OWNER Jnes W124 300 3.6/24 Oettinger -90

[jnes]

Ok, I have been asking mainly questions but now I think it's time to introduce my newest purchase.. Maybe someday I post something regarding the 500E..

Around 2 months ago I spotted an announcement in local Mercedes forum where seller listed a bit rarer car for sale. Car is w124 300TE-24 3.6 Oettinger.

Oettinger is famous for VW tuning (and beer manufacturer) and they have a certain era when they have their hands to Mercedes engines.

Die Mercedes-Jahre- OETTINGER SPORTSYSTEMS GMBH

They were not official tuner or approved by Mercedes so they did not have right to use Mercedes logos in their builds. Quite a lot of cars went to Japan but this sample is delivered in Germany. I have no information if how many cars have been built. And as you might guess, surprisingly their archives are also lost. I don't understand why and how all famous tuners have lost or burn their archives from the 90’s.



Listed price was quite high and back then I did not even bother to ask anything about the car. Then the price went down quite a bit and then it started to look more interesting. Quite soon it was time for the test drive and my friend who also has a 500E came to pick me up and let me drive with his car to have a feeling how the w124 feels like. (My car is under total restoration so I haven't driven it since 2022)

Then we took this Oettinger for a test drive. During the test drive we stopped and started to spot and go through possible issues and places which need fixing and we found quite a lot. Funny thing is, when we went through the car to search for problems some random guy stopped and commented that we have such a nice car. After a short conversation with this guy he told me that this was his family's old car. This is definitely a small county.
Test drive itself went well and the car pulled really strong. Of course it's not the same as the 500E500 cars I compared. Sadly I haven't driven regular 300-24 so I have no idea how this perfroms.

Also we noticed that the engine did not match the VIN number and some thoughts came to my mind that, is this really a 3.6 engine since the car has no visual signs of modifications done by Oettinger. All documents are lost and valve cover plastic is missing etc. Only indication is that the instrument cluster has an oil temperature gauge instead of a clock. Also tacho is upgraded to 300km/h.



Previous owner mentioned that when the car was imported to Finland the registration papers indicated that the engine had been changed but back then the documentation wasn't so accurate, only two first digits from installed engine number had been written in registration papers.
Po also mentioned that the car will go to shop since the visco clutch and front rotors need to be replaced due to vibration in high speeds& fan issues so I request to measure stroke to have a proof for proper engine.

Luckily the stroke was significantly taller than the stock engine. Shop measured between 93-96mm while stock has 80mm. Oettinger states in their documentation that stroke is 94,5mm.

Then before closing the deal I requested to lift the car up to see the chassis. Overall look is ok but the car has surface rust in rear subframe and suspension arms. Also diff and rear axle shafts seals leak.
After thinking and calculating possible prices for finding the missing parts I made a quite rough offer but the seller didn't accept. He made a counteroffer and I negotiated the price a bit less due to the issues of the car and we ended up making a deal, so here it is. And finally I have a W124 which I can drive instead of dismantling all the time.

Car has quite nice equipments and odometers stands 245000km’s.



Now the idea is enjoy the car and fix the small issues and after completing the 500E then it might be this car's turn to be overhauled.

Any info regarding Oettinger 3.6/24 is very welcome. A brochure would be especially nice to have if someone might have that. Or copy of that/digital version.



Here you can see how the engine should look like



I have dozens of photos but they are mainly focusing on the issues of the car so therefore I only post few of those.

Regarding this I'm looking for M104.980 engine parts for this project. Good condition without cracks wanted.

• Valve cover A1040101130
• valve cover plastic with Mercedes-Benz lettering A1041500175 / A1041500075
• plastic part with Mercedes logo in front of the valve cover, above the distributor A1041580285
• air intake hose A1040940682

Cheers,
Jnes

 

[jnes]

Previous owner did headwork for this car in 2020 and here you can see the head. My friends who are familiar with M104 heads noted that it seems that some porting&headwork have made by Oettinger. Transmission is also repaired by the previous owner.

Sadly there are no maintenance records, but you can clearly see that car has been kept quite ok. Previous owner has changed oils every 5000km and it's been only driven during summer time. He promised to send bills me but haven't received yet those.

It would be nice to take car to dyno and see what are the actual numbers.

 

[jnes]

Just washed a car. I haven't seen so dirty car for a while. I guess that white colour makes that it looks ok but it is still very dirty. Can't wait how dirty the interior will be when start cleaning that..

I'm currently negotiating for 500E headlights to be upgraded Depo's which are installed. Seller provide pics which are quite hazy but the price is how to say, intresting, 300€. Lenses are correct but no idea what the reflectors are..

