Mercedes-Benz M 100 V8 engine

Mercedes Benz
M 100
Manufacturer:	Mercedes Benz
Production period:	1963-1981
Style:	V , eight-cylinder
Engines:	6.3 liters (6332 cc)  6.9 liters (6834 cc)

Mercedes-M Benz's 100 engine is a gasoline engine with eight cylinders in a V-position. After the war, it was the first Mercedes automobile with an eight-cylinder engine. He was used in the Mercedes 600 representative vehicle and the highest models of two S-Classes, the 300 SEL 6.3, the Mercedes 450 SEL 6.9, and partly in the "1000 SEL" in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1982, the manufacture was halted.
The engine is water-cooled, with one overhead camshaft (OHC) per cylinder bank and two cam-operated valves per cylinder that are in line and slightly inclined to the inlet side (in cylinder V), resulting in wedge-shaped combustion chambers. A double roller chain drives the camshafts. The crankshaft is mounted five times and is made in a cross-plane form.

The engine block is made of gray cast iron and the cylinder heads are made of die-cast aluminum. The machine originally had a complex mechanical intake manifold injection .In this version he was installed in the Mercedes 600 and 300 SEL 6.3 :

• Bore 103 mm, stroke 95 mm, displacement 6332 cm³
• Compaction 9.0: 1
• Mechanical intake manifold injection with 8-piston pump from Bosch
• Power 184 kW (250 hp) at 4000 rpm
• Torque 503 Nm at 2800 rpm

From 1975, the engine with more capacity and more power in the model 450 SEL 6.9 W 116 series was offered. At the same time, the changeover from the complicated eight-stroke injection pump to the simpler Bosch K-Jetronic took place and the engine got a dry sump lubrication .

• Bore 107 mm, stroke 95 mm, displacement 6834 cm³
• Compaction 8,8: 1
• Bosch K-Jetronic intake manifold injection
• Power 210 kW (286 hp) at 4250 rpm
• Torque 550 Nm at 3000 rpm

Until the appearance of the larger displacement Mercedes twelve-cylinder models ( AMG - and Brabus models with 7.3 liters), the M-100 engines were the largest engine built in post-war Germany car engines. Only the American "Big Block" engines of General Motors and Ford , as well as the engines of the Russian ZIL reporters were able to point this Mercedes engine in the displacement at the time.

Car with the M 100 engine

600 (W 100) 

With the appearance of the Mercedes 600 and its engine output of 250 hp, the British representative sedans of Rolls-Royce in their engine performance were only in second place ("sufficient" - enough, Rolls-Royce had always stated, there were about 210 hp from 6250 cc , later 6750 cc). The performance of the 600s corresponded despite the enormous weight of 2475 to 2710 kg (empty weight ready to drive / without driver) in about that of the previous 300 SL Roadster or the current new sports car at Daimler, the 230 SL.

300 SEL 6.3 (W 109)

The use of the slightly modified engine in the top-of-the-range W 109 model , which weighed just under 1.6 tonnes (with six-cylinder engines), was a bit of a breeze in 1968 . With the M 100, which already weighs more than 400 kg with all units alone without the obligatory automatic transmission, the vehicle brought 1780 kg on the scale, which is not much compared to today's luxury-class cars, which often exceed the two-tonne limit ,

The construction of this car goes back to a suggestion of the Mercedes driver Erich Waxenberger.

The appearance triggered a small boom of this then extremely fast and powerful strong luxury limousine. The delivered quantity was only four digits with 6,526 vehicles; However, the prestige of the vehicle was ensured by many celebrities of the 1960s: Among others, owned by Peter Alexander , Hildegard Knef and Udo Jürgens this comfortable and powerful car.

Also the first tuners took on the car; with a capacity expansion to 6.8 liters and outputs between 320 and 340 hp, the young company AMG took part in touring car races with great success; the large engine was very well suited for this use and for power increases.

450 SEL 6.9 (W 116)

A further increase was the use of this engine with the car model W 116 (S-Class from 1972). The top model at 69,930 DM (base price 1975) now had a capacity of over 6.8 liters at an additional 26 kW, more than the 6.75-l Rolls-Royce. Although the car weighed now 1935 kg (curb weight without driver, in basic equipment, which already included automatic, air conditioning and hydropneumatic suspension), the power to weight ratio of about 9.2 kg / kW (6.8 kg / hp) was again lower than the Predecessor.

The maximum speed was according to the factory 225 km / h. The Swiss magazine Automobil-Revue tested the top speed in 1978 at 238 km / h. Such a vehicle was occupied in a road trip across Western Europe for its large-volume engine by the English journal "Road & Track" with the heading title "Colossus of the Road".

"Trasco 1000 SEL" (W 126) 

Even after the replacement of the 116 series, these engines were still installed in a stretched version of the successor model for individual destination countries. In Germany and throughout Europe, this engine was no longer delivered in new cars, but the Arab countries were in the model W126 for some years on special request this large-volume engine. The importer called these models "Trasco 1000 SEL" to differentiate them from the other top models "500 SEL" and "560 SEL". Daimler-Benz does not want to know officially about the existence of this "1000 SEL" because it concerns unauthorized modifications to a "wrong" engine. In the Emirates, however, the number of these vehicles was three digits.