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

The time has come, I plan to rebuild my engine as I need to take it out of the car to paint the engine bay. It has a few issues, leaking rear main seal and head gaskets etc, so while it is out of the car I will take the opportunity to carry out a full rebuild. I have also had an issue with a loose valve guide so I will be able to fix this at the same time, on top of this I am sure I am down on power since I installed this engine ten years ago.

My garage space is very limited so I decided to put my XK8 into storage over the winter to free us space to work on the engine. I drove it to the storage location on Wednesday, it was a large grain store on a remote farm and was dry and extremely warm inside.



Yesterday I moved the car lift out of the way and retrieved the engine crane from the shed and had a freak accident!



I was using this pry bar to lever up one end of the car lift to fit its castor wheels to move it, I levered it up to put a block of wood under the frame and left bar down where I had used it.



Next the lift slipped off the block of wood, fell about 5cm and landed on the pry bar and propelled it through the air, into my head!

Ouch!



Back to it today, I jacked up the car and the supported under the chassis rails.





Then drained the fluids and removed the radiator.





Since there have been a few scare stories about car stands I decided to put another two stands under the sills without any weight on them as a backup, that will give me more confidence when working underneath.



To get some knowledge about engine building, I bought this US book, its not ideal for the MB engine but does cover all of the basics.



The weather is bad tomorrow so will make some more progress.

Jim, to overhaul an engine is pretty straight forward. Basically intake manifold, heads and block. Get the specs and tolerances and you are good. WIS should be in eye side.

Remember wisely-53 Thorsten overhauled a transmission. He is a pencil pusher at the fed. Government. WIS will help.
Btw, I wouldn’t touch a damn automatic transmission with a 10 foot pole
Rudiger

Hi Jim,

I love your “ I can do it attitude “ a complete Engine rebuild without having it done before, chapeau.
I hope you have also mechanical capacity somewhere available to machine or grind the joint faces Motor block cylinder head if necessary or to hone the cylinders if you have to replace the pistons with oversized ones.
A recommendation I got from a friend of mine, a mechanic, is when you start to disassemble the intake manifold mark every screw you take out with a sequential number and mark the same number on the hole in the manifold with a permanent marker. That is extremely helpful based on the different length of the screws when you have to reassemble. And take photos, photos and more photos. But whom am I telling this with your experience.
I guess you have a motor stand like this one to carry the motor block for the rebuild work. www.harborfreight.com/2000-lbs-capacity-...ine-stand-69522.html
I wish you all the best for your project and may the accident you have had will be the only one.
Please keep us posted with your progress.

Hi Jim,
if the guy on the book is the one from "home improvement/hör mal wer da hämmert) you should know that not everything they did was working .
Just a joke >> I'm sure you will fix it !
Gruss
Achim

Hi Jim,

good luck with the job and hopefully no more freak accidents.
The one you had now is kind of typical: a few incidents that subsequentially occur and that you alltogether never had on your radar.
Please keep us updated, I think most of the people here like your stories and appreciate them.

Regards, Lutz

I purchased this engine stand.

www.sgs-engineering.com/es2000-680kg-fol...EktsgvgaAgZxEALw_wcB

Rather than this one.

www.amazon.co.uk/Sealey-ES900F-Folding-E...pacity/dp/B000RO3TTS

After watching this video.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQdjzZEoidI&t=127s

I spent a few hours in the garage today,

The first job was to drain the PS pump.



Then remove the PS oil cooler, I had to disconnect the lower valance to get it out. I am removing more than would be needed just to remove the engine as I plan to paint the engine bay.



Both removed.



Then battery and tray removed to give access to the top of the exhaust.



This spanner is good for the right manifold.





H pipe and damper removed.



Does anyone know the optimal height to raise the front of the car to make the engine and transmission removal trouble free?

Jim, how much headroom do you have? Are you taking engine and transmission simultaneously out? Do you have a load leveler? Do you take the hood, bonnet, off?
www.harborfreight.com/2-ton-capacity-hea...psugg_q=engine+hoist
Rudiger

The headroom is 2.6m, the engine and transmission will come out together, and yes I have a load leveler. I had planned to remove the bonnet until I saw this picture.

www.benzworld.org/threads/removing-the-e...read-2269986&slide=0

I have removed the old engine ten years ago but don't remember exactly how high I raised it but remember I had a bit of trouble with the transmission hitting the floor of the garage.





There must be an optimal height, enough to clear the transmission but not too high for the hoist.

Hi Jim,

did you consider taking the motor out from the bottom?

When I removed the engine from my 968CS it figured out that it was much more comfortable to dismantle the front suspension and lower the motor to the ground. Maybe this is also an option for the 107?

