Ownership Verified: Mercedes 280 SE (1981) aka. the ugly duckling...

Just from pictures it looks very exciting. :)

So can we stop calling it "ugly duckling" now? :p
 
What kind of idiot drives a dark blue German limousine with silver leather, a manual straight six from the 80s???? Oh wait. I do too. :lol:

Yours looks REALLY nice, I am a bit jealous of the paintjob, care to come over and do my doors? ;-)

You need to bring it to Ringmeet (or at least Finnmeet in February!!), we need to compare - after all, our cars were direct enemies back then and from the looks of it, our specs are not too far off ;-)
 
Rolling with claaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaass...
 
Thank you guys :) It is still work in progress, so maybe just duckling...

I hope it will be ready by ringmeet, February is a bit too close. The restoration was done in Hungary - I am sure they would even do BMWs ;)
 
Looking good :thumbup:
 
On our way to Finland :)

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Great! I really like the detail that you didn't remove the hole for the flag pole.
 
Sorry, I didn't add a post, but we are back in Finland! Everything went well, and despite quite a bit of rain, the trip was perfect.

Some pictures from the way, sorry about picture quality:
Before departure
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Fun twisty roads in the Czech Republic
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Mighty tight parking areas in old Vilnius:
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And back in Finland this weekend...quite a bit dirtier:
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The car has an upcoming inspection soon, where the new gearbox is to be registered.

There are still some issues with the car, but the biggest problem is now the uneven running at idle. My friend suspects this is down to injectors. Fortunately the rough disappears when the throttle is touched :p
 
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There are still some issues with the car, but the biggest problem is now the uneven running at idle. My friend suspects this is down to injectors. Fortunately the rough disappears when the throttle is touched :p

It could be injectors but more commonly it's the distributor cap particularly if the car sits a lot (like presumably yours did when it was being overhauled). I would try with a new OEM dizzy cap and rotor because those are very cheap compared to doing the injectors+seals.

Surefire way of telling your injectors are bad are: when the engine is warm, if you have to crank it a lot until it starts, and/or the engine runs on less than 6 cylinders for a while after starting, then you have bad injectors.
 
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The engine starts up only slightly worse when warm. The injectors were all taken out and seals replaced when the engine was fitted. The spray patterns were not perfect and there was some dripping. The distributor cap it currently has been standing for nearly 8 years. I will replace the cap first.

Are the caps only available from VEHO?
 
They are available all over through spare part shops and of course as OEM through KL-varaosat.fi.

Motonet seems to have it as 10-4589 (37,90?) but they don't say what brand.

I would recommend Bosch only. I bought mine for the 300 through KL-varaosat and it cost 89,80?. The rotor cost 34,90?. But these prices are for the 300, YMMV.

It's possible some place like AD-varaosat or Osaset or similar might have Bosch for cheaper.

By the way, you could try sanding off any carbon/oxidation in the contacts of the old distributor cap, to confirm that it is causing the rough running. It won't be a longlasting fix but it will give you peace of mind if it clearly shows that the cap is the culprit.


That being said, sounds like you clearly have leaky injectors as well. Do you (or a friend) have a setup for testing injectors? I still have my old ones from the 300 and we have the same part # injectors. I could borrow my injectors so you can test if maybe some of those are in working condition and you could see if it improves your engine feel.

The 6x Bosch injectors set cost 177,75? on eBay including shipping. Now there seems to be a cheaper seller at 152? incl. shipping: http://www.ebay.de/itm/6-x-BOSCH-Ei...l-Mercedes-W124-W201-0437502047-/121991568557
 
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Tyre kicking meet is in order, I think.. :thumbup:
 
Thank you for the advice Jupix! I think I will replace both injectors and the distributor. I have already ordered the injectors, as my friend said that the current ones are beyond salvation.

Tyre kicking sounds good. :) Let me know if you guys are around Helsinki!
 
Fantastic transformation! We definitely need to have a meet :)
 
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