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High Performance M130 Build

20K views 49 replies 12 participants last post by  aluminum  
#1 ·
Hello all,

Thought I’d share my M130 build. The engine is out of my Unimog 404.0. It originally came with a M130 with dual zenith 32NDIX carbs, it was a low compression head.

Engine will be pulled and fully rebuilt. I purchased a NOS high compression M130 head and all associated valve train components. The cylinder head has been fully ported and polished. I also had a custom camshaft made for it, the specs exceed both US and Euro spec cams. Will be swapping out the 32 NDIX carbs for 36 NDIX carbs. If I still don’t get the fueling I need I am thinking I’ll have a custom intake manifold made to accept a Holley 4 barrel truck avenger carb. Looking at this carb because they make off-road variants and you can boost prep them pretty easily in case I want to turbo down the road.
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#2 ·
In my previous research of the m130 motor, it appears to me that the US Spec was no less powerful than the Euro versions. The biggest difference in the versions seemed to show the mechanically injected Pagoda ones were significantly more powerful than the carb versions used in the w114 cars.

I also wonder what the big difference was from the m198 motor (or whatever was used in the gullwing 300sl) which was significantly more powerful than the 2.8 m130 for even the pagoda. I wonder why that technology wasn’t used? Maybe the motor was just too big. I think it was aluminum too.

I’m a big fan of the k-jet m110 motors. Easy 185 hp.

I don’t intend to dissuade you from the route you are going, but wonder if it will be a lot more difficult to get big gains. I don’t know.
 
#3 ·
From what I can tell and maybe I’m wrong here, I take manifold design may play a big part. Again this is theoretical but in order to fit intake mani, carbs, and exhaust mani on one side you end up with a very restrictive intake mani design. You dont have these same issues with MFI, the MFI setup is on the spark plug side, you have fuel injection, so you have way more room to make a more optimized intake manifold design. Again this is theoretical.

I’m not deterred. I want to retain my M130 motor as this was the original engine for the truck. So I am seeing what I can get out of it. If all else fails boost it. I’d be happy with 200 hp.


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#4 ·
The compression ratio is usually cast on the side of the head. This page shows that at least for w113 chassis there were several different heads that all had the same compression ratio. https://www.sl113.org/wiki/Engine/CylinderHead

There are different heads for carbs vs FI.
 
#5 ·
Hello all,

Thought I’d share my M130 build. The engine is out of my Unimog 404.0. It originally came with a M130 with dual zenith 32NDIX carbs, it was a low compression head.

Engine will be pulled and fully rebuilt. I purchased a NOS high compression M130 head and all associated valve train components. The cylinder head has been fully ported and polished. I also had a custom camshaft made for it, the specs exceed both US and Euro spec cams. Will be swapping out the 32 NDIX carbs for 36 NDIX carbs. If I still don’t get the fueling I need I am thinking I’ll have a custom intake manifold made to accept a Holley 4 barrel truck avenger carb. Looking at this carb because they make off-road variants and you can boost prep them pretty easily in case I want to turbo down the road.
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@RPMs, would you be willing to share your source for the custom camshafts? I'm performing a similar project and going straight to lightly turbocharged. Happy to share the details as they become available.

Cheers,
Joe
 
#7 ·
Thought I’d share my M130 build. The engine is out of my Unimog 404.0. It originally came with a M130 with dual zenith 32NDIX carbs, it was a low compression head.
Engine will be pulled and fully rebuilt.
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I am a bit puzzled here. On one hand I like to see another one of those engines rebuilt, on the other I want to discourage you from doing it. Why is that, you may ask. Well, as you probably know it will cost a small fortune to do it properly. That is still all good. Where I foresee a future problem, or maybe that is to strong of a statement, let’s go with slight disappointment, regret is on your first test drive. There will be no bang for the buck. At least in your application. Personal satisfaction of doing the job will be your only reward.
In road application M130 is an excellent power plant from the era. Off-road, I’m not so sure. Other words there are better choices. OM606 could be one of them. Running examples are only fraction of what the M130 cost. Not to mention the low end torque that will suit your application. Need I mention 250 hp on stock components.
Anyway, good luck on your project, whatever it will be!
Enjoy the experience.
 
#8 ·
I’ve only started my build, so I’m not 100% what it’s going to cost (to the dollar) yet …. But I bet we’re talking 6 of one, 1/2 dozen of the other here.

