M130 head on a M127 engine???

[wisnia07]

Hallo everyone!

I'm new here and I'm also new to mercedes W113.

I'm working on a friend's 230sl '64 which he had bought a couple of months ago. The car went to paint shop, where the engine had been taken out. Whlie doing that, they had broke the distibutor cup. After installing the new one the engine is not runnig right. High idle speed, some misfires on the lower range and starting difficulties.

I wanted to start with ignition timing setting, but have no idea which data I shall use. The head seems to be from a 280se/sl, while the block is from 230sl. I've read this article http://www.sl113.org/wiki/Engine/CylinderHead which confirms that this strange combo may work - "There are some reports that the late 280 injected "oval" combustion chamber heads can be used on a 230 or 250 injected engine. I do not have any direct exprience on this matter".

Here are my numbers: Engine 127 981 - 10 - 001866
Head 130 016 1101 (there is also 230SE printed on it)

Does anyone knows which timing data should be used here?


Thanks in advance for any hints!

[ja17]

Hello,

Start out by setting the distributor to 30 degrees BTDC at 3,000 rpms. Timing at idle speed and lower rpms are determined by which distributor you have on the engine. What is the distributor number? It may have a vacuum advance distributor on the early cars. Later cars had a vacuum retard distributor. Eventually more timing advance than 30 BTDC at 3,000 rpms, seems to work best performance. Since your engine has a different head, compression may be different than stock. Final road testing and "tweeking" the timing, may be required. Start with the 30 BTDC at 3,000 rpms and go from there. Let us know what distributor you have in the car.

[wisnia07]

Hallo,

Thanks for your interest,

The distributor is Bosh 0 231 116 052 with mechanical advance, and vacuum retard. The springs and the weights of the mechanical advance, were a bit 'rusty', but after cleaning they seem to work fine.

The 30 deg BTDC at 3000rpms which you mentioned is with vacum hose connected or not?

[Benz Dr.]

Set it to 38 degrees BTDC with everything connected. If your distributor is working properly, you should have about 8 degrees BTDC at idle.

[wisnia07]

Thank's for your help!

I will try these settings, but first I must get new contact points, in order to get a better spark.
Does anyone know if there is any chance to set the dwell angle, with out a specific device?
Will the 0,2mm gap preset do the job to get the engine running smooth?  or is the dwell angle crusial for the correct setting?

Thanks,
Wojtek

[Shvegel]

Instead of points you might want to look into a Pertronix Igniter that is a small electronic ignition that takes the place of the points.  Really works great.

[twistedtree]

I think that vintage engine was originally equipped with vacuum advance as Joe mentioned.  Your distributor is vacuum retard, which is OK as long as the throttle body air valve is ported for vacuum retard, not advance.  They are different.  One has the port before the throttle flap, and the other after the throttle flap.  If you mix them the wrong way, you will get really crappy performance.

[Naj ✝︎]

Hallo,

Thanks for your interest,

The distributor is Bosh 0 231 116 052 with mechanical advance, and vacuum retard. The springs and the weights of the mechanical advance, were a bit 'rusty', but after cleaning they seem to work fine.

The 30 deg BTDC at 3000rpms which you mentioned is with vacum hose connected or not?

Can you confirm that your Bosch Distributor is 0 231 116 '052' and not '051'?

naj

[wisnia07]

The distributor is 0 231 116 052 for sure, and I guess the throttle body is ported correctly. When I was checking the vaccum pressure, it was present mostly at idle speed. At throttle body opened the vaccum dropped almost to nothing, so it looks ok to me.

After setting 38BTDC at 3000rpm (vaccum connected) I end up at 2BTDC at idle. This setting seems to work good for the start, but I plan to check different settings on the road.

First I need to sort the idle speed problem - the car runs constantly on choke now, and the running temperature is too low (hardly getting to 160 deg). I've ordered new main thermostat and I hope it will help the choke to shut off. 

I will keep you updated;)

Thanks again to all for your great help!