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Old 2nd November 2020, 22:15   #31
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re: Prince Vegeta - My 1995 Mercedes E300D W124 with 500 BHP

“EXTERIOR LIGHTING MODS”



HID SETUP FOR HEADLIGHTS
I have built lights for cars from over 6 years now. I have a personal collection of some old school exotic hid projectors likes of s2k, rx330,rx350 etc to modern led tech likes of Koito bi beam to Acura jewel eye setups and I always thought will retrofit these to my future cars. Now, I am that kind of person who would love to upgrade vehicle, but keeping its soul intact. So the thought of adding projector setup to w124 was instantly overruled after seeing the OE headlight shape, design and glass. The aftermarket clear lens headlights look out of place, at least to me (no offense here) so that was a no go, as well.
The previous owner was running 100/90w halogen setup with relay. But ever since I moved to hid/led world, the regular halogen just don’t cut it for me (my daily i10 is running a retrofit for 5 years now and I have nothing but happy with the setup and night drives are breeze). So for the headlights, I removed the halogen setup, made a custom casper shield and installed hid setup in reflector. This custom shield is designed, after various trails on w124 headlight setup, to kill the glare that a hid bulb can cause in a reflector housing. The downside is you lose something on high beam output. But since, my night drive on w124 is never going to happen to highways, its perfect for city use.

CUSTOM LED TAILLIGHT SETUP
Recently my team has been doing wonders with custom made LED taillight setup. So it was clear we will be doing something to w124 setup, again soul is important so the glass will be original and no aftermarket clear lens.
Now I always wanted it to have Mercedes feel. Something Mercedes would design. It should look subtle, yet have a modern touch to it.
I have always been a fan of CLA butterfly style tail light.
Prince Vegeta - My 1995 Mercedes E300D W124 with 500 BHP-sl400.jpg
Those optics lines of light flow so well. So we started building something similar in our head. Now, we were concerned as to how the optics lines would flow under the OE glass texture.
Well, guess only one way to find out.
Prince Vegeta - My 1995 Mercedes E300D W124 with 500 BHP-photo20190416012145.jpg
Prince Vegeta - My 1995 Mercedes E300D W124 with 500 BHP-photo20190416012145_1.jpg
Prince Vegeta - My 1995 Mercedes E300D W124 with 500 BHP-photo20190416012148.jpg
Prince Vegeta - My 1995 Mercedes E300D W124 with 500 BHP-photo20190416012149.jpg

The design look promising, the line of light was flowingly & glowingly evenly.
But we have to check around every curve. So we made a complete test optic line.
Prince Vegeta - My 1995 Mercedes E300D W124 with 500 BHP-5aa331fd6b9c4165b02e23af882f01a0.jpg
Prince Vegeta - My 1995 Mercedes E300D W124 with 500 BHP-81e975942d0d4f088d806293237af677.jpg

And voila, the flow was smooth, there was no distortion when viewed from any angle. Now, we knew design can look properly blend in and not out of place.

Now in stock form, the upper half portion of tail lamp is used for reverse and turn signal. Keeping the lines only at the bottom half of the tail light was looking somewhat incomplete. But we also did not want to compromise on any functionality of any signal. Things like sequential, switchback were ruled out mainly because they do not do justice to the image of w124.
We did a trial mock up on the upper portion as well
Prince Vegeta - My 1995 Mercedes E300D W124 with 500 BHP-photo20190523143251.jpg
and then checked the working of the turn signal and reverse. What we noticed that, there was no such compromising effect on the light output of the turn signal and reverse, which meant a green signal for us.
And it was decided we would make a complete setup on all 4 grooves and would merge on the side.
After years of searching and attempts, we have also found the right drop in plug n play led bulbs for turn signal, reverse, stop light, etc. They are very bright and works in almost all of the reflector housings. The best part is they work well on modern Canbus setups as well, without any need of coding or error cancelling resistors and give no hyperflash as well.
Almost all the work was sought, although we had to do little more than expected trimming and fabrication of optics, as it has to be spot on. But the end result was worth it
Prince Vegeta - My 1995 Mercedes E300D W124 with 500 BHP-47e1cf4d1550462397607161775c97f2.jpg
Prince Vegeta - My 1995 Mercedes E300D W124 with 500 BHP-img2536.jpg
Prince Vegeta - My 1995 Mercedes E300D W124 with 500 BHP-img2537.jpg
Prince Vegeta - My 1995 Mercedes E300D W124 with 500 BHP-img2542.jpg