The m130 is the same block as the m180 and bolts to the rest of the 404’s drivetrain. There are a few mods to be done and in the end you’ve got a drivetrain that functions just the same ….. with more power.

Anything other engines choice is going to take a lot of fab work to make work. Those bills can rack up just as easy if your not doing it all yourself.

Not to mention, from what I’ve seen done with other engines, require motor mounts that prohibit the 404’s drivetrain from moving as it was designed….. and that flexing capability is important offroad ….
 
#13 ·
i contemplated a fuel injected system but instead I opted to boost prep my Weber carbs. Here is my power adder stages: tun stock zenith carbs first, then move to Webers and reworked intake manifold, then if still not powerful enough I’ll lightly boost it on the boost prepped Webers.
 
#10 ·
Wow it’s been a long time since I’ve been here. For those of you curious if I got the engine back together and running. Yes I did. It’s running but I still need to get it tuned properly. I’m taking it in stages, I installed the zenith carbs and stock manifold first to see how she performs. Then I will step up to my reworked manifold and Weber carbs. Here is a quick vid of the engine running, sounds like a beast:

 
#14 ·
Wow, after hearing that I think I need to rethink my exhaust and get that cam; sounds amazing!

So I know it’s different for the carbs but for the fuel injected m130 would the mechanical system do all of the work needed if lightly boosted? (Under 10psi) it’s given a certain amount of air, and it adds the amount of fuel needed?
Again, great job sounds and look amazing!
 
#23 ·
On the topic of high performance engine builds I wanted to ask some opinions.

I had the lower oil pan gasket changed out earlier this week and the mechanic found a huge part of the timing chain guide had broken off and was in the bottom of the pan.

So where do I go from here? I've been daily driving my car since May of this year and it seems to be running fine. I really wanted to find a way to boost it's power with a small supercharger or turbo and let the engine run it's course. Then I'd look at rebuilding/replacing it when the time came. But now with our new discovery I'm not sure that's wise, or I'll be hitting the end of its life sooner than I thought.

My thought is, do a compression check and leak down test, then pull the valve cover off check out the timing chain and surrounding area. Assuming nothing major is going on from there I could try and replace the timing chain, do a valve adjustment and maybe pull the full oil pan to make sure nothing else is down there, oh yeah and if we find that cam profile and it's in my budget I could add that while I'm at it. :unsure:

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#35 ·
This will be stage 3 of the build. Will be running a draw through turbo setup. The turbo will sit on top of the intake manifold, the Weber side draft sits ahead of the turbo. Still need to build up pipe, downpipe, and intake tubing. Only targeting maybe a max of 6-8 psi. It will be awhile before I build the rest of the pipes and put this on. Need to install Weber 38/38 setup and tune that first, then see where I stand power- wise.

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#38 · (Edited)
Fuel lines, throttle linkage, and choke all hooked up. She’s idling right now with a rough tune. Need to do some fine tuning.

I was asked how I modded the carb to handle Offroad conditions. The issue with Webers Offroad is the fuel bowl vents will empty the fuel bowl into the intake stream at extreme angles flooding the engine. My solution was to block the fuel bowl vents in the intake and route the fuel bowl vent externally. I carved a block of PTFE in the shape of the vents and press fit them in. Then I opened up the external fuel bowl vent and put an anti spill valve on the vent, I am venting to atmosphere. You can see the components are circled in red.
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#42 ·
Not a huge amount of updates. Had a flange made for the turbo.

Got the weber 38’s idling good today. Jets are way too small though. The jet kit arrived today. Was waiting on a tuner to be available but I’m kind of tired of waiting so I’ll jet the carbs myself and read plugs the old fashioned way.

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#43 ·
Update- Tuning the carbs with a master Weber tuner. Currently running 135 main jets. They are too small. Bumping up to 140’s and will recalibrate idle mix screws. Also ordered an MSD ignition box and coil to bump up the spark plug spark, will be installing the components when they arrive.

On the plus side if/when I decide to go boost I can run an MSD boost retard box. I’ll just add it to my ignition setup.

Also I am going to go with a hotter spark plug as I fouled out the BP6ES. I’ll be running BP5ES plugs. I also have a set of iridium plugs that are one stage hotter than the BP5ES, keeping these on the side for now.