Hello boys and girls,

My name is Wayne and I'm new to the site. I am please to be here and introduce my somewhat recently acquired 1968 230s Fintail. I had been eye-ing this car for a while as it was parked downtown near my friends house, one day i saw a girl getting into to drive off and flagged her down, $1000 later I have my beautiful new 230s. I will post some images at the bottom! I have come to the forum in hopes that I can find some help and insight from the Mercedes-gurus out there. I am not extremely mechanically knowledgeable so if I say some silly stuff, please inform me. - I have found that finding parts for this car is quite difficult. Everywhere I go, they do not have my car in their systems. They will find similar models, a 230... but I am not sure of the differences. for instance, it needs the rear wheel cylinders and the only ones I can locate are quite expensive. All the 230 models are listed with discs all around, but the 230s has drums in the rear... I was not opposed to buying them, but I felt like I threw away extra cash,, if I could have them for less. Does anyone know where I can find more information on this model? She is over all pretty solid, with a little rust here and there. I'm not too worried about any of her blemish's as I work at a body shop and paint shop. I plan on shaping and painting her as the sexiest lady in town over the next months to come.

From the research I have done, I believe it is a W111 Chassis and has a M180 engine in it and I believe a K4A-025 or K4C-025 Transmission.

Now for the bad news,,, My camshaft just snapped on the engine. It was on a recent commute and after a snap sound, i lost power... The engine still wanted to turn over, but upon inspection i saw the OHC had completely snapped. I noticed the tranny seemed to be slipping aswell before the camshaft snapped... Now I am exploring all my options. I bought this car because I want to have her be my first project car and stay with me forever. When I first got her I had crazy ideas of slowly changing her from the ground up... Now as I have lived and driven her for some time, I have really fallen in love with the way she is. All of the character she has with how she handles and what drives. I am somewhat torn on what I want to do with her as a project mechanically and have come here for your knowledge and insight on ideas. I will post below about my modification IDEAS on her mechanics. For now, I believe I need to rebuild my engine and transmission. I know the transmission is beyond me, so I am going to look at replacing it or having somebody rebuild it. As Far as the engine, I am looking for any information on places to locate parts for it. I would like to take it on as my first rebuild, being assisted by the local mechanics I know. From what I have read, the M180 is not an entirely complex engine. What are everyone's thoughts on this? Does anyone know Potential Costs? Where can I locate a rebuild kit / Parts for this engine?? Am I getting in over my head with this engine and should I rather have it professionally rebuilt? The reason I am trying to think this all out right now is because if it is going to cost me $5+ thousand just to get her driving again, I am thinking I might as well pull her engine and tranny and start a transformation towards the idea below, or a possibly a different direction if decided upon...
Here is what I was originally thinking-
~Drop a bigger motor in resulting in a complete overhaul: I loved the idea of a M120 V12 or something that exotic. If I am not mistaken this would be the easiest mercedes v12 to swap into another vehicle????I'd assume doing this, it would take some electrically mayhem as well as mating a new transmission, driveline, rear-diff and thus for brakes and suspension.... which I'd again assume, could only be matched by completely rebuilding the front suspension and brakes.... Again, this is all Idea... I'm here to have you talk me into or out of it. I love the idea of making her a beast. In doing a transformation such as this, I have questions about which transmissions differential and suspension type of setup should or could be used. I have concerns about what this would do to the cars handling and ride with all of the differences and the engines weight change. Id assume there would have to be some changes physically to make room for the larger size engine and tranny? I'd like to keep the power plant a Mercedes, but if there are other compromises that should be made, let me know. If I should stay with a smaller inline 6 with more power, let me know. Maybe a v8? I don't know... So please slaughter me with your thoughts and reviews on this IDEA.... I know it wont be an overnight build, it will probably go on for a few years...

Much thanks for reading everyone =)
~Wayne


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