Engine rebuild with no former experience........

Well Lutz.....I thought the same on my transmission and I had to remove it twice for the primary pump paper gasket....

So I think Jim did the right thing. I think there is no danger if you use it very thin.

Hi Lutz,

Kent at mercedessource.com recommended its use so I went with his suggestion.

Hello,

if the threads of the lower 7 bolts are facing the oil level of the gear box, the paper gasket cannot seal the threaded bolts.
Does anybody has a more detailed picture of the lower gear box area?

Paper basket will seal pump and gear box housing.
But the thread of the bolts will allow the oil to leak.

Just applying some sealant will do the job.

Would be interesting to see if the oil pump housing gasket of a leaky gear box does show traces of oil leaks.
If not the bolts are suspicious/ need to be sealed with sealant.

Kind regards

JP

This is how it looked when taken apart.

Just a few odd jobs today before and afternoon of Rugby on TV, finally we beat England at Twickenham! First win there since 1983!

I am concerned about the control pressure lever, does anyone know if it is supposed to be twisted like this or is it damaged?



The replacement transmission support arrived, it is the correct size unlike the old one which had a tube that was too narrow.



Some more parts for de-rusting and plating/passivating.

I bent the control pressure lever back into the correct shape today.



I suspect the control rod may also be bent but will try it out in a few days when I mount the transmission onto the engine.



I cleaned up the trans mount carrier today also.



Citric acid.......



Washed and wire brushed.



I'll zinc plate and passivate once I have a few parts to do.

Well today's instalment is a bit embarrassing! I managed to make a big omission when building up the heads and I only noticed a week or so ago. Today it was time to remedy the situation.

Can you guess what it is yet?



Exhaust manifolds off to help with access.



Valves held in place with rope.



Yes, so I could finally fit the valve stem seals, what an idiot!



It took about 4 hours to get them all fitted.

Better now than after installation of the engine or even after the first start .....

Regards,
Lutz

First I spent some time clearing more snow, looks like another cold day in the garage.



One of the things on my to do list was check the ignition timing, I wasn't too sure that I had set it correctly.

First check that the pointer on the distributer cog pointed to its mark. That was good.



I had set the distributer with the arm pointing to the slot in the housing assuming it indicated cylinder 1 tdc.



However that seemed to be pointing to cylinder 2.



So I got my optoviser on and had a closer look. There was another mark that showed up better with a marker pen. Problem solved.



Next a closer look at the valve timing. Crankshaft set to TDC.



The right camshaft (viewed from the front) was spot on as it should be with new sprockets and chain.



However disappointingly the right cam is slightly off.



That equates to about 6 degrees at the crank, so about 3degrees at the cam offset, when lined up.



The Woodruff key info below is a bit confusing, does anyone know if it refers to the cam angle or the crank angle?

I found this so the above table refers to the crank and the table below refers to the CAM, so I'll go for the 3 degree CAM offset key. Two are actually needed for the left (from front) CAM.

Hello jim
KW refers to crank angle
Your decision with 0267 = 3 degrees is correct

Hi Jim,

I had the same issue on my 560 - I chose the 8 KW Degree on mine on the passenger side and it made such a huge difference!

I always had a little bit of shaking in the idle - it is completely gone and the engine stands still like a Rock in the idle.
 
 

Next! The brake booster.



I took the driver seat out.





I also took out the lower kick panel to be able to see the brake booster fixing better.



The pedal was connected to the booster by a bolt and this bush.



It was relatively easy, with a bit of body contortion to get access to the four fixing nuts.



Releasing the three brake pipe unions allowed it to be lifted out.

This morning I realised that the crank bolt could be fitted before the harmonic balancer and the pulley so fitted that, now I can get the engine off the stand and fit the transmission before getting the other parts painted.



That is tight.



I also ordered up the offset Woodruff keys so will wait to get these fitted before fitting the transmission.

Back to the engine bay, stripped out these parts....



..... then all the wiring, clips, cable ties, blanking plugs and brake pipes.



The wiper motor still has to come out, so I removed the glove box for a look. Just one nut and bolt on the motor link to the mechanism. and three nuts for the motor.



That will take a bit of contortion tomorrow to get out. Then it will be on to a massive clean up and degrease to prepare for paint.

The garage has been off limits for four days now as its been below freezing out there day and night, however its due to warm up later today at last.

In the mean time....I printed out a degree wheel.......



....then stuck it to the harmonic balancer. I removed the springs from two old hydraulic compensators, these will be used rather than the manual compensators called for in the repair manual to check on the CAM timing.

By chance the harmonic balancer is A4 sized.

First I set up a pointer to check on the TDC marker.



Then I made up this plunger to fit in the spark plug hole. Two attempts to get the thread right, a balls up with the change gears.



With this in place, it allows the piston to be raised CW and CCW to give two readings. The tool needs to be removed while the engine is being turned over otherwise it will clash with the valves.



30 degrees from one side.



28 degrees from the other side.



Splitting the difference then adjusting the pointer gave this. So the pointer on the water pump is ~1 to 2 deg out.

Next I removed the hydraulic lifters form cylinder 1 and 6.



Then replaced them with old lifters with the spring removed and adjusted to take out any slack from the rocker arm.



Dial gauge set up on Cylinder 6.



With 2mm of valve lift the angular rotation ~6.5deg which is exactly on spec.



With 2mm of valve lift on the right side the angular rotation is ~ 6 deg vs 6.5 deg target.







The conclusion is, I don't need any woodruff keys and the CAM tower markings are approximate only.

Some painting today, wow it got to 10degC. The snow is melting fast.

Etch primer.



Power steering pump.



2K black.



Trans sump pan.



All done.



The brake booster was originally black but the only brake fluid resistant paint I had was this silver and I like the contrast. A new one would be nice but they are £300.



Onto the brake fluid reservoir, I put it in hot water to soften the rubber grommets to make it easier to pull off without damage.



Then cleaned it up, again I will reuse as the replacement are a few hundred pounds.

The first job today was to paint the legend on the balancer with silver paint and a scribe.



I then looked up the torque for the M8 bolts to hold the pulley and balancer to the hub, it was 35Nm, that seems high for a M8 so I had a look for the old bolts and found four of the six.



Aha... 10.9 bolts. I will get some new ones ordered.



PS pump mounted.



Then the water pump pulley.





Transmission pan fitted.



Brake booster reassembled.



CAM oiler pipes fitted.



Next I had a look under the baffle on the CAM cover with an inspection camera, there was a lot of crud under there. I think I will have to remove both for cleaning. Its a pain that they are blind riveted in.

The engine ignition ECU has an aluminium/zinc body and a steel top, I will remove the lid and plate/passivate.



Very old school.