These can be checked in action on Youtube

Turn Signal as DRL
The aura of w124 is that it kept on giving me new ideas.
Having DRL is functionally important and mainly it looks cool. Right?
But the aftermarket DRL on W124 is a big No. Now, I have seen on many classic cars and some U.S vehicles were turn signal act as a DRL. In modern vehicles, the computer controls the function of turn signal as both DRL as well turn signal. Also, they either use a dual filament halogen bulb or a dedicated led chip designed reflector setup.
Finding a switchback is pretty easy, but finding a good amber-amber switchback is not easy now. Earlier also only V-leds used to make amber-amber switchbacks, they were very bright and used real Philips chips with adjustable optics but they discontinued.
White-amber switchback on W124 looks cheap.
Which left me to use a good high power amber/orange plug n play led bulb with an integrated heat sink so it can emit high output continuously (without heat sink either led will blow in high output or will dim).
Now to make it function as both DRL as well turn signal, we needed to use a drl module and rewire it as per our use and it worked flawlessly for us.
Here are some of the pics of output comparison of LED setup vs halogen turn signal.

Prince Vegeta - My 1995 Mercedes E300D W124 with 500 BHP-img9410.jpg

Prince Vegeta - My 1995 Mercedes E300D W124 with 500 BHP-img9400.jpg

Working of these can also be checked on Youtube.
No reason to hate these, until you are purist
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Old 3rd November 2020, 18:33   #32
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re: Prince Vegeta - My 1995 Mercedes E300D W124 with 500 BHP

Quote:
Originally Posted by DevOnWheels View Post
On a side note, once the turbo build is done please revert back to the stock wheels. Will be a super sleeper smoking modern day sports sedans in traffic light grand prix...
I am doing a Big Brake upgrade as well that will require 18" wheels minimum so can't revert back to OE 15" wheels.
Also on stock wheels, I can run 225mm tyres at max which will cause massive wheel spin due to the torque it will produce.
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Old 17th January 2021, 14:37   #33
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re: Prince Vegeta - My 1995 Mercedes E300D W124 with 500 BHP

Eagerly waiting for an update on this build. Please let us know the latest update on this beauty.....
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Old 30th January 2021, 09:38   #34
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re: Prince Vegeta - My 1995 Mercedes E300D W124 with 500 BHP

Potential of OM606 engine


First of all, my apologies for not updating the thread, life was hitting like a single big turbo hits boost (late and hard).
Now, OM606 engine from Mercedes first came in the year 1993. Like the good old Mercedes engine of that time, it was an utterly reliable and mile munching unit. But, because of its power potential it turned out to be a legendary one as well.
Om606 in stock form can take a lot of abuse and makes a good amount of power. And often, called as the diesel 2jz





Courtesy:- www.youtube.com

It came in turbo and non turbo options. With major internal differences of pistons, connecting rods, camshafts between the two. They are becoming a rare breed now, in India. The N/A ones are rare and the turbo units are even rarer. When I saw the e300d, this particular reason was the major one to convince me.

I had a fixed goal in mind that I want to target 500bhp no matter what. Now, the issues related to it are since the N/A unit is not as robust as the turbo unit, the internals have to be beefed up to the levels of turbo unit.

Second, most reason was since these are IDI unit and when they make power they also become Rolling Coal, which has to be avoided at any cost.
So with all this in mind, I had to plan the best route possible (defined in detail in the next posts).
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Old 25th February 2021, 20:09   #35
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re: Prince Vegeta - My 1995 Mercedes E300D W124 with 500 BHP

Beefing up the internals



We had no plans to build this engine as otherwise it would defy the purpose of the build i.e selecting a capable unit ground up. Mind you, the N/A unit is capable of 350 hp which is a fairly good number. But we want to be as close as to my goal.
The usual practise is to swap in a turbo unit. But I wanted to retain the originality & legality as much as I can. Another thing, if the N/A 606 are rare here, then turbo 606 are next to impossible here. Importing one was not even worth the efforts.
Difference between the two

Prince Vegeta - My 1995 Mercedes E300D W124 with 500 BHP-ece849b24ea541589dc77f5dfe9536b09900000009ef6b36eb9.jpg
Prince Vegeta - My 1995 Mercedes E300D W124 with 500 BHP-f88c59e6a0d44705a235b686669e34cd9900000009f18f04747.jpg

