I have joined the dark side...

[moroza]

I'm sorry, I couldn't help it, they had cookies...











Location took about four months. Acquisition took three days of shady bullshit. Justification took about ten minutes on the way home, despite crappy tires, front-end shakes, a broken seat, heat stuck on, and a screeching fuel pump. Inspiration to name it took about as long: Brunhild, the Big Black Benz.

Have I moved on? No. Not yet, anyway. The E34 does a lot of things better than the W140, but competition from the latter has lit a fire under its ass to step up in a few areas that've been lacking - rear suspension and road noise, primarily. Stay tuned for SLS retrofit and soundproofing threads. Once those are complete, there'll be a hard choice to make. The winner gets the OM606 sitting on my shop floor, and funding from the sale of the loser.

[Sleepyhead97]

Leathers look clean! Nice paint too! Still looks like dog poop vs e34. But it is probably a well built car

[moroza]

It's not my favorite car to look at, inside or out. I agree with both Jeremy Clarkson, that it's not exactly the esthetic masterpiece one'd expect for a billion Deutschmark, and with its designer Bruno Sacco, that it's some 10cm too tall. That said, it looks better in person, perhaps because its sheer size lends it a presence that turns Mundane into Elegant.

I didn't buy it for its looks. I bought it because the way it rides, even with this specimen's problems, puts to utter shame just about anything else. That includes any BMW I've been in, including its two competitors, the E32 and E38.

Paint is better than most 28 year old original, but up close it's a crappy respray, with lots of minor defects and at least two runs.

The interior has decent to good parts held together with chewing gum and wishful thinking. I bought myself a project, but that's exactly what I intended. This isn't the first time I've wrestled a middle-aged German Maintenance Hog, and won.

[Sleepyhead97]

I have absolute faith in you sir! Go getem

[zubbie]

been tempted myself a few times but could never get over the "carved out of a loaf of bread" look. Very interested in where this goes though.....

[OrientblauACS]

A solid car and comfy ride, I prefer the sportier ride offered by the E34. Why not keep both?

Sent from my SM-G390F using Tapatalk

[moroza]

Because that would make five vehicles, whose average age is 31 years, owned by someone who lives alone on 40 off-grid acres and entertains (increasingly futile) notions of having a life outside of vehicle and property maintenance...

[consti2tion]

It definitely looks spacious. Hope it's worth it!

I have given up much notions of having a life outside of property/home maintenance and working on my old shitty cars, at least for a couple of years.

[bigsixe34]

Cool.

No rear or engine photos... S500?

In between my e34s I drove a '98 C280, which, while inferior to this in every conceivable way, I adored for much the same reasons. The ride was unparalleled by anything else I've owned. It just ate up the freeway.

[moroza]

500SEL, M119. It has a similar character to my former M62, and chugs gas like a frat boy having hiked through the desert to get to a kegger. It suits the car's character, and even with the 4500+ curb weight and the throttle not opening more than 40% or so, this thing *moves*. It's probably the second-fastest car I've owned, after the 544iT.

[bigsixe34]

🤣 I’ll bet it goes. You should be able to quench its thirst with some TLC no?

What’s the endgame with the diesel swap? Bio/Fry oil?

Looking forward to progress. Drop a link to any extraterrestrial project threads.

[moroza]

Biodiesel is not veggie oil, waste (WVO) or straight (SVO). Yes, I'll run it on biodiesel - it's in most respects a better fuel, regardless of petroleum independence that I also value. I won't run it on fryer grease.

[bigsixe34]

Any updates? Surely this hasn’t been collecting dust for a month...

[moroza]

It mostly has, but I did finally get around to doing a round of what I'm slightly embarrassed to admit is post-purchase inspection. Some notes, specifically from the perspective of an E34 owner:

SLS was deleted by simply installing conventional rear shocks (Monroe OESpectrum, which are usually good but in this case too stiff), and capping off the hoses from the accumulators, with nothing else done. The $400 regulator valve is leaking, was noisy, and is probably damaged at this point. Unlike E34, accumulators are readily available and reasonably priced, about $70/ea.

Popular lore makes a big deal out of the door closing feel on these. It's actually quite muffled; there's solidity but it's very refined. E34 are slightly less solid and a lot less refined, which is personally to my liking - it feels positive and mechanical, not distant and isolated. Earlier Mercedes felt even more solid. But the winner in this department, IME, is a Porsche 930.

