Peter, I think early this spring, I'm going to tackle the head gasket in my W124 300E. Seeing a little oil in the coolant. I also want to change the little seals on the valves, and was thinking all along, that it might be easier to just pull the whole head and do it on a bench, rather then mess around and drop a valve in the engine, (which I would do). My only concern is getting the chain on and off and the cam and crank all aligned when reassembling.
Any pointers, or even a quick walk through and what to watch for, tricks to make the job easier would be much appreciated. This won't be a rebuild, but a good chance to "freshen" up a lot of things while it's all apart. Thanks Peter. Ed 300E On 19/01/2008, Peter Frederick <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > It never rains but it pours, as the saying goes! > > My brother has been having an excessive vibration problem with his > SDL for some time. We've fixed everything we could think of (new > belt, new PS pump, new tensioner pivot, etc) but never did get is to > stop shaking at idle. I finally told him to make SURE the crank > pulley had not come loose (although I'd expect it to have flown off > by now, but hey). He shoved around on it, and it idles smoothly for > a few minutes, then goes back to jumping around, and he decides his > harmonic balancer has gone south, compounded by massive oil throwing > from the balancer. > > So we get a new balancer (not cheap, $100 shipping alone from > Germany, no one stocks one here) and go to put it in, along with a > new front seal. Ha, what a mess. The friend we borrow all our tools > from didn't have the flywheel lock and got the wrong seal too boot, > so that held us up a couple days, along with the mess between the > radiator and condenser. If you have not done so, please pull the rad > next time you change coolant and clean all that crap out. Bugs and > stuff get through the AC condenser, but then get hung up at the > radiator. His was about 1/2 masked off. > > Anyway, we decided to make a tool for the crank bolt removal by > welding a piece of 2" angle iron to the old blanacer (it is held onto > the crank hub with the six bolts that hold the pulley on, unlike the > 617 where it presses on with the crank bolt). Great if you have a > dead balancer to work with, else rather expensive. Got that job done > pretty well, but found the belt pivot loose again. Sam Loctited it > in this time, I hope the threads aren't buggered from running it > loose! That wold be much more work that I want to do again as the > front cover really has to come out. > > He also had some leaks in the coregated stainless bits in the exhaust > manifold he wanted to fix, so ended up taking the exhaust manifold > and turbo return pipe off since there is an inner pipe between the > front and rear parts of the manifold and the studs are too long to > remove just the front half. This went well until he got to the last > bolt at the rear where the stud broke off (or finished breaking off, > he didn't put any twist into it). This is the one that was broken on > my old 300D that held us up a day on re-installation of the head, but > his was, of course, still in the car. > > Tried to easy out it, but the easy out broke (I told him to borrows > the good one from Hans, but he doesn't listen too well), so haha, off > comes it's head. Not exactly what we had planned, our one evening > job is now stretching out to a couple weeks. And $250 more than > expected, too as a new head gasket and set of head bolts is now > required. > > Now, this is only part of the fun -- my mother's TE blower motor > starts blowing fuses, so I've got another motor on the way (used-- > I'm taking a chance here, I know), but it's not driveable with no > heater blower when it's below freezing, can't get frost off the > inside of the window too see. That puts that car out of action. Sam > bought a 300e this summer for spare transport, as his 75 300D needs > IP repair and isn't driveable at the moment -- only runs on 4 > cylinders -- and the 300e decides to finish blowing it's head gasket, > too, leaving them with only a pickup and need for more > transportation. I graciously lend my SIL my new 300D and fire up the > old 280 SE and hope it runs well enough to get me to and from work > until I get the blower motor installed in the TE. > > now, I dont' drive the SE all that much because it gets terrible > milage (12 to 14 these days) and I've not been able to get it to run > all that well for a while --- the idle keeps creeping up and it runs > rough, misses, surges and backfires, so I wasn't looking forward to > this, expecting to end up dead on the side of the road somewhere AND > broke from buying premium for that 450 miles I drive in a normal > week. After limping to and from the in-town job, I noticed a > pronounced hissing under the hood, and though probably the vacuum > retard line had given up the ghost. Bit pain as the plastic line > runs along the valve cover and it's not easy to replace. > > Well, not the vac line -- fished around a bit with some carb cleaner > spray, and discovered that one injector was sucking air around the > seal. In fact, the seal was missing entirely, although I'm quite > certain there was one there last year when I replaced all the hoses > on the ring main and pulled the injectors. Or was that the year > before? I don't remember. Anyway, I don't have a seal, the car > isn't drivable as it, what do I do? I don't want to drive Mom's in > bad weather (rain and snow predicted for the next day, and it's the > out of town job this time) -- car rental time? Nope, found some gas > line left from the ring main job and ha, it will fit on the injector > nozzle and into the hole in the head well enough to seal! Hot Damn, > here we go. > > Runs pretty good now, believe it or not. Think I've got some > sticking injectors, since it idles great but staggers when you > accelerate, and misses intermittantly on the highway. Also still > uses gargantuan amounts of fuel instead of the 15-16 mpg I used to > get. At least I'm running. > > We finally got the head on Sam's SDL on Monday night, then got the > exhaust back on after a couple tries on Thursday. He got the front > end and radiator back in and the intake installed, and we finished it > up last night. Runs much better with no exhaust leaks, and finally > doesn't vibrate anywhere near as much. Rougher than the W124, but I > think that's due to the difference in engine mounts mostly. Still > clanks something terrible at idle, but so did my 300D, has something > to do with air in the injectors and cleaning carbon off the head > making for some serious injector knock. goes away fairly soon as I > remember. > > The good part of this whole story, and the reason I didn't try too > hard to find a way to get the stud out from the head installed, is > that the head gasket was on the way out. The chain case was leaking, > as was in fact probably the majority of the oil leak. Way messy, and > the two small screws at the front were not tight anymore, just like > the 300D. Worse, there was minor oil in the #1 combustion chamber, > and signs that the gasket was not sealing on the oil passage across > the front (bad design, I think). Not pretty when the cylinder seal > fails there, you can blow a bunch of oil into the front cylinder at > low engine speed and bend a bunch of rods, etc. I think he dodged a > bullet, myself. There were also signs of combustion leakage into the > center head bolt hole on #6 -- this is the one that was full of soot > and broke off on my 300D. > > So next weekend we get to tackle the 300e head gasket and hopefully > the blower motor on the TE shortly. > > Nothing like fun! > > Peter > > _______________________________________ > http://www.okiebenz.com > For new parts see official list sponsor: http://www.buymbparts.com/ > For used parts email [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: > http://okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com > _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com For new parts see official list sponsor: http://www.buymbparts.com/ For used parts email [EMAIL PROTECTED] To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
