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

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.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aVyGzERhvw

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.

Hi Jim,

I don't believe that 110 mA are a good quiescent current, I think this is way to high. But I don't either believe that a clamp-on meter will give you a reliable measurement at such a low reading.

Cheers,
Lutz

Hello,

if you mount the camshaft cover and close all other openings you could give some air pressure on the engine block.

Open the oil cooler and the air pressure will push the oil via oil pump and filter into the cooler and most air traps should be gone.

Kind regards

JP

Hello Jim,

are you sure that there is enough oil in the oil pump? This guy (see link) had the same problem after replacing the oil pump...maybe it helps you,

forum.mercedesclub.de/index.php?thread/2...nach-pumpen-wechsel/

best regards

Markus

The short story is, I am an idiot and shouldn't be trusted with a spanner.

The long story is ........

It's lucky that the oil cooler has a port on the top where oil can be added.



My oil pressure kit had a suitable adapter.



1 1/2 l of oil added.



What! The oil had found its way through all of the oil galleries and was exiting under the right cam cover which was not tightened down.



I thought "great, the pump should be primed, I will try using the starter again and I'm sure to get pressure". No! Still no oil pressure.

So next I connected the fill hose to the top of the cooler and removed the feed to the oil filter so the oil could only go back to the pump. I connected the air line and nothing happened. A total blockage between the cooler and the pump. It looked like there was a non return valve but there isn't one.

So I decided to look along the oil path from the pump to the cooler. First there is a port near the output of the oil pump.

Access is very restricted, I wasn't sure if I would gut the lower plug out due to the dip stick tube.



Got the plug out, bone dry !.



Dry in the port, on the left you can see the hard line to the oil damper (which is straight through).



Connection to the far side of the damper, dry !!



Connection to the lower port of the cooler, dry !!! WHAT, I can see in the top port, the oil cooler is full.



Right, the cooler must be blocked, so I put some air pressure into the top of the cooler.

Then got a big splatter and mess down below! The blockage cleared.



Does anyone else remember me putting this plug into the bottom of the cooler to stop it dripping.

Hi Jim,

that is really a problem with your 450 SL. May I propose that I free you of these problems by taking over your car. For small money of course as oil does not circulate and it has the steering wrongly mounted anyhow.

Great story with the plug! I keep my fingers crossed that this was the only problem you will face. I am sure you would master them all. 

Just a teaser.

wrote:

Just a teaser.

youtu.be/OGUN1TaT6kAY
 

You like to "mess" around, do you? ... coming a bit from the North?
Fantastic build and a great video. Hats off to your work. It's amazing what Brits can achieve, once they're liberated from the continent

Kind regards
Thomas

Here is the main feature.

Hi Jim,

congrats it is running! I dared to change your link to a direct embed. You can do yourself via clicking on video icon (2nd from right), slect Youtube as provider and then add the Youtube ID from v=...

Wow, Jim, I´m really impressed!
Great to follow your work steps and see the perfect result!

Good luck for the rest of your project.
 

5 month, 12 days,
engine and engine bay fully restored. !!
Great Job !! Respekt !!

Great work Jim,

It’s been so much fun following the progress, but what an amazing feeling it must be for you to fire her up for the first time!

Looking forward to the finishing off and the first ride

Congratulations!
The teaser reminds me a bit to the engine in "Das Boot". But the U-boat engine was running at normal speed then

Cheers,
Lutz

I am really impressed Jim. Good work, everything documented (the failures as well) and a happy end. Sounds like a fairy tale. I enjoyed and read everything with pleasure. Thanks for sharing this with us in every little detail. BTW, I am a little bit jealous about your passion and courage doing all this work.

Thumbs up, mate!

As Karl Valentin said.....

"everything is said, but not from everybody "

I can only ad my admiration.

Kalli