[RickASolis]

Well it brings me great sadness to announce that I will be leaving the 126 world for a while. I have a great opportunity that has came up to get a new vehicle and after much thinking, I have decided to go with it.

A 97 E420 was on Craigslist for under $1000. It needs a engine.

Working at Pic A Part, the owner purchased a 97 E420 this week. The car has 35,000 miles on it and was wrecked in the front badly.I can get the motor trans and interior for free.

So Im gonna take a risk and buy this car and do it. My 126 has served me great, but its time to change it up. I'm somewhat getting bored with it, and it is reaching very high miles and starting to burn oil when I take off from stoplights, and the 2-3 shift flare is frustrating.

I am selling my 420 if anyone is interested. $1100 is the price. 359,000 miles. Clean interior, runs and drives good, 2-3 flare on transmission, starting to burn oil from stoplights, timing chain done about 30,000 miles back. I drive this car from Indianapolis and Detroit every week without a problem. Brakes were done last winter (pads rotors and calipers with hardware). New shocks and ball joints. Car needs a alignment. New tires about 2 months ago. Its a good car, just needs a owner to give it some TLC. If its not sold by Sunday, its off to the Junkyard, as I need the money for it.

I hope to be back here with a 126 soon

 

[ElRojo]

We'll be sad to see you go (but maybe you'll drop by now and again?)

Looks like the e420 is an interesting project. I'm a bit jealous of your access to parts like that. Would love to do something like that as a class for my school.

 

[sphinxrider]

Duh duh dun dun dunn, and another one bites the dust.

I pity the 126's with high miles.

 

[RickASolis]

No worries, the car is being sold to a individual, who is going to keep driving it.

I just now got the M119 pulled from the donor 420. What a beautiful looking engine it is. And with such low miles (35,000), it is super clean looking also. Looking in the oil fill area, the internals look brand new. The collision damaged everything that was belt driven on the front, including EVERY bracket involved with those components. The water pump pulled was damaged, but wasn't cracked and didn't bend the shaft either. Im 90% sure the crank pulley survived as well. No damage to the timing cover (thank god) or oil pan. When the motor was still in the car, it cranked beautifully, but did not fire up. Come to find out, the crank sensor was damaged in the wreck and I think that's why it wont start. Both motor mounts were torn off, along with the trans mount. No damage to the transmission.

Im purchasing the car im going to transplant the engine into tomorrow, and will start to remove it and keep all of you updated.

 

[p7fan]

Rick,

Let's see....car for 1k, looww mileage powertrain for free. Given the problems and mileage with the 420sel. No brainer decision! Good luck with her, don't be a stranger

John

 

[V12StealthHunter]

If I had the space to play with, I'd have put the m119 in the w126. No fancy integration stuff. Just take everything including the instrument cluster out of the w210 and stuff it in the w126.

 

[Chadahar]

That engine would look great shoe horned into a late Gen II SEC..or a Gen I for that matter.

 

[graftdesign]

I think you did a smart move. With buying it for $1k and Free engine and interior, this car should be worth the time and effort since they sell for quite a bit more than what you'll have invested ($5-6k)

 

[sphinxrider]

SCORE! On the M119

 

[RickASolis]

Well I got the car and started to pull the old engine out at 9, took this picture at 12. The old engine jumped time, huge crack in passenger valve cover. Just looking into the oil cap, it looks like the oil hasn't been changed for at least 20,000 miles. The sludge buildup is just awful. Its a real shame. By 6, the new engine was in and fired right up and sounds fantastic.

Just have to reattach the drive shaft, put a new transmission mount on, change the trans fluid and filter, and see how she drives.

 

[RickASolis]

Well after reading all of that, I thought to myself "wow, what an asshole, doesn't sound like someone from the W126 board". Then I saw your post count, and realized that its just Rex.

 

[w126Sam]

keep us updated, you get her going yet? I can't believe you had the old engine out and the new one in and fired up in 6 hours. Like elrojo said, I am so envious of your access to parts and stuff. You guys have any 126's on the yard, or is it one of those pay $2 and hope deals? Good luck with the project.

 

[RickASolis]

Well Friday at about noon, I started the car and everything ran great. The powersteering pump is quite noisy, but thats a easy fix. Runs butter smooth.

I had a problem with the transmisssion at first. It was slipping randomly, sometimes would hold a gear and not shift, not go into gear at all, jerk hard, just about anything to make you freak out. I triple checked the fluid level and everything was right on. When I drove the car at night, it finally made sense.

On these cars, on the shifter assembly, it lights up what position you have the selector in, like P R N D 4 3 2 1. Well as I was driving, it would light up D, then randomly quit lighting it up and then back on and what not. It was loose and telling the TCM module that it was between drive and neutral. I fixed the problem and it drives like a dream.

 

[RickASolis]

Have no fear, the W126 sold Monday to a friend of mine, so it lives on to continue to rack up more and more miles