You need to put up some pics! I am going insane with anticipation!

 

I will update some pictures today.

BTW, I found the greeat deal on shipping on Mercedesshop.com This is a good forum for DIY info. Most of the cars are a bit older, but the guys in this site are doing many of things we just talk about, ie: DIY turbos, supercharing, big brake upgrades etc. The shipping company is:

Small Business Tranportation @ 1-888-368-6022 Ext 21 and talk to Chris.

They quoted me $169 to ship the engine from Sacramento to Dallas, but since they were picking up at a residence that required a lift gate truck, I ended up paying $260. It only toook a few days to get here and they called me yesterday that I could come and pick it up. I went to their terminal with a pick up and they loaded onto the pickup.

I started calling friends to be ready when I get home to help off load it. But one of my hot rod friends told me I should use his shop for the whole project. This is a nice shop and a no brainer, so I drove to his place which is only a few streeets over from me. He just built this shop as an add on to his home. The shop has a giant I beam with a sliding chain pulley set up for removing and installing engines, Just what I needed! I just backed the truck under it hooked up the engine and raised it enough to drive out from under it. We then bolted the engine stand to it and then lowered it to the ground. Very simple when you have the right equipment. One thing that did impress me is that these engines aren't very heavy compared to a cast iron small block chevy or Ford.

This weekend I will start cleaning and detailng the engine. I will also put the Crossfire up on jackstands and take tons of measurements to validate my assumptions that this will work. I will be focusing on the length of the engine and the front edge of the oil pan to ensure it will clear the sway bar, and checking to see if the motor mounts will line up or if I will be making some changes. I will also compare the exhaust manifold outlet size compared to the V6. If they are the same size, then with C43 exhaust manifolds I might be able to just bolt the exhaust right up to the stock exhaust. the stock exhaust might not be ideal for a V8 but it would be good enough to get it running, plus I would love to hear a V8 running through the Ansa muffler.

Once I am convinced it will bolt in, I will order C43 exhaust manifolds, and a C43 electric fan.

I also have to make a decission on a few other other items. The new engine came from a totaled 2002 CL500 that was totaled after only being on the road for 11-12 months. The person I bought the engine from bought the whole car at auction because he needed the whole front clip to fix his car. Besides the front clip, he robbed one of the valve covers, three coil packs and the water pump to fix his car. He put the cracked valve cover back on this engine. I have to buy a valve cover, but the coil packs and water pump can be taken from my V6. My firends are telling me to buy the coil packs and water pump so that my V6 will bring better money when I go to sell it.

This weekend should be fun! I have started another post in the detailing area to get idaeas on detailing the engine. The engine has some aluminum oxidation on it. I searched the web and found that there are aluminum brightners that are phosphoric acid based and will really make the aluminum look good. I am going to give this a try. I then will need to find a way to prtect the aluminum in the future. I am thinking of painting the engine with high heat Ceramic satin clear. This should make the engine look brand new but OEM. I am planning on painting or powder coating the valve covers as they are more visible even with the engine cover on.

 

Weekend update:

I finally found some aluminum brightner on Friday night. Saturday I primarily worked on cleaning up the engine. I first washed it down with some Simple Green and then sparayed it with Aluminum brightner. The stuff worked pretty good at cleaning the oxidation. The aluminum brightner is a Phospheric acid based cleaner. after rinsing it. I used 87 degree Texas sunshine and compressed air to dry it. Today I sprayed most of the aluminum with high heat ceramic clear paint. This will help prevent the oxidation come coming back and make it easier to clean in the future. I didn't paint the valve covers as they will be getting painted or powdercoated.

HDDP supplied me with some critical measurments from his SRT engine that is on an engine stand. This made it easier to compare measurements with my V8 that is also on an engine stand. Thank You HDDP!

What I confirmed after measuring was pretty exciting. This may be a simple bolt in swap!

The auto trans is all the same and will bolt right up.

The location of the engine mounts where they bolt to the block is the same on both the V8 and V6. I will have to bolt up the mounts from the V6 to the V8 block. The engine will bolt directly to the stock mounts!

The exhaust manifold exits sizes and bolt pattern is the same for both the V8 and V6 (this suprised me)

With the C43 exhaust manifolds I should be able to bolt the exhaust right up. (I will go to true duals in the future). The C43 exhaust manifolds don't have the bung holes for the o2 sensors. I will have to have these welded in.

I will be spending this week locating some needed parts and familiarizing myself with the wiring and all other connections so that everything is ready when I make the switch.

