Anyone ever put a 351 in a Grandma's Merc???

[fordinit]

Hi! Im wandering if anyone has ever put a 302 / 351 in a merc & if its legal in QLD? There is a Grandma car on ebay that would be supr kewl with a v8.

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI....1267&rd=1&rd=1

[Ridin-High]

Their is a pic in the street machine magazine of a merc with a massive blown motor in it ill dig it up

[Jesk]

I've seen a rolls royce limo with a mild GEN III under the bonnet and a mean exhaust note, it made me do a double take as it pulled up

[Rev28K]

There is a company in America called “Jags That Run” or JTR for short. They started off doing Jaguar XJ6/Chev V8 conversions and have since done Datsun Z/Chev, Volvo 2 series/Chev and Mercedes/Chev conversions (all available as books and kits).

The idea with the Mercedes was to grab an old W123 300D/230(?)D model and swap in a cheaper Chev 250 V8 to make it run quicker.

[GXL078]

Why not just buy an old 6.3L Merc, they are dirt cheap

[RAREV8]

Originally Posted by Jesk

I've seen a rolls royce limo with a mild GEN III under the bonnet and a mean exhaust note, it made me do a double take as it pulled up

Seems a bit of a down grade- 5.7l from 6.75l.....i would have thought that a little tweaking would see the original donk turned into a pretty good weapon, especially when you take the cars weight into consideration??

[XCSEDAN]

anything is possible, a guy i used to go to school with has a WORKED GenIII in a bloody 80's model 318i sedan... chassis is stuffed though, when you floor it the interior lights come on (as well as the tail snaking for 100+m)

[paulie0735]

Looks like a very clean car. I would think a Cleveland may be a little heavy for the front end design, merc used a lot of alloy in their engines even back than so dumping a great wad of Detroit wonder metal in there could do all sorts of nasty things to the handling. If it were me, I’d use the engine & trans out of the Lexus LS400 in there, they are compact, cheap, quite and silky smooth and it will last for ever and make reasonable power. The trans is very good also. There are ECU’s available now to extract better power or the original is still good for around 200kw when you fit a decent exhaust system. It’ll run on standard unleaded and will pick that compact merc up and get it going very nicely without having to worry about all that extra weight hanging over the front wheels.
Good luck with what ever you decide to do.

[GXL078]

I hear that when you put a Chev V8 in a 6cyl Jag the front end needs to be LOWERED afterwards.

[Rev28K]

Make that a Chev in to a 70/80's Jag V12 and you'd be right.

Lighter weight, better balance, cheaper servicing, same transmission, etc

[pauljh74]

I've also heard of Chev into (older boxy type) Volvos and Chev V8s into Porsches as it's cheaper than rebuilding the Porsche motor.

[XD 351 Ute]

Yep, a bloke did just that at about the same time I'd done the 250 to 351 swap in my old wagon. I'm unsure of exact details, but he apparently sailed through rego with no worries.
This was back in 1992-ish though.

Ed

[Schlimmeh]

I hate Merc drivers they are among the most oblivious and arrogant drivers out there. They think hey I'm a Merc driver stuff even looking when I change lanes and bugger driving anywhere near the speed of the rest of the traffic. Very selfish drivers. As a motorbike rider (and Ford owner) - i give them very wide berth.

[Schlimmeh]

Apologies if the last post from me was a bit off topic - i guess we are all passionate about something :-)

[Lumpen Proletariat]

Originally Posted by Jesk

I've seen a rolls royce limo with a mild GEN III under the bonnet and a mean exhaust note, it made me do a double take as it pulled up

The much vaunted Rolls V8 was just a Packhard V8 with finer tolerances anyway. It was part of the deal that allowed Allison to make the Rolls V12 Merlin under license during WWII for the P-51 Mustangs.

It turned out that even though they were direct copies, the Mustangs that flew a Rolls Merlin were much better than those that flew the Allison copy.



Lumpy

[Aulpgute]

Ahhh, memories of the 80's and 90's when all these swaps were the rage. I did a 6cyl Jag to Cev 350 swap and yes, the Chev was lighter than the 6 as well and did need lowering. Was a great car to drive but still a headache to live with as all the electrics and gadgets were still a nightmare!

[TZENU]

Blown 350 Chev in a benz...

LE BENZ comes to mind... I have a poster of the car up on my wall.... Awesome car that is!
IIRC a red convertible.!

[66 coupe]

Funny you mention this, I was originally going to put a 351 in an old 200 or 230 merc, but couldnt find a decent one for the right price, so shoved it in the ea wagon instead.
It would have been something different thats for sure.

[tankclare]

i seen a merc like the one on ebay at the kandos street machine with a nice sounding v8 in it..was red with chrome mags