The front seats dethrone the E34's, albeit not by much, for being the best I've ever sat in. The rear seats are leagues ahead of the E34's. They feel comparable in quality to E32 rear buckets, and clearly superior to E38.

The M119 is the worst gas hog I've ever owned (1973 Ford P400 gets lower mileage, but not by much and its excuse is that it's a giant van). We're talking something like 12mpg in the same use pattern as 21mpg in my Touring when it was an auto, 23 now that it's a manual, and high-40's to mid-50's in my Insight. 26.4 gallon tank, and I swear I can see the fuel gauge move when I step on the happy pedal.

Some parts are reasonable, others cost a goddamn fortune. Two caps and two rotors, about $200. Two of three cabin filters usually $20ish, but one is $360-400. That's right, four hundred dollars. For a cabin filter. Lower control arm bushings have the same weakness as E34 and E32, and cost ~60 per corner for Lemförder - not bad, but Lemf has sold out to China yet again and I was lucky to jump on some NOS German ones. They require a special tool to press in without damaging them. I priced out a full suspension rebuild on a non-SLS one of these: about $3500 in OE-grade parts, roughly double an E34 and that's not including brakes, steerbox, SLS (god help you) or ADC (not even god can help you).

Electrical gremlins are one thing. Gremlins with clunky and poorly-organized wiring diagrams are another. In a car wired like a mobster's phone, they will be a test of my patience and electrical skills.

Replaced the driver's knee panel. It weighs about triple what an E34's equivalent panel does, and instead of screws, is attached with spring-loaded metal latches that are riveted in to the dashboard support structure.

It feels bigger than a daily driver should be. Sitting in an E34 driver's seat feels like wearing a glove. The W140's feels like manning the conn of an Imperial Star Destroyer. Driving them is a similar contrast - E34 feels secure, cozy, well-tailored, individual, independent; W140 feels large and in charge, brushing aside the peasant rabble with a quick flick of very powerful highbeams and 5 liters of torque.

Until Nemi's SLS and soundproofing are complete, no decision will be made on Brunhild. Then it's either keep or sell. For now, I'm doing work that either scenario would entail - LCA bushings, idler arm, general tuneup, seat fix, gremlin exorcism, fixing the stuck-on heater, miscellaneous trim repair. If keeping, I'm probaby going to do a full teardown and rebuild, including a few gadgetectomies. I plan to largely de-content the car while keeping its essence. Here's the intro thread I made on Benzworld back when I began seriously looking for one: Building a Benz.

[fo3]

I like old mercs too. Like mentioned in that link I decided bmws have less wiring problems and a larger DIY enthusiast base with more open information, so I never got my 124/210 or 126/140. I've had friends who have owned older ones like 108, 114, 123 etc so I was really into them and almost went down that path myself. I can see the appeal and I know what they're like to ride in and what they cost to own. I made my choice already - E34 because they're cheap but also considering an e39 touring or an E38 one day because they're cheap too I might get a 190E first though (cheaper than a e30). These old cars are just a hobby to keep my sanity so they're important, but not food/housing levels of cost important.
Keep posting about it because I'm interested in the dark side.

[bigsixe34]

First time I've revisited this thread in weeks, and of course Benzworld is down for maintenance
So I'll ask here - Any updates?

[Onizukachan]

From the days when gas was .87 a gallon.

Mercedes engineering is like Tetris. They’ll move out, or at least they did when new.

[moroza]

Nope, I put it on the back burner and there it sits. I'm knee-deep in a dozen projects on my E34, on top of work and the rest of life getting in the way. I don't expect to do anything to it except leather care before June.

[moroza]

The back burner is burning out; I simply don't have time to deal with this thing. Some of that is for bad reasons - degenerative nerve damage. Some for good reasons - shortly after this, I met my fiancee and am facing a pending move, possibly to the UK (I've decided my E34 is coming with). I wish to someday get back into one of these, but today, it's for sale: $3250 firm.

[a777fan]

First off congrats on the engagement! Sorry to see you having to make a choice with the 140, and wishing I had room.

[Onizukachan]

Best of luck!

[Sleepyhead97]

Congrats moroza!