Dev's Thoughts on Experiences, Projects and Lessons

A simple page on pictures and a timeline on Rhino's journey. Timelines: Sep 2020 Purchased Rhino and brought her home, she overheated before she got home The first major engine works inclusive of engine replacement Oct 2020 More engine work to further fine-tune how the engine runs and a tune-up to the fuel system Nov 2020 Corrected the body parts to the accurate facelift look Rust repair Installed a simple audio system Dec 2020 Replace rear absorbers and bushes Got the long shaft mounting and flex disc replace to remove vibrations Jan 2021 Discovered Rhino was not a 2.8 but 3.2 Mar 2021 Resolved the fuel smell in car issue Got the engine replaced to a correct 2.8 M104942 coded engine Replace the throttle body Apr 2021 Replaced the main engine harness Rewired all bad engine bay wires Corrected all electrical components and all switches now work Gear box pressure correction, now the gear shifting is smooth and no longer slips like it did before Replacement 2.8 engine passed inspectio...

Mercedes built from the year 1992 to 1997 was installed with an eco-friendly (degradable) wiring harness. The issue with this type of harness is that the insulation disintegrates and crumbles especially when exposed to heat. For the W124 model, it is safe to say that all cars built from the year 1992 onwards were marred with this issue, both petrol and diesel models. What is baffling is that Mercedes is aware of the issue but a safety recall was never issued to have the wiring harness replaced with a non-eco version. The intention of going green badly backfired as this issue introduces an array of problems on the car. The reason why this happens is that the insulation upon crumbling exposes the bare wire and when two or more of the bare wire touches one another, it messes up the communication to and from the ECU causing strange behaviors and in more serious cases, it causes fire. This issue was covered in length in the following links: http://badmercedes.com/ http://www.mercedesdefects...

As I browsed a number of videos and watch how a W124 M104 engine starts, I noticed that mine does not have graceful starts.  The engine runs after cranking and most of the time in one crank but as the engine starts there were some observations that are not what I saw on the other cars: On cold starts, the car engine revs to 850 rpm and idles there On warm starts, the engine revs to about 2100 rpm and sequentially reduces to about 800 rpm in 10 or so seconds The engine does not stop once it has started Upon the replacement of the OVP relay, there was a change in behavior where, during the warm, the engine start and revs to 1200 rpm and gradually reduces to 700 or so rpm, instead of the earlier 2100 or so rpm start. This is an improvement but the cold start remains the same with no sign of improvement. After doing some reading online, I understood that one of the components that are involved in a cold start is the air intake temperature (AIT) sensor.  According to dutchfixmycar....

On Saturday, 13th of Mar, I was scheduled to bring Rhino in for an engine swap. From one of the previous posts, I have detailed how the Rhino was running on a 3.2 engine and not a 2.8 M104. Swapping the 3.2 motors into the 2.8 chassis runs but it is not completely compatible. Some of the issues are: From the Mercedes factory, the 3.2 is paired with the 722.3 transmissions and the 2.8 is paired with 722.4 instead. The difference between the transmissions is the gear ratio and also the size and dimension of the transmission. The 722.3 is able to handle more torque from the 3.2, has a larger yoke, and possibly have a different long shaft too ECU is different, I would believe the fuel injection parameter is different for both engine I am unsure if the injector nozzles and the fuel regulator is the same but I have got them replaced with the 2.8 ones Due to the mismatch, the idling is not stable Also, the road tax for 3.2 is almost doubled of 2.8 in Malaysia (RM 3150 vs RM 1700) The garage s...