So, we decided instead of going forged pistons and rods, we imported used OE turbo pistons and rods from Sweden. They were in great shape(expected from the Mercedes parts of that time)

Prince Vegeta - My 1995 Mercedes E300D W124 with 500 BHP-img2102.jpg
Prince Vegeta - My 1995 Mercedes E300D W124 with 500 BHP-img2102-1.jpg
Prince Vegeta - My 1995 Mercedes E300D W124 with 500 BHP-img2103.jpg

The block is pretty good in both unit and so is crankshaft, so with new rings and new valve seals, polishing, balancing pistons and rods, we made a reliable & capable unit, which would serve a long time.

Prince Vegeta - My 1995 Mercedes E300D W124 with 500 BHP-img3394.jpg
Prince Vegeta - My 1995 Mercedes E300D W124 with 500 BHP-img3393.jpg
Prince Vegeta - My 1995 Mercedes E300D W124 with 500 BHP-img3392.jpg

And we didn’t have to do a lot of changes considering the amount of time, work, efforts on it plus its now an OEM+ unit.


KM CAMS 8000rpm VALVE Springs

OM606 is a high revving diesel engine with a rev limiter 5500 rpm in stock form. When power output is increased, its a natural practise to raise the rev limiter to usually 6000 rpm (have seen one om606 in mkiv supra doing 7500).



Now, the issue with raising the rev limit is valve tends to float at high power levels, so usual practise is to limit fuel when its about to reach 6000 rpm.
This means not able to get the real benefit of raising the rpm limit.

Solution:-
8000 rpm rated valve springs with undershim from KM Cams.
Prince Vegeta - My 1995 Mercedes E300D W124 with 500 BHP-img2156.jpg
Prince Vegeta - My 1995 Mercedes E300D W124 with 500 BHP-img2808.jpg
Prince Vegeta - My 1995 Mercedes E300D W124 with 500 BHP-img2809.jpg
Yes, we got no plan of going over 6500 rpm to maintain the reliability plus our desired power goals comes well within 6000-6200 rpm. But its better to have an overbuilt unit than to worry later on about stuff.
Prince Vegeta - My 1995 Mercedes E300D W124 with 500 BHP-img3463.jpg


PINNING INTAKE CAM

This is a very small but major step. When producing high power, there is a high chance of intake cam sprocket spinning and causing engine damage. So pinning it, is the best solution.
Prince Vegeta - My 1995 Mercedes E300D W124 with 500 BHP-img8896.jpg
Prince Vegeta - My 1995 Mercedes E300D W124 with 500 BHP-img8888.jpg
Prince Vegeta - My 1995 Mercedes E300D W124 with 500 BHP-img8886.jpg
Prince Vegeta - My 1995 Mercedes E300D W124 with 500 BHP-img8891.jpg
Prince Vegeta - My 1995 Mercedes E300D W124 with 500 BHP-img8889.jpg
Prince Vegeta - My 1995 Mercedes E300D W124 with 500 BHP-img8953.jpg
Prince Vegeta - My 1995 Mercedes E300D W124 with 500 BHP-img8955.jpg
Prince Vegeta - My 1995 Mercedes E300D W124 with 500 BHP-img8956.jpg

So now we have a well built, power ready engine that would be seeing up to 2.5 bar of boost and still be running reliably like its built like this from the factory.
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Old 3rd April 2021, 18:48   #36
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re: Prince Vegeta - My 1995 Mercedes E300D W124 with 500 BHP

Thanks for the updates. Keep 'em coming. It would also be super useful to get to know the source of your individual parts, along with the landed cost of buying them. This will become more important when we get to see the re-worked fuel pump and the turbo!

Last edited by ads295 : 3rd April 2021 at 18:50.
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Old 12th July 2021, 21:50   #37
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re: Prince Vegeta - My 1995 Mercedes E300D W124 with 500 BHP

Choice of turbo



Well, it was the trickiest part to be honest. Who does not want maximum power? Just slap the biggest turbo engine can handle, right? But the bigger the turbo, the more the lag. But still lag was not the issue for us, the issue was the black smoke its gonna make till the time it makes enough boost. These IdI engines have very simple working principle and uses mechanical pump and an Alda system to control fuel (more about it in the later posts).

