Oil pan

After pulling the subframe from the rusted out parts car and cutting it up.  I decided the way to get the engine lower and further back was not subframe modification, but rather oil pan modification.
So I cut the oil pan off a mercedes OM617 and the oil pan on the 1jz.  and welded them together.  much as I tried to keep the product flat, the resulting product bowed .08"  so I machined it

just .03 left to go.  will see how it fits today after cleaning off all the bits of aluminum.
Probably going to redo the engine mounts as they look like crap and I now have a CNC plasma cutter and am better at welding and machining.

motor mounts

I hooked my plasma cutter up to my CNC mill with a simple holder that goes in the chuck and used it to cut some motor mounts.  well  it cut the shape and I used the mill with a drill to cut the holes.  then I plasma cut 2"x2" 1/4" box tubing until it had the angle I wanted to get to my jig and cut a 45 degree and drill the mount hole and then welded.

you may notice the nuts it's sitting on.  in the location where I'd like the engine it doesn't clear the subframe.  it does have a good clearance with the firewall though.  So I removed the subframe.  I'll be cutting it up soon and putting all new bushings in before final install.

Progress resumes

I've been distracted, mostly by a '01 F250 7.3 diesel, I bought in December, that's needed over an hundred hours of labour and $3k in parts.  I also took a 3000 mile trip south with said truck to ride my ponies.


after trying to measure the relative locations of the engine mounts on the two engines I decided to rig up a frame instead.
 Here's the Mercedes engine with the frame just created.

and here is a preliminary setting of the 1jz.  with the engine spaced 1.25 inches forward from the back.

I need to level the engine a bit better and level the frame so it won't be tilted.

I hope to mill or plasma cut some engine mount pieces and get them welded over the weekend.

Engines

I've just spent a small fortune on two Toyota 1JZ-GTE VVT-i engines from JDMenginedepot.com  one with a manual trans and one with an automatic.

As you can see they're really crammed onto that pallet.  and it woudn't take a packaging engineer from MIT to tell you that they're likely to get damaged in shipping like that.  and they did.

both the TPS sensors were smashed as were the power steering sensors.  they're not cheap enough that I'd like to cover them out of my pocket.  We'll see if JDMenginedepot replaces.

More vetting.
the auto engine appeared to have moisture on the inside of the oil fill cap.  so I took off the valve covers and...           it's kinda gross.

I don't think the moisture is anti-freeze and the moisture doesn't seem to have emulsed with the oil.  so rain?  dew?  sea spray?

I check the compression and the cylinders are all very good ~180psi :)

I think I'll do a similar vetting to the manual trans engine.  I think it's a little younger and cleaner.  and likely strip the auto trans engine to get good access to the motor mounts for designing my motor mounts.

M110 280SL engine pull

I bought this 1981 280SL at the end of october.  it's a real rust bouquet.
I picked it up for $900 and bought a fuel pump for it $150.  It only needed brakes and an exhaust to be streetable.  But far beyond decent looking enough to be seen in it.


so pulling the M110 2.8 liter straight 6 will give me a great advantage in fabricating motor mounts for the 1jz.

the M110 also stands as a backup in case a 1JZ won't work out.
I'll be selling the automatic and fuel injection systems as I don't want them kicking around and wouldn't want to build a car with a sluchbox and old school fuel injection.  but so cool though.

Purchased a Donor Car

-->

I'm currently on an aeroplane flying to Baltimore to purchase a 1983 380SL from a man in Washington, DC. 

The 380SL is unfortunately engined with a 3.8 liter V8. With an 8:1 compression ratio and other restrictive emissions equipment it's an 150 HP dog. The 280SL euro model sports 180HP from it's 2.8 liter straight 6.

The aim of this blog is to document my woes and garner support of transplanting a Toyota 1jz into this R107 Mercedes Roadster Coupė. After running stock, I'll be modifying the 1jz to run on Compressed Natural Gas. The Current Projected Equipment is as follows:

Mercedes '83 R107

clutch from a 240D diesel manual

Toyota 1jz-gte vvti

R154 transmission

3.69 Mercedes Rear Differential

The most impending difficulties:

engine mounting: There's a Company in Thailand that sells kits for the W123, W124, & W126 Mercedes. Measuring the 380SL without it's engine to find if one of these kits would work, or modifying the existing engine mounts of the 1jz.

Differential: the Toyota Soarer uses a 3.96 or 4.08 rear end. The highest Mercedes axle I have available to me is a 3.69. There's a 3.69 in both of my 240Ds and and my 280SL. Hopefully they're identical and up to torque demand.

Adding limited slip would also be a nice feature. Hopefully the Independent rear suspension will be able to keep itself on the ground well enough for it not to be absolutely necessary.

The usual stuff: Not that it's usual to me as of yet. Custom exhaust, Intercooler piping, reinforcing the front subframe, upgrading the front end to carry extra weight, driveshaft and wiring(including interfacing to the Merc dash instruments: I'm thinking arduino).  Did I miss anything?

I'm a lucky bugger.  I landed in Baltimore at 7:30.  The Metro transfer bus doesn't run until 9:30 on Sundays.  I managed to Bum a taxi ride from a banking consultant, on his way to a Conference.  After a quick jaunt on the Metro and dealing with the nice Georgian I spent 7 hours driving Home.

It's a real dog.  155 HP is far too little in a car this massive.  doubly so with a 2.47 rear differential.  It managed to get home without any hassle and $120 of Gasoline.   the Odometer is broken and I measured the distance from two gas stations and figured to mileage to be 16.7mpg.

and here's a picture in my friends driveway.