 

Nice power plant... I'm REALLY surprised the mounting points are the same... Before you drop that engine into the car, weigh it... Because the one you have in your car only weighs 449 lbs and the additional weight of a V8 will require some beefier springs... There are some good calculations online that will help you figure out the spring lbs needed...

Fun project

 

The differnce in weight is 130 lbs. Isn't the total difference in weight between an n/a and SRT close to this?

 

No, the weight of the SC and IC are only 38 lbs... I weighed em...

 

Man, I'm on pins and needles over this project !

Kudos to LantanaTX for taking this on. I'm sure there are about a hundred hot-rod gear heads like myself watching this thread VERY CLOSELY !!!

With plenty of cheap lease turn-in Crossfires now on the used car market there are plenty of V8 swap candidates out there...

Cincinnati Slim

 

You got that right.

 

LantanaTX,

As to the frayed wires... I always solder new wires in and put heat shrink tubing over the solder joints. If you can't solder... find someone who can. This will keep your resistance at the joint to factory specifications or better.

As to the front suspension and the extra weight... how about looking at springs from a wrecked SL500? Almost the same chassis weight I believe.

Excellent progress!!!

 

yeah sl500 springs and maybe a 1" wider front rim.

 

Wider rim? what for? I ready have 8 inch in the front.

I was thinking maybe SRT front springs since they are stiffer that the limited's springs. Probably someone here has lowered their SRT and don't need the stock springs anymore.

 

I'd be willing to bet that the stock springs will work, it just may be a little more 'mushy'. Worry about getting the engine fitted and running, then you can worry about the springs. The minor weight difference shouldn't hurt you much. Put a wider/taller spring pad on it if needed for height, but I doubt you'll even need that. Well..maybe, I forgot you cut your springs...but, still, get it running first.

Keep it up man! I'm anxious to see 8cyls sitting in that engine bay for 1/8th the cost of Startech's upgrade...

BTW, I'm still digging those MB wheels.

Any idea which model MB wheels will fit our cars? I need a pair of 17's for the rear to run a drag radial.

SQ

 

I am going to worry about getting the engice running first, but ctting the spring has the effect of increasing the spring rate a little bit but probably enough to compensate for 130 lbs.

My wheels are all 18" but you can find 17's on Ebay for running slicks.

HDDP gave me some measurements, but I misunderstood how he took one of the measurements. I just put my car on jack stands and removed the belly pan plastic cover. I am a little nervous as I am getting really close to the sway bar with this new engine. The front edge of the pan looks just like the V6 but will be just about 2.5 inches forward. If you raise your hood and look down you would think NO WAY. but if you look from underneath you will see the front edge of the pan is higher than the sway bar and the underside of the pan's front edge is curved and matches the sway bar. The engine also is pointed slight up in the front, so as the length of the engine comes closer to the sway bar it gets just enough clearance (hopefully) we'll see. If it doesn't clear I will have to look at other options. I don't think the C43 or other CLK engines have the same pan. From the pitucres I have found it looks like those are rear sump which will not work in a Crossfire. Unless I find a shorter front sump pan, I will stick with the CL500 pan.

 

I was thinking of a 9x 17" rim up front and back, to help reduce the plowing tendancies in corners with that extra 120 lbs V8 on the nose. the car already likes to understeer in stock form, so I figure wider is better, it would also give it a beefy look up front.

 

These cars could benefit from a stiffer rear sway bar.

 

that's on my list but I was thinking of machining a clamp that can slide back and forth along the torque arm of the sway bar, should help keep the exssesive weigh off the rear of the car when you upgrade to a larger bar. much cheaper than buying heavier bars, and the laybor of the install is much easier on the knuckles.

 

LatanaTX.
I wandered over here after reading your thread over on the MBworld performance page. Thanks for the link. I'm looking forward to following your engine swap as it progresses. I've been a long time diehard Mopar fan and have a few Mopar musclecars. When Chrysler merged with Diamler I was dissapointed. However it was the Crossfire that turned me on to Eurocars and convinced me to buy my Mercedes. I looked at buying a Crossfire when they first came out but I was turned off by the V6. Had Chrysler released the Crossfire with a V8 I probably would be driving one of them instead of my MB. Anyway best of luck with your swap!!!
Just imagine how sweet the V8 would be with a Kleemann supercharger sitting on top.

 

All good points. An all aluminum lightweight V8 in a small rigid chassis would have sold better but probably would have pissed off MB buyers. MB has always tried to downplay the Crossfire and even tried to show that the SRT-6 has 10 hp less than the exact same SLK32 engine.

the S/C will be phase 2.

 

I look forward to seeing the progress on this! Best of luck on the project!

 

didnt they make an slk 500??? and wouldnt this be a much easier upgrade?