Now the solution to it is,
1). Compound Charging
2). Twin Charging


Both of these require a lot of hassle and literally making it work perfect, is really a big issue, then say fabricating it. Most of these setup I have seen either goes in the bin, mainly due to differences in both turbos, or not able to control it properly or heat etc.
So these two options were ruled out.

Now, with OM engines, the typical recipe is Holset turbo. They are cheap, reliable, dedicated diesel turbo and has use in OE applications from 3 litres to 12 litres and above diesel engine. But the power goals we have in mind would require a turbo from a 6 litre engine which means for our 3 litre engine it would be laggy as anything and we literally did not want to wait forever for this turbo to wake up. So this option was again ruled out.

Now the names that usually comes out in our mind when we think of turbo is usually Garett and BorgWarner.

Garett Turbos:-
They need no introduction and have literally ruled the turbo world with oe to performance applications
Sadly, people using Garett turbo on this engine have not achieved very impressive results (way too much back pressure and not so over boost friendly).

BorgWarner
BorgWarner in turbo industries is like Toyota in the car scene. They have literally every kind of turbo setup and are very reliable. They have evolved a lot in the past few years and with their two dedicated performance turbo lineup, they have literally changed the game.

EFR series:- This is the lineup that has put BW literally on top. This is the ball bearing turbo with bov and wastegate in a single unit and is loved by everyone. The spool is instant and they make some amazing power throughout the powerband due to their wide map. Their con is that they are expensive say around $2500-3000 easily and even when we were ready to go for these the other issue is they do not like over boosting and they will be damaged if over run so then we looked into the BW other lineup.

Air Werks series:- this is their journal bearing series. The Air Werks came after the EFR, but they have literally evolved the journal bearing game such that these can be seen on 4g63 to 2jz to ls motors. Although, Being a Journal bearing, they have very, very good spool and can easily take the abuse, no issue with over running, thus comfortable with High boost and a very wide map gives good power throughout the band.

So it was decided its gonna be a sxe turbo from AirWerks Series of BorgWarner but the question now is which sxe?
Now the two options were S257sxe and s369sxe turbo.

S257sxe:-
S257 AKA 57/61 AKA 57-61 SX-E
BorgWarner Turbo Systems Aftermarket is pleased to announce the release of the AirWerks® SX-E super core assemblies for performance applications. These new part numbers are purpose engineered for both diesel and gasoline high performance applications.
S200 SX-E super cores contain the following exciting new features:
- Compressor cover integrated speed sensor port and pre-machined boost port
- Forged milled (billet) compressor wheels with extended tip technology
- Optimized compressor stage aerodynamics
- Interchangeable with existing turbine housings for upgradability

Compressor Specs:
- Borg Warner 3.5" Inlet 2" outlet compressor housing with port shroud map width enhancement, pre tapped for speed sensor and pressure port.
- 57.15mm inducer 76.2mm exducer FMW Forged Milled Wheel (Billet)

Turbine Specs:
-61mm exducer, 70mm inducer turbine wheel

65lbs / min approx 625 horsepower on petrol engine and 525 horsepower on diesel


S369sxe:-
S369 AKA 69/73 AKA 69-73 SX-E
S300 SX-E super cores contain the following exciting new features:
360 degree thrust bearing.
Compressor cover integrated speed sensor port and pre-machined boost port.
Flexible compressor cover outlet options (S300SX-E only).
Forged milled (billet) compressor wheels with extended tip technology.
Optimized compressor stage aerodynamics.
Interchangeable with existing turbine housings for upgradability.

Compressor Specs:
- Borg Warner 4" Inlet 2.5" outlet compressor housing with port shroud map width enhancement, pre tapped for speed sensor and pressure port.
- 69.00mm inducer 91.44mm exducer FMW Forged Milled Wheel (Billet)

Turbine Specs:
- 73mm exducer, 80mm inducer turbine wheel

95lbs / min approx 950 horsepower from petrol engine and 750 from Diesel engine.


Now the s257sxe put us right in our goal HP range. The s369sxe is only $250 expensive than s257sxe and literally the biggest turbo that can be used on this engine and many tuners have achieved around 630 HP at wheels from this turbo on this engine. But it will have too much lag and will spool around 3500 rpm, thus giving very less useable rpm range. And even if we go after numbers, we cant ignore the fact that it will be rolling coal. So we decided to keep our heads in place and not be tempted, thus we decided it would be BWs257sxe with a t4 housing and still have full boost by 3200 and it start spooling at 2700 rpm with t4 housing.

