Hi all
Have been reading these threads since buying a new (1984, so 21 years new) 280GE Right Hand Drive 3 door 460 with the 4 speed auto transmission.
It's rock solid, genuine 45,000 miles and cleaner underneath than the 230GES i had ten years ago!
I bought it to tow a braked 800kg trailer plus what ever is on the trailer, usually a jeep cherokee or similar, so I'm scraping the max towing capacity for a SWB G.
Anyway, the head gasket has failed, giving me the ideal opportunity to stuff a larger engine in. Fuel cost is not a worry as I only do 40 mile round trips with the G-Wagen.
I was looking at putting in a nice simple ford or chevrolet small block V8, then I considered a range rover V8 which are very easy to find, but am turning to the idea of using a V8 from a mid eighties 500 SEL or SEC which are terribly cheap here in the UK. It looks like the engine should mate easily with the gearbox, and I can't see a problem fabricating engine mounts and brackets if i have to move anything around, but I can see problems with the engine fouling the RHDbrake master cylinder, and maybe problems with exhaust manifolds / headers. Has anyone done a conversion or does anyone have advice on the 500 engine? Thanks in advance!
Have been reading these threads since buying a new (1984, so 21 years new) 280GE Right Hand Drive 3 door 460 with the 4 speed auto transmission.
It's rock solid, genuine 45,000 miles and cleaner underneath than the 230GES i had ten years ago!
I bought it to tow a braked 800kg trailer plus what ever is on the trailer, usually a jeep cherokee or similar, so I'm scraping the max towing capacity for a SWB G.
Anyway, the head gasket has failed, giving me the ideal opportunity to stuff a larger engine in. Fuel cost is not a worry as I only do 40 mile round trips with the G-Wagen.
I was looking at putting in a nice simple ford or chevrolet small block V8, then I considered a range rover V8 which are very easy to find, but am turning to the idea of using a V8 from a mid eighties 500 SEL or SEC which are terribly cheap here in the UK. It looks like the engine should mate easily with the gearbox, and I can't see a problem fabricating engine mounts and brackets if i have to move anything around, but I can see problems with the engine fouling the RHDbrake master cylinder, and maybe problems with exhaust manifolds / headers. Has anyone done a conversion or does anyone have advice on the 500 engine? Thanks in advance!