Is it possible to put a bigger than 34t chainring on a Merida e160 MTB? There is only about 2mm of clearance from the chainstay.
Depends what you mean by clearance. X or Y in the diagram below?
if you mean X then you likely have room for a bigger chainring. If you mean Y then you are probably out of luck.
Using a formula for the radius of an n sided polygon and assuming tooth profile does not significantly vary for different size chainrings, each additional tooth adds about 2mm of radius to the chainring.