So the turbo was ordered from USA and finally comes the bad boy.
BW s257-sxe with .82 t4 divided housing.

Prince Vegeta - My 1995 Mercedes E300D W124 with 500 BHP-img7230.jpg

Prince Vegeta - My 1995 Mercedes E300D W124 with 500 BHP-img7231.jpg

Prince Vegeta - My 1995 Mercedes E300D W124 with 500 BHP-img7234.jpg

Prince Vegeta - My 1995 Mercedes E300D W124 with 500 BHP-img7235.jpg
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Old 13th July 2021, 09:07   #38
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Re: Prince Vegeta - My 1995 Mercedes E300D W124 with 500 BHP

Interesting, interesting and interesting! Glued to this thread for more. Can you also talk about how the lower end and transmission was beefed up to handle the torque and power character of the Turbocharged engine?
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Old 13th July 2021, 10:26   #39
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Re: Prince Vegeta - My 1995 Mercedes E300D W124 with 500 BHP

Holy moly! Love what you have done to the rear lights keeping the lens original. As other's have said, absolutely glued to this one. It may be THE W124 in the country.
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Old 13th July 2021, 11:02   #40
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Re: Prince Vegeta - My 1995 Mercedes E300D W124 with 500 BHP

Absolutely mesmerizing to read. Would love to see how the final setup looks like and the glorious sound of that six cylinder behemoth. Nice work, brother.
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Old 13th July 2021, 11:20   #41
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Re: Prince Vegeta - My 1995 Mercedes E300D W124 with 500 BHP

It was a superb read especially the mods that are being planned for your Oel Motor.
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Old 13th July 2021, 23:06   #42
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Re: Prince Vegeta - My 1995 Mercedes E300D W124 with 500 BHP

Quote:
Originally Posted by roadrunner_nv View Post
Can you also talk about how the lower end and transmission was beefed up to handle the torque and power character of the Turbocharged engine?
The stock transmission (722.4) is too weak to handle even a slight upgrade in power, so no upgrade would have fixed that. So we changed the transmission with something new and way more robust and best part from the Mercedes lineup only. More detailed information coming in later posts.
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Old 14th July 2021, 12:29   #43
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Re: Prince Vegeta - My 1995 Mercedes E300D W124 with 500 BHP

Man those tailights in itself deserves an applause! Amazing work buddy. Also, do you plan to keep the transmission stock (will it take the load, high gear ratio etc) or planning to go stick shift?
Glued to this thread!
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Old 14th July 2021, 15:59   #44
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Re: Prince Vegeta - My 1995 Mercedes E300D W124 with 500 BHP

Congrats on the ride @mayurhuria. W124s have started to rise in popularity all of a sudden. Funny thing is youtube has been recommending me only W124 videos, now even TBHP has quite a few posts on them. Is it safe to assume these cars are going up in value and half decent car might actually be a great investment.
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Old 14th July 2021, 23:22   #45
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Re: Prince Vegeta - My 1995 Mercedes E300D W124 with 500 BHP

Quote:
Originally Posted by SA-G13B View Post
Man those tailights in itself deserves an applause! Amazing work buddy. Also, do you plan to keep the transmission stock (will it take the load, high gear ratio etc) or planning to go stick shift?
Glued to this thread!
Thanks.
No, the transmission will be replaced from the Mercedes lineup only, as the stock one is very weak for even slightly upgraded power levels. No stick shift, as we plan to keep it auto only to maintain the character of e300 and Mercedes's elegance.

Quote:
Originally Posted by SedanGuy View Post
Is it safe to assume these cars are going up in value and half decent car might actually be a great investment.

Well, there is no denial that w124 prices have gone up recently. And to be honest, its fair. These have been in abundance, but never actually been praised for the level they deserved, but now people are getting to know their worth and thus they are not being scrapped like they used to be but now many of them are being saved and tastefully restored around the country. Thus the prices have increased. To know how amazing w124 is, one must definitely own one. They are over engineered, best balance of classic but yet modern touches. A car design in 90, still has feature of current time, which shows how well they were planned.
But if you really want a vehicle for investment purpose, I would suggest finding a w123 or w115. They are the ones that will work out for you. Rare enough for a classic and not over expensive as w108 etc.
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