Mercedes 2.

3-16 ITB Installation:

ITB’s will work on a 16V Mercedes and work well.

There have been many posts on the pros & cons of ITB’s, a
few abortive attempts at group buys, and many pictures of
different ITB set-ups but no write up on an installation,
problems and solutions. I will try to fill in the gap…..

Starting point:
A 1986 Euro 2.3-16 with MegaSquirt EFI using a BMW
65mm throttle body, MegaSquirt controlled distributor less
EDIS coil-over-plug ignition, Bosch 300cc injectors and a
2 1/4” exhaust system.

The quality 16V MS kit as supplied by Silver Cosworth

made the conversion easy: the entire Merc injection system
(except the intake manifold), the entire Merc ignition
system, the ECU, and related wiring were removed and
replaced with the MS ECU and wiring loom. A single
Volvo electric fan, shroud, & relay mounted behind the
radiator and controlled by MS replaced the engine driven
and standard electric AC fans.

The MS conversion is now 3+ years old and works great:

smooth, easily tunable, dead reliable and fast: I have seen
255KPH on the clock. The MS EFI conversion transformed
the car and was well worth the cost & effort.
If you are not into ITB’s stop here and just go for MS EFI.
Silver Cosworth’s kit makes it almost idiot proof. It’s the
best thing you can do for a 16V (or for an 8V).

Starting point for the ITB conversion: 1) a fine running,

strong EFI car and 2) good MS knowledge/experience.
Jumping into ITB’s without either is dumb and a quick
route to frustration and a bad running car, if it runs at all.

Trying to do both at once will leave you without usable

transport for a long time while you try to figure which of
the tuning problems are MS related and which are related to
the ITB’s.
There is no quick way around it: do the EFI first, get the car
running really well and then think about ITB’s.

The ITB’s:

Ex-eBay: an early AMG set of 52mm ITB’s for a 2.5-16V.

They were not cheap but they are super rare, made for the
16V engine and eliminated the need to chop a standard 16V
intake manifold and adopt after market or E-30 BMW or
motorcycle ITB’s.

I have never seen another set of the early AMG ITB’s so

the chop and adopt route is probably the only way to go
unless someone recasts the AMG bodies.

The following pix is a cut 16V manifold with welded-on

flanges to accept Weber pattern after market ITB’s. A nice
solution.
The ex-eBay AMG ITB’s were powder coated and:
1) a 3/8” vacuum port was drilled & installed on each
throttle body;
2) each throttle body was drilled and tapped to accept
Weber air bleed screws.

We built a vacuum manifold out of 3/4” square SS tubing

with four 3/8” bungs for ITB vacuum, a small bung
vacuum source for MS & the fuel pressure regulator, and a
5/8” bung at the rear for brake servo vacuum.
Two of the 3/8” and the small vacuum bung on the square
tubing manifold can be seen in the above pix. The 3/8”
vacuum ports on the ITB’s can be seen to the right of the
Weber bleed screws.

We had a pile of throttle linkage bits left over from old

projects and made up linkage and a 1” X 3/16” throttle
linkage and fuel rail hold-down bar that fit over the 3/8”
ITB vacuum ports.
The above pix shows the throttle linkage bar, linkage, fuel
rail and the hose connectors between the ITB body vacuum
ports and the vacuum manifold.

The Merc 16V oil filter unit interferes with the ITB set-up.
The standard 16V intake manifold is skewed slightly
forward to clear the unit.

It may be possible to get around this on a chop-&-weld ITB

conversion but with the AMG bodies the oil filter unit had
to go and a remote filter and thermostat unit installed.

Thorsten supplied an AMG copy oil filter adopter plate.

Perma-Cool supplied the remote filter hardware and the
thermostat. The whole “mess” is plumbed with 15bar
@200degC rated oil hose. We used normal hose clamp
connections for two reasons: space and cost. The hose,
clamp fittings & hose barbs are rated way over anticipated
duty but are not as pretty as Earl’s costly bits.
The remote oil filter and mounting plate attach to the block
using vacant stud bosses. The thermostat unit is strapped to
the chassis box section. An after market oil cooler is
mounted in front of the radiator.

The original AMG plenum would not fit so a fiberglass

plenum was made with a large enough “nose” to accept an
air filter element and still clear the surroundings.

The reservoir on top of the Merc power steering pump

interfered with the air intake plenum so the reservoir was
removed, a remote PS reservoir adopter plate made and a
remote PS reservoir mounted on the fender well next to the
ABS unit.

All the above took a lot of time: chasing parts, waiting for
component delivery, getting friendly and accepted by the
machine shop and welder. Everything except the throttle
bodies had to be sourced or fabricated. We are lucky to
have a fairly complete home workshop and piles of left
over bits from past projects: don’t ever throw anything
away.

Time was not a factor, the ITB’s would get fitted when they
got fitted: we had a fine running fast everyday 16V and a
spare engine to trial fit everything and work out mounting
problems so it was 18 months after buying the ITB’s before
a leaking head gasket provided the opportunity to fit them.

With the head off the oil system went right on. The ITB’s
went on with the head. TPS mounted & calibrated, fuel
lines attached, oil system primed….. it started first turn of
the key……
……and ran pretty well, the throttle butterflies needed
synchronization and a few throttle spindle/butterfly vacuum
leaks sealed with liquid electrical tape. Total head gasket
replacement/ITB conversion time: 2 full days.

The Result:
Going from a single 65mm throttle body to four 52mm
ITB’s on a 2300cc engine is a big jump. A lot needed to be
changed in MS from the previous single throttle body
configuration. This is when MS knowledge and a bit of
experience paid off.

We changed from Speed Density to Alpha-N, played

around with the VE and acceleration enrichment numbers,
made a few test runs adjusting VE using a wide band AFR
meter. After a few more hours and runs we had a car that
starts instantly, hot or cold, idles rock steady and pulls
smoothly from idle to 7000rpm….and goes like hell. Total
tuning time: say 4 to 5 hours.

ITB’s are known for off-idle stumble but with a good MS

VE table and sensible acceleration enrichment numbers
there is no stumble. Acceleration (hard or gradual) is
seamless and registers a 12.5 - 13 AFR all the way up.
Response is instant.

Some people may disagree, but MS is a very cost effective,

user friendly and flexible EFI system. There is not much it
can’t do. The results speak for themselves.

The car is very fast and a joy to drive.

The only bitches: 1) with the improved gas flow and
efficiency the exhaust note has sharpened so we need to fit
another resonator to quiet it and 2) I am retired and need a
new project……….I have a spare MS ECU, saw a nice
Datsun 510 for sale and know of two Alfa Romeo Montreal
V-8’s sitting in a shed.

Questions/Comments: e-mail me bobf@pd.jaring.my

Regards,
bobf
(Feb. 9, 2007)