im planning upgrades for my 85 190E
this car was in great shape and had been sitting for about 3 years, it had one collapsed lifter which i replaced for $14 from a dealer.this brought the grand total up to $514. i put a battery in it and listened to the guys heart break as i stole it away from him....:)
im gonna upgrade the ugly ass sealed beam headlights with euro kits and put a grill on it but first i want more performance. i really like the handling characteristics of this car but i want more low end.
headwork is gonna come first but im looking for information on the possibility of supercharging/turboing this engine to get more low end out of it. i know im gonna be somewhat limited by the automatic tranny i have. ive searched the internet and cant find any kits. any information whatsoever would be much appreciated.
The search for power at the low end on the M102 motor may be futile, but power in the upper ranges can be achieved with turbocharging and/or NOS. Many forget that the MB was made for 'bahn burning, not the stoplight grand prix. The W201 is really at home cruising at 100 mph all day long, not trying to out gun some V-TEC Honda.
so what about a kit or a kit that could be retrofitted? i cant afford to send the car to a performance shop for a total job but could have some work done like the manifold or something.
I would start with making sure the 2.3L is "all that it can be" before adding on parts. Consider an upgrade to the coil (Jacobs) and new sparkplug wires. Have you checked the compression and leakdown on the cylinders? Got to do that before considering any kind of boost. The biggest drawback to moddin' the M102 is the Bosch Jetronic fuel injection system that is primarily mechanical. There's no "chipping" like on EFI. There are street, mild and race cams available for the 2.3L, as well as headers and freeflow exhausts (depending on your emissions testing regs). Figure that a turbo setup for the M102 is going to run you at least $3K, which is pretty close to the value of the car.
If you really hunger for more HP, consider selling the 2.3L (sounds harsh, but economically more practical) and get a faster car. If you love the W201 layout, find a 2.6L, hopefully with one of those rare 5-speeds, or save up more and hunt down a 16 valve.
yea unfortunitly the 190e , well 2.3 8v isnt great for the low bottom end pick-up....but if you like the 190serise...hunt down the 2.5 turbo diesel...that's a car worth moddin....they are faster than the 2.3,2.0 190e's.....well have fun hunting down the faster engines, why dont you also look for a small clk engine...they have a desent powerplant...
If you don't want to sell the car, and stick with the engine, you can start by replacing the normal sparplug wires to fiber optic wires.
Also maybe new (sport-) sparkplugs can help.
This I think should give about 10-15 hp gain, wich brings the total to about 145-150hp, not bad i should say.
. . . a 10-15 HP power gain from wires and plugs? That's nearly a 12-15% increase. I'd love to believe it, but you'd have to dazzle me with facts first.
ok, here are some[;)]:
our 1988 BMW 525i has fiber optic ignition wires: standard 170hp, now 180 (0-100km/h:normal:10.8, now: 9.7secs)
our 1988 JEEP Cherokee has fiber optic ignition wires, standard 171hp, now 185hp.
these things give quite some torque also (very noticable) plus there is a very very noticable difference in running/souplesse of the engine.
I know you're going to ask for a dynotest, but I don't have one, but I can tell you one thing, these things really really give difference.
Linear Mode
