Highly Modified - 1990 Mercedez Benz 300E ------ W124 M103 - Deleted EZL
1990 Mercedes-Benz 300-Series
I will consider all offers including cash and cash and a different vehicle.
For sale is a pretty clean 1990 300E W124 with the 3.0L M103 straight 6 engine and modified fuel and ignition system.
This car is my daily driver and I will continue to drive it while it is listed for sale. The vehicle is located in Midland, NC 28107.
This car was sold new by the Beck Mercedes dealership in Charlotte, NC and has been in the south it's whole life. There is no rust on this car at all and the body is very clean. There are a few minor scratches and dents, but nothing major. All of these abrasions are from the prior owner. I acquired the car with a large stack of service records and it is clear that the car was well maintained through it's whole life.
It drives very smoothly and shifts excellent. The car is solid and I am confident it has a another 200K miles of life in it easily, genuinely. I know of a quite a few of these cars that have 350-400K.
The weak points on these cars (including the W201 190E, W124 260E, and a few other models) is their mechanical fuel injection system (BOSCH KE-Jetronic) and their ignition computers (known as the Siemens EZL). As both of these systems fail, they are difficult to troubleshoot and expensive to repair and the cars progressively run poorly until eventually the don't operate at all. See this video for a description of this project.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ht7-KZCNGk
This car has been modified to be fully analog. The ignition computer has been replaced by a custom built mechanical advance distributor which can use an electronic ignitor or points. The KE-Jetronic fuel injection system has been replaced by a Weber 32/36 progressive carb. You can see a video of it running herehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxCYHpn27Tk&t=89s
These modifications took extensive effort. The car drives very well and I have gotten as much as 28mpg with it. It has an LSU 4.9 wide band oxygen sensor installed for real time observation of AFR. The carb is tuned well. It is currently tuned for economy and floats around an air fuel ration of 14.5, however you can jet it richer for more power. I will include a bunch of jets for the carb.
Problems with the car:
Drivers side rear window does not respond to the button at all.
Passenger's side rear window goes half way down and then starts to make a noise.
The alignment is slightly off. A tie rod was replaced, but an alignment was not done afterwards. It is not terrible.
The car could afford a detailing on the inside and out. There are some small stains on the carpet and the car is not perfect.
AC system is complete, but does not blow cold.
The car consume about 1 quart of oil per 800miles. This is common with the M103 engine is because of leaky valve guides.
The front speakers cut in and out. I have not messed with the stereo system at all.
The tires are less than a year old and are basically new.
While I consider this car to be reliable and it is my daily driver, I make no warranties or guarantees and you are purchasing this car as is with the understanding that it is a modified project car. I do genuinely believe it to be a good machine with a great amount of life left. I am only selling it because I have immediate personal expenses that the funds are needed for. The modifications took hundreds of hours and I spent quite a bit at the machine shop.
- Make: Mercedes-Benz
- Model: 300-Series
- Type: Sedan
- Year: 1990
- Mileage: 203000
- VIN: wdbea30d3lb118333
- Engine size: M103 Straight 6-cyl
- Number of cylinders: 6
- Fuel: Gasoline
- Transmission: Automatic
- Drive type: RWD
- Vehicle Title: Clean Want to buy? Contact seller!
