pan too, but won't waste the time putting it in. I think the transport arms have value.

The SLS pump is already gone.

I could maybe use the 2.47 LSD as an upgrade to my 500se, but would need to take the whole rear subframe and then put my anti-squat control arms in. Not a small endeavor for that LSD.

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fonzi


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Yesterday I typed this and never hit submit...


Damn. I'm still trolling. I was looking for coupe engine info, like the starting mileage, but stumbled upon this: www.benzworld.org/forums/w126-s-se-sec-sel-sd/2676505-its-official-i-am-moving-dc-6.html
The antenna only goes half way up. Nice rebuild Mclare. (sarcasm). At least I see here that he never did the TC. And I simply can not believe that he continues to call the interior clean. Scary to see a few posts back that he posts about his guns and desire to buy more.

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SELLC


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What do you mean the SLS pump is gone!? Was it deleted when you purchased the car?



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fonzi


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Yes. There's no reservoir for SLS fluid. Just the pipe that should go to the reservoir. If you look at my YouTube videos you can surely see the void where he kept his bottles of power steering fluid.

Just another item that you'd think he'd likely disclose, but it's actually one of the things that I don't really care about.



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fonzi


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www.benzworld.org/forums/w126-s-se-sec-sel-sd/1616631-diy-w140-moonroof-into-w126-24.html

Documenting more "mcLiar". "Finished", eh? No seal. No headliner. Is that what you call "finished" when several have documented that the seal is the hardest part of the job, and that the sunroof and cartridge need to be removed in order to install the seal? So basically if the whole job still needs to be redone from the start, you can still call it "finished". Now I see why they call you "mcLiar" around here.

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Ok. Got the 500sec back, and gave the MClare car to my roofers workers. I really raped the car of everything I could think of, and will assure that I win on this one. You guys know I spent $1237 on the car, and my friend got a DUI in it and got it impounded before I ever saw it. And The car kind of pissed me off every time I saw it or smelled it. Aside from dropping about $20 in fuel, a few quarts of oil, a tube of silicone caulk,
and probably about $20 in transmission fluid, into the car, I can probably say that plus $1237 is the total investment, plus trashing my own reputation, showing Im a petty jerk for bashing MClare over this car.

But what did I get out of it?

- better front bumper than the rusty pile I put on it after taking headlights
- euro headlights with wipers (swapped in some busted gen1 lights)
- tail lights, installing some cracked and busted crap.
- oops, forgot to put a spare in the trunk after taking out the flat spare 15-hole wheel
- working Becker radio (left an alpine on the floor for new owner)
- half working antenna (installed one that was up and out of a car, so it must have been busted),
- glass sunroof panel, and full sunroof pan
- rear floor mats
- dual snorkel air filter setup in exchange for a single hole one with no snorkel at all.
- removed the saggy hood pad
- rear parcel shelf speaker grill covers
- rear headliner header panel

I will probably be helping keep this pile on the road to do duty for the owner, probably hauling roofing materials.

If I had unlimited time I would have taken the LSD rear end and the crack-free dash, but that would have been just stupid. Well, the whole adventure was stupid. Financially, I should come out on top having gotten:
- $600
- some mulch and some mums and an exterior cleanup on one of my rental properties that I needed to show/rent, apparently valued at $300.

With the above parts list, only the lights really being easy-to-sell items, I figure I can come close to getting my money back. Good riddens.

It was a rust free body, but...





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yeah.. yeah.. yeah.. but it had the Mcliar stank on it...

If you can live with it, that's all that matters... I myself personally would have stripped it to the bone and sat on the stuff for years to maximize on the profits. But that's just me.

I have a few here myself, but I stick with 1986-1991 V8 W126 420 and 560's only because it's somewhat stupid to go outside the years of compatibility IMHO...

I am sure you will rue the day that you sold that Mercedes to someone you knew... Unless of course they manage to also get a DUI and the car gets impounded and crushed for lot fee's... Honestly that's the only way out of this that I see... It's bound to be back at your place because let's face it... It was a parts car.



