Sorry I'm just too excited with my recent shipment I had to share

Quick backstory:

I've got a 1985 Mercedes 190e 2.3-16
I know they didn't offer them in the US in 1985
Ive been slowly doing a rolling resto
Suspension, brakes, steering, trans, rear end, misc small things have all been rebuilt, refurbed, or upgraded
Engine is in the works now

The fun stuff...I just got a shipment in which includes a rebuilt (by merc) engine:


Nothing fancy like higher compression, cams, stroker kit...all stock. Booo I know It does, however, have standalone engine management and ignition. Hooray no more Bosch jetronic or distributors of any variety. I finally get the reliability and tunability of EFI


Just thought I'd share...yes I'm a weeee bit off my rocker

 

That's a good looking Mercedes. I'd imagine that an engine rebuilt by the manufacturer would be quite expensive.

 

Just a little bit

Efi system generally runs around $1600 with new parts, custom fab work, ect. That's without a custom harness, install, or tune. Most people do their own harness and shrink wrap it, clean it up, whatever to make it pretty. I'm debating sending it off to painless and have them do their magic

As far as the motor goes...Mercedes wants $1.57/bolt for the header for reference Most of the parts can found much cheaper elsewhere and are the same quality if not slightly better (a lot of these parts never get updated so they've been shelved for years) A full rebuild like this would run around $5-8k at the dealer depending on their labor rates/expertise with the motor...


That's why I bought it off someone that changed his mind and is going with an LS2...much cheaper . Had I not found it I would've rebuilt it myself though...this was just too good of a deal to pass up

 

That does sound like a good deal on the engine.

So is the interior in very good shape for it's age or are you going to have it reupholstered?

 

 

I'm redoing the interior. Unfortunately the seats are genuine leather, have spent 25yrs in sunny climates, and haven't been taken care of by the original owner. It's just the seats though...dash is great, carpet needs to be cleaned, headliner I'll replace out of OCD (need to fix something with sunroof anyway) lol.

For now ive got 2 sparco evo 2s to put in. Getting the factory seats recovered and refoamed is stupid expensive and the few nice sets for sale are too expensive to ship. So she gets some sparcos till I find a nice set local.

 

I'm sure the sparcos will fit and work nicely. I don't suppose they make seat covers for the factory seats? I know the last think most want is to cover leather, but if it is as bad as it sounds...

I hope to keep my seats looking like new for a long time. But I know that decades from now I'll have to have them redone.

 

Ever seen turner and hooch

They're really bad in the front. The rear isn't as bad but has split seams at the top portion. The horse hair is terrible too...it starts to rot and it makes this orange dust on the carpet. Also gives it that distinct 20yo+ euro smell. It's beyond seat covers.

I actually traded em for the sparcos. They're used and could use new covers themselves. New covers for the sparcos are $150/each and readily avail though. Plus I'd never get that kinda cash for the stickers in that shape anyway

 

I had to google that one. Some kind of old movie with Tom Hanks. I have, though, deduced that the dog went about eating the interior of some nice car and thus you were able to draw an analogy of that scene to the current state of your front seats.

 

I slipped recovered recaros into my 2002 and it was amazing the change in smell. No more horsehair! woot!

Thats a fun little motor (the 2.3L) I wished I had the coin for the e30 m3 (s14) when I had my 2002... beautiful!

Keep the pictures comin', as I always love seeing what other people are up to

 

I beleive another mini owner on this board has one of these . Give greg AKA " Onasled " a pm sometime .

Randy
M7 Tuning

 

I have one! It's a little smaller (1:24 scale model).
http://www.flickr.com/photos/53074154@N00/757409106/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/53074154@N00/757409106/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/53074154@N00/, on Flickr

Look forward to more pictures and a report of track time.