 

[2phast]

It is not uncommon for a tuner to actually pull out the original motor and drop in one that has already been converted. Both Brabus and AMG did this as well, so I would not be concerned if the VIN does not match the engine. Sounds like you already verified it has been modified. AMG usually stamps the block with the displacement, did you check your block for any stampings?

 

[TimL]

Previous owner did headwork for this car in 2020 and here you can see the head. My friends who are familiar with M104 heads noted that it seems that some porting&headwork have made by Oettinger. Transmission is also repaired by the previous owner.

Sadly there are no maintenance records, but you can clearly see that car has been kept quite ok. Previous owner has changed oils every 5000km and it's been only driven during summer time. He promised to send bills me but haven't received yet those.

It would be nice to take car to dyno and see what are the actual numbers.

@jnes that is such a cool find! What are your plans for this rare car? Are you planning to restore it or drive it as is?

My brother had a 1988 Golf GTD that was tuned by Oettinger. Bigger turbo took that car from 75hp to 110hp and it was such a fun car, because the bigger turbo meant the it was an old school "all or nothing" type of driving experience, depending on whether the turbo was spooled up yet or not Ever since then I've been a huge Oettinger fan....unfortunately they vanished from the industry. Really hope you will take the W124 back to its former glory days!

 

[puchak]

Oh hey! I was the one on Reddit asking about the engine bay photos. I don't think anyone on that sub knows how rare of a car you have.

You should definitely go take the car on a dyno, preferably in perfect working order of course! I have spare Euro headlight lenses if those interest you - I am US based though.

 

[jnes]

Ok, small update for this project. Mainly I have been driven car occasionally and find out what issues there will be. List is quite long but I think no major/big issues. First drawback was that I got flat tire. Luckily tubeless fix could be installed.



As I wrote before engine bay need some fixing and my friend promised to help me to reproduce Oettinger logo to above the engine. I met some German guy who has similar car and know owners who has also similar cars so I got some of the measurements for this logo project.



First version to be installed in friend's car. Measurements need to be checked if I can find the exact information.



I have been told that Oettinger produced those plates from bronze back in the days. At least early ones (3.6/12) are made from bronze but for M104 engine is still unknown



Then I started to find out why rear door lights won’t work. I managed to source some NOS Hella lights just in case that lights need some TLC. When I pulled the light unit off I noticed that wire wasn’t plugged. And surprise, same problem with another side.



That was easy fix. After fixing this I started to look why the vanity mirror lights don’t illuminate. Driver side mirror lights started to working just waving sun visor. So some corrosion or bad contact was the reason. Co-driver side was a bit trickier. I ended up to dissasseble whole sun visor to figure out how is it made of.



Issue is that microswitch in the mirror circuit is dead and need some replacement. Need to find new microswitch. If someone have sourced replacement parts let me know!



Also been thinking to reproduce velour floor mats with Oettinger logo. Some of these cars were equipped with these mats and I think that those would suite quite nice.



I also noticed that car is leaking some oil. When I inspected the chassis before buying the car I noticed that driver side engine block was wet of oil and same is in front of the engine.

I was able to source some missing parts to engine bay. Some ebay seller had intake tube which I bought and it’s in way. Just closed a deal at valve cover+plastic parts. 500E headlights are also in the way to this beauty.

 

[jnes]

@jnes that is such a cool find! What are your plans for this rare car? Are you planning to restore it or drive it as is?

My brother had a 1988 Golf GTD that was tuned by Oettinger. Bigger turbo took that car from 75hp to 110hp and it was such a fun car, because the bigger turbo meant the it was an old school "all or nothing" type of driving experience, depending on whether the turbo was spooled up yet or not Ever since then I've been a huge Oettinger fan....unfortunately they vanished from the industry. Really hope you will take the W124 back to its former glory days!

Sorry Tim for delayed reply. Current idea is to fix the issues and drive and enjoy the car. Complete restoration is not at the moment in my plan since my 500E is under heavy restoration process.. Plan is also to have this car registered as "museum car" to get some deductions for car tax and insurances.

But yeah kind of bring it back to former glory

 

[DoronG]

Hi Jens,
I am running/owner W201 190e 2.6-16 from Oettinger. I may have Oettinger price list for 6 cylinders engine as well, where you located?

 

[jnes]

Hi DoronG,
And sorry for late reply! I'm located in Finland, capital area. Send me PM if you have some special info, thanks.

I managed to score some Oettinger brochures from back in the days..

I have made some progress with this car, stay tuned.