1969 280 SL engine question

[stevie s]

Hello All,
I have a question that I've wanted to ask for a long time. About 23 years ago, I blew my engine by stupidly racing a Porsche 911 of early 70's vintage. Being young and trying to cut corners, I had the engine re-built (Block, Cylinder head, pistons, camshaft) at a Benz  shop in Burlingame, CA. The owner of the shop, trying to save me some money, offered to put in a 280SE engine block which he had lying around instead of ordering a new unit. he said it was essentially the same. I agreed. The car has performed beautifully all these years but it now bothers me when I look into the engine compartment and can clearly see the "280SE" lettering embossed on the side of the block. Can someone let me know if there are any "collector" snits about this configuration?

Many thanks in advance to your replies,
Stevie S

[ja17]

Hello Steve,
The "280SE" cast into the head of the engine, is also the same as the SL engines!  Yes many of the original SL engines have "280 SE" or "280 SE/A" cast into the cylinder head anyway.  The biggest identifier for the SL engine is the actual engine number stamped on the engine block. Its not very east to see. Also the sedan engines did not have the mechanical drive for the tachometer but this could have been added to your sedan engine from your old broken SL engine.

So don't worry too much about it. It may decrease the value of your car for a discriminating buyer, if yours is a very nice example. Otherwise as long as it runs well and looks decent most people will not care too much about that fact.  

It's not easy to "blow" one of these engines, (I rallied one for years),  your original engine must have had been sick to begin with.

[mdsalemi]

There are two answers to this, Steve.

Are there collector snits willing to look down upon this act of treason?  Sure.  Everyone?  No.

But you came up with the second answer yourself.  "By trying to cut corners".  "By trying to save some money".  These are the general reasons why this is/was done.  What else did you cut a corner on?  What else did you try to save some money on?

But in reality--how good is your car?  How well does it run?  You seemed to answer that yourself, too.  "Performed beautifully all these years..."

Sleep with a smile on your face.  Don't worry about it.  Or as they say in Jersey, fuhgetaboutit.  

[stevie s]

Thank you JA17 and MDSALEMI for your replies.

JA17, yes you are right, the car had a sick engine to begin with, I had a problem where I would lose a cylinder every now and then. When checking the oil, would find bubbles of water mixed in and when I'd pull out the offending cylinder spark plug, it was fouled in an odd way. It would feel wet and greasy. Changing the oil would rectify the problem for awhile but I should have seen the writing on the wall.

Over the years, in thinking about it, I think what happened was that I had a leaking head gasket which eventually ruptured under strain, water and oil went into the chamber. The piston could not compress the water and blew out the cylinder wall.

As the German mechanic said when he opened up the engine: "Ach, I haf nefer seen zis before" The cylinder wall had collapsed and the piston rod was bent. Very ugly.  In any case, my "new" engine has served me very well.  I can sleep well knowing the 280SE/A block is an acceptable alternative.

Best regards,
Steve