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fonzi


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Yes. The dash, differential, engine all seem like good parts, but just barekybwould exceed the value I sold it for. I agree that you need to pick your years and focus. Thats also why I got rid of that car. There are more complete and not molested 560sel cars to be had for less than insold this one. Ive passed up several. This one was marketed as some really nice one, and I fell for it.

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So after hacking this thing up, I reposessed my 1982 500sec and handed my roofer handyman the keys and title to the 560sel. The only parts I wish maybe Id been able to harvest from this thing were the LSD diff and the dash, maybe the chrome wheels. They were really happy with how it drove as the loose front end isnt nearly as bad as the 500sec that needs to be overhauled. They planned on maybe having a bigger kid use it for some back and forth, and the seat belt extender looked like maybe it would still be needed in the car if this kid didnt cut back on his food intake. Perfect!

Anyway, glad to have the car gone, but its now in the hands of a friend, and he asked me how hard it is to do valve guides on these cars because hes getting lost of smoke when starting / running the car with the nose pointing down a hill. I told him that maybe this is the transmission vacuum modulator, but I dont know. I told him he should disconnect the banjo fitting for the vacuum line and see if that stops the smoke.

What do you guys think? Maybe thats the reason it was so low on transmission fluid. I dont know.

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Good call about the modulator cell IMO, & worth checking-out for sure.

There are tools available that will allow you to remove & insert new valve-guides from home if that's what you choose to do, & if it's needed. But I'd honestly recommend a reputable machine-shop to do this, as then they can finish the seats & valves to OEM specs too, & the work will be guaranteed. Not to mention re-surfacing & hot-tanking everything clean too.


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fonzi


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I agree on the machine shop stuff. My 1973 280se 4.5 smokes like a freaking napalm storm sometimes. Theres no Dolly by the valve stem seals are toast, maybe the valve guides too. A local shop I had rebuild the top end of a 1964 Lincoln Continental when I was around 24-25 years old had lots of MB in it, a machine shop motor place. They said they would rebuild heads off the car for $600 for the pair. That seems kind of like the way to go, but these motors are so readily available and cheap, Id be tempted to just install another full good 4.5. Maybe 5.6 motors are cheaper. I dont know. For my 4.5, Ive located a euro 4.5 and now have the stick shift stuff needed to make my w108 a euro 4.5 stick. With a 3.27 rear, that would have to be a lot of fun. So, no valve stem seals for me. Screw that.

I did end up getting replacement heads and manifolds on that old Lincoln, and having them rebuilt and installed by the local machine shop.

Anyway, hopefully the reason the trans fluid was so low was maybe a bad modulator sucking thatbstuff up into the engine slowly over time, maybe sucking a lot of it with the nose down hill. I dont know.

Do you think the plenum in the intake manifold would be all greasy, full of trans fluid if the modulator was bad? I know that would be easy to check on a d-jet, but I guess a k-jet would be much harder.

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Hello,

I'd just pull the vacuum-hose off at the modulator cell, & see if there's any trace of trans fluid leaking from the hose or cell. It should be dry & clean.

Also, ( this may vary too ), but transmission fluid has a very sweet smell when it smokes-up IMO. Engine oil is pretty rank by comparison.

You'll lose around 10-mph top speed with the 3.27 ratio, & cruising RPM at say 65-mph will rise from about 2,750 to 3,000 RPM. The motor will seem to be a little more easier-going, & the car may feel lighter to drive. As you know, you'll be making more power at the expense of a little top-speed.

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fonzi


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Well, the w108 4.5 cars come stock with something in the 3.23-3.27 range. I cant recall exactly real guy. Ow. The 107 cars come with a 3.07 with the 4.5, and both of those are 3-speed auto. A 4-speed manual with a euro 4.5 should be a lot of fun with the stock rear end, the lowest ratio available for a w108 I think.

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Rastus


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Oh for sure you'll enjoy yourself, & you'll have a competent cruiser no-doubt that performs fine, & still offers some reasonable gas-mileage.

The 4-speed manual transmission does put a smile on my face thinking about it. Very rare, especially today.

The 6-cylinder-engines have a diff-ratio of 3.69(?), & LSD items were fitted. I'm not sure you'll want or need one-of these though, as the 4.5 makes a surprising amount of Torque down low.

Have fun ! It must be good to have some options available !

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