2.3-16 Project

[Vogin18]

Great progress! I remember seeing it at Radwood. Mine was the grey one parked on the main lawn. I converted mine to EFI however never got to finish fine tuning it. It’s been a giant learning curve however the actually tuning part I know absolutely nothing about. Would love some hands on help if you’re willing. I used ELBE Engineering’s kit with VEMS standalone.

[Vogin18]

Here’s my car

[3f05q]

Right on, man! I'm working on tuning as well. I signed up for HPAcademy and that, combined with the Haltech and wideband has made SOME things incredibly simple. I'm essentially using the factory ignition map as discerned in this thread: https://forums.190rev.net/showthread....467-EZL-School and allowing the wideband to trim my VE table. I'd love to get it on a dyno and improve the ignition timing. Road tuning only does so much. It's also been too cold and wet to make any real improvement.

Question, did you have to cut the trailing edge of your bumper to fit that lip? (The vertical portion by the wheel)

[Vogin18]

The awesome! We should link up when I’m back in the states later on this year.
I didn’t have to trim anything. If I remember correctly AKE mentioned something about which version I wanted. I think one required trimming and the other didn’t. This one I didn’t have to do anything

[3f05q]

Wheel shopping is hard.

My 300E is getting R129 brakes and needs the 17's off the 190, so the 190 needed new wheels. I feel like I lucked out and picked up...



BBS RS008: 16x7 +24. This puts the outer rim in a really good spot and leaves a lot of room to move inward. I have 7.5" barrels on the way which will put me at 9" wide in the rear, and still looking for one more 6.5" barrel to take it to 8" wide up front.

The next job is the transmission... 4th gear is whiny and the input bearing/seal need attention too.

[JoeB]

Save your pennies for the front input bearing, because it's a guarantee that there will be a reasonable additional cost to fix other things inside that are unforseen. You're actually better off having it completely overhauled and avoiding any repetitive labour costs and repeat purchases of seals / locknuts etc.

Seek a reputable professional with explicit specialist experience in rebuilding getrag boxes (more likely to be an ex-bmw mechanic). Be aware that some internal parts are NLA or only available through MB Classic centre. Read up on the rebuild threads here and seek the bearings from a BMW dealer if you have issues sourcing from MB, as has been experienced in the past by many.

[3f05q]

A complete overhaul is north of 3k. A new transmission is about 3300.

[JoeB]

A complete overhaul is north of 3k. A new transmission is about 3300.

As far as I am aware, there are no 'new' 717.404 gearboxes around. If there were, I can assure you many owners would have forked out for a new-in-crate box in preference to overhauling the 717.404

If you're aware of new ones being able to be supplied, then by all means, please let everyone know. Quite a few owners out there with a need for a new gearbox!

[5thscaleracer]

Let me just add.... no comment

[3f05q]

Only based on today's email from Matt at Leistung

[5thscaleracer]

There are 2 new units in europe but those won't get shipped over the Atlantic
there are 3 rebuilt units which MB will ship over

[3f05q]

...more than a year later... and a lot has been done, and most done for more than a year, really.

Gearbox overhaul had its challenges, but most of it turned out to be fairly straightforward once I was in there.



In lieu of the shorter 7 jaw puller for the lower bearing I made an extension



You should really use a two-jaw for this



Satisfying...



Special service tool 0_25SLAB6061




As the task went on I took fewer pictures, so my apologies.

The rebuild was a huge success. Although wear was barely perceivable, the effects were (primarily noise). I guess this box tells you what's up before it gets too bad. No more input shaft noise, and 4th is quiet now.

All ball bearings were replaced, as was the roller between the input and output shaft. The very thin needle rollers between the gears and the shafts aren't available but these aren't under any real dynamic load. The biggest load they'll see is when they're static on the shaft anyway. Synchros didn't NEED anything, but 2,3,4,5 got replaced anyway. 1st and R aren't available, but as far as I can tell they are dimensionally the same as the others but lack the moly coating. I opted to not experiment...

[3f05q]

Haltech has been running like a champ. I'm sure there's improvements to be made, especially in ignition timing. I haven't driven it nearly as much as I would have liked lately, but this summer that should change.

DBW is a trip. The Subaru DBW throttle body has the same bolt pattern as the factory TB. I spaced it up to clear the manifold, and utilized long studs to hold it down:



Pedal sensor is mercedes. I fabbed a cable end lever as these come with a ball attachment.



TB ID might be a bit too small as I'm pulling a BIT of vacuum at higher RPM.

Idle speed control was a bit tricky at first, but now it's dialed in and solid. I even have a vehicle speed sensor set up to keep idle higher unless below 5mph.

Had my design laser cut and learned how to powdercoat:





I plan on having more made up if there's interest. :)


Current status: