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

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.

God, you have worms in your ignition module! Probably the highly dangerous copper worms. I would recommend a treatment with hexavalent chrome .....

Regards,
Lutz

I was able to remove the windscreen wiper motor via the glove box in the end. Easier than expected. 

 

Then onto remove the bulkhead insulation, not such an easy job. 

 

It is a bit of a mess, I can't see myself reusing it, I will price up a new one tomorrow morning. 



 There are couple of areas of rust, but not too bad. I will clean them up tomorrow but don't think I'll need to do any welding. 

 

 Getting close to be able to paint. 

Didn't get into the garage today, but went to the Mercedes dealer to pick up a few new parts and order a new bulkhead heat shield, £170 for a sheet of bitumen.

Throttle bulkhead gasket.
Offset woodruff keys which are now redundant.
10.9 strength bolts for the harmonic balancer.
Special lock nut for the steering box adjuster.



Then I got dragged into the garden to do some pruning, once the green bin was full there was no alternative to getting a fire going.



Then a few drinks as a reward, cheers!

Here is a question, can I remove the four main front subframe nuts and bolts with the car sitting on its wheels, without anything falling off / collapsing? I plan to do a bit more plating this weekend and would be handy to do them at the same time.

I've been plating for the last couple of days, it's like waiting for a kettle to boil, then another one, then another one........



The subframe bolts came out no problem.



Looking better now.

Hallo
Du galvanierst selber ???
Grüsse Werni

Yes, these are some of the parts in the plating tank.

Racediagnostics wrote:  it's like waiting for a kettle to boil, .......
 

Hi Jim,
I think the better expression would be "it's like watching paint dry" in a more literal sense. Amazing, what you do. And all this on a lonely island without permanent supplies ... hats off!

Thomas

Next, back into the garage!



This area is the biggest concern.



The tools.



This looks bad, I wish I had a better understanding of how this fits together.



It was easier to strip most of the paint rather than just try to remove the old contact adhesive.



Ready to remove the bonnet.



Kim is very tolerant!





I think I will cut out the spot welds and peel back the "tabs" and then cut out the corroded area.

Jim, my Wife would kill me