juha_teuvonnen

I want to swap an Ecoboost 2.3 turbo with a manual trans into a ... Mercedes 190e. The W201 chassis is a great little car, the suspension can be made to handle quite well. They ran these cars in DTM (German touring car championship) for many years, so suspension upgrades are well known and readily available. When equipped with a 4 cylinder engine, the 190 is a well balanced car, but hopelessly underpowered, unless we are talking about the 16-valve cosworth models that are about as rare as hen's teeth. The 6 cylinder M103 powered versions were a bit more powerful than the anemic 8-valve 4-bangers, but the handling is generally "meh", because the car becomes too darn nose-heavy with a 6 cylinder iron block out front. The Ecoboost 2.3 Turbo is a great engine that is vastly superior to any engine that Mercedes has ever put into that car. The Ecoboost weights a little bit more than the 8-valve M102, about the same as M102 with Cosworth head. Both weigh a lot less than the 6 cylinder, and Ecoboost makes more horsepower than Mercedes M102 and M103 engines combined. The W201 chassis is excellent, because it is only slightly heavier than an E30 BMW. Unlike the BMW, W201 is not a death trap. It's by a good margin lighter than E36 which is the lightest BMW I would consider for an engine swap, due to safety concerns. Besides, everyone and their dog is running an LS1 swapped E36 these days, you can just buy the parts from Vorschlag and bolt/wire everything together without having to do any engineering at all. Where's the fun in that? I think that Mercedes 190e (W201chassis) and 2.3 Ecoboost are a match made in heaven. We're talking power-to-weight ratios well into the Corvette/Viper category, in a well balanced and agile car that handles really well. No one expects an old 190e to be fast, but with an Ecoboost swap they can be seriously fast. They can be quite a sleeper.