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

Power steering fluid cooler fitted.



New hoses fitted.



Next the throttle linkage, there seemed to be too many parts in the bag.



Fitted, I'm sure the large washer with rubber bonded should be used somewhere.



Next I filled the PS system.......



.....and spun it up with a drill to bleed all the air out.



Last I jacked up the front of the car and tested out the setting I'd put into the steering box, it ended up with about 10mm of free play at the steering wheel.



With that set I could move onto the exhaust manifold.



Surprisingly I was able to get this torque wrench onto all the nuts and bolts, but I have no idea what torque they should be set at, does anyone know?

Hi Jim,

regarding torque have a look at 49-100 in our SLpedia .

Hi Volker,

I had a look but it only discusses the "exhaust to manifold" nuts and bolts but not the "manifold to head" torque.

Online resources suggest 17Nm for M8 steel bolts in to aluminium vs ~25Nm for steel bolts into steel.

Yes, I looked into the WIS after Jim's post from yesterday for different models and in different chapters where the exhaust manifold was removed and nowhere a manifold-to-head torque was mentioned.

Regards,
Lutz

I had a look in my XK8 repair manual which stated 25Nm but online resources say 17Nm for Aluminium, in the end I set both sides to 19Nm, I can always tighten them up a bit if they blow.

Right side engine shock etc fitted.



Cross brace and fly catcher fitted.





Radiator fitted.



Power steering cooler flex hoses and horns fitted, don't flame me about the non genuine horns, I'll buy better ones sometime.



I then spent an hour searching for the coolant bottle before finding it in the boot!

Here is an interesting comparison, the pic below is from 20th March 2011 when I put this engine in the car.....







....and one from 30th March ten years later in a similar state of assembly.

It is simply amazing and overwhelming !

Happy easter

Kalli

Looks like a christmas tree after you turned on the illumination for the first time .....

Regards,
Lutz

I finished off installing parts in the engine bay today.





Then cleaned and sanded the downpipes.



High temp paint.



All four parts painted.

The first job today was to drill out the baffle from the second cam cover.



My plan is to refit after cleaning with these hammer drive rivets.



Looks like the old ones were also held in with steel rivets.





I also used some high temp high strength loctite on the rivets just to be safe.



Hammered home.



Next, baking the high temp paint on the downpipes for an hour.





I should have unwound this first, the heat sensor tripped out after an hour.

Next, I was a bit worried about the mid section of the engine harness, it was very flexible and felt like the wires had snapped. So I peeled back the braiding only to find that there was only one wire. That checked out to be correct on the wiring diagram.



Re-braided and fitted.



Repairs to the seat heater wiring which I had previously had to cut.





Finally for today, a bit of CAM cover polishing. Before.



One polished and one to be done.



That's it for today, looks like the next few days will be bad weather.

Does anyone have any tips on running in the engine and when to do an oil change?

I had a few days off due to the cold weather and snow as I was going to have to spend a bit of time on my back on the cold concrete.

In the mean time I polished up the second cam cover.



And picked up a few new parts from Mercedes.



Next, time for the exhaust to come off.



It always feels much heavier than expected, I will have to split it for refitting.



Getting this clip onto the gear shift link was a pain, it took me 30 minutes to get on due to restricted access.



Transmission support cradle and original pan fitted.



Earth cable and pitman arm nut fitted.



Heat shields on.



Finally I managed to get the right downpipe fitted.



There was no way to get the left one fitted single handed, I will need to get Kim to help from the top end tomorrow.

Back now aching due to a combination of the cold and lying down on a combination of tools and parts. Its unfortunately turning cold again for the next few days.

Hi Jim
I had to assemble the downpipes several times last year, both on the right and left and never had a problem.
I use a jack that pushes the catalytic converter up with the downpipes. Then I have both hands free to screw.

You're doing a great job 

I have found that on the left downpipe, one of the bolts has to be inserted from below and the nut screwed on from above due to the shape of the manifold. No way to get my hands on the upper side, I am lucky to have my garage helper.

More work on the exhaust today but first I got the headlights refitted with the new connectors from MB.



I got the second downpipe fitted then moved onto the middle box, the little scissor lift is handy for this.



I used this jointing compound, lower one for the main joints and the silicone one for the balancer pipe.



Middle box fitted.



Moving on to the rear.





Connected up, yes the white streaks in the pic are snow.





I still need to fit the balancer but am not sure how the heat shield is supposed to be oriented, please let me know if you have a picture.

Today I.........

Fitted the balancer pipe.



Filled the transmission with 4l of Dexron 2D. The manual calls for 4l initial fill then another ~4.9l once the engine is started.



This meets the spec.



Bit by bit in here.



Spark plugs out again.



These plastic washers protect the panels from the battery tray.



Battery in and good quiescent current.



Ready to try to build oil pressure....



Bad news, I couldn't get any oil pressure.



I tried with another battery but with no success, I don't think the engine is spinning fast enough to get the oil pump to pick up oil.

Any suggestions on what to try next?

Well Jim, did you prefill the oil filter or was it empty ?
If it was empty you could check if it is oil in there now.
Did you check the other bank ?
Did you or your wife read the oil pressure gauge in the cluster,it should move before oil is getting to the camshafts ?

As I changed the oil filter housing gasket and the camshaft on my OM617(everything was empty)  it took I think nearly 40 Seconds of cranking (added together) to get oil to the cam.
 

Oil filter cannister was pre-filled and I also tried while looking at the pressure gauge, it didn't move.

Hello Jim,

are you turning the engine without plugs?

Kind regards

JP

Yes, plugs out.

Just checked the oil circuit, I will fill the oil cooler tomorrow and try again.