Jorg, daran hatte ich auch gestern gedacht durch die begrenzte hohe. Wie wurde das im Werk gemacht? Ich glaube der Motor ist an den cylinderkopfen zu breit um den nach unten auszubauen
Rudiger

Lifting the body off of the engine and subframe was also my preference, I have asked around but not found anyone who has actually done this to give advice.

One problem that would need to be solved is to first remove the steering box which is in the way, and it is much easier to remove the steering box once the engine is out of the car.

In the end neither way is easy, and since I have done it once before, perhaps better to stick with the method that worked last time.

Grand Prix now finished so back out to the car.

Racediagnostics wrote: I purchased this engine stand ..... Rather than this one ..... After watching this video .....

I wouldn't blame the engine stand for what happened. I mean, lifting up one leg of the engine stand while the engine is already resting on it ("It's no weight on the crane right now!"), was not a really good idea of "EricTheCarGuy".

Regards, Lutz

Rudiger wrote: Jim, to overhaul an engine is pretty straight forward. Basically intake manifold, heads and block. Get the specs and tolerances and you are good. WIS should be in eye side.

Remember wisely-53 Thorsten overhauled a transmission. He is a pencil pusher at the fed. Government. WIS will help.
Btw, I wouldn’t touch a damn automatic transmission with a 10 foot pole
Rudiger

Thanks Rudiger for "pencil-puscher"

wusel-53 wrote:

Rudiger wrote: Jim, to overhaul an engine is pretty straight forward. Basically intake manifold, heads and block. Get the specs and tolerances and you are good. WIS should be in eye side.

Remember wisely-53 Thorsten overhauled a transmission. He is a pencil pusher at the fed. Government. WIS will help.
Btw, I wouldn’t touch a damn automatic transmission with a 10 foot pole
Rudiger

Thanks Rudiger for "pencil-puscher"

Thorsten, You are very welcome .

I had been hoping to leave the middle and back exhaust box in place, but realised today that the prop shaft nut is above the middle box and heat shield. I will have to rethink that plan, perhaps with a bit of leverage I may still be able to get to it. Has anyone else managed with the middle box in place?

Anyway today, lots more disassembly.

Steering drag link ball joint removed at one side to help with the clearance for the transmission.



Earth strap disconnected.



Heat shields out and right downpipe, the left downpipe is in a restricted place and does not want to come out yet.



Engine mount bolts next.



Then the engine dampers.



Throttle linkage, oil pressure gauge and coolant hoses disconnected.



Brake booster vac line.



Wiring harness at the front and rear disconnected.



I remember when I put this engine in ten years ago that the crane chains came close to the fuel injector pipes so I decided to remove it first as its only held on by four nuts.

I have a couple of other questions, first, should there be a rubber boot around the throttle lever in the bulkhead here?



And second, can the front pully be removed from the harmonic balancer by removing these smaller bolts? I was surprised to see that one was missing.

Hi Jim,

around the lever there is a rubber boot, see on my 1986 300 SL

Thanks Marcel, yours looks the same as mine so puts my mind at rest, I thought perhaps there should also have been a second boot on the outer skin of the bulkhead.

Hello Jim,

today I have removed my M110 (280SL) together with the transmission. Like you I did the whole work in my garage and I had no problems with the height. Probably I think that the M110 engine is a little longer than yours.

Greetings Thomas

Day 4, I moved on to the transmission today. Drained the fluid.



Released the gear linkage.



Removed the front part of the cradle.



Kick-down wire removed.



Remainder of cradle removed.



Speedometer cable and PNDR switch harness released.



Prop-shaft coupling released.



For the prop-shaft spline coupling.



Finally the torque converter was drained.



That's all the prep work now almost complete.

A few more things.

Protection for the radiator support.



Make your bets now, will the engine come out with the bonnet on or not?





It's up as far as I dare.

Uhh, I would be wary! Better ask your wife to help you to take the bonnet off.
At least I would try to hold it from the ceiling. Otherwise, if you interfere with one of the supports while taking the engine out, bad things could happen to it.

Regards, Lutz

Good suggestion, I will take the air intake vents off so I can go a bit more vertical and also support the bonnet from the ceiling.

Taking the bonnet off with my wife would be a high risk, it is so easy to scratch or dent a wing etc. If she struggles with the weight.

Jim, do you have plenty of room in front? What’s your intended, swing engine and transmission side ways?
Rudiger

Jim, I really suggest to put off the bonnet.
It is easy to remove and you need the space.
And take a additional look to the transmission. I forgot one wiring harness connection at the transmission and damaged the connector.
Best regards Thomas

Hi Rudiger, once the engine is out I will push the car back out of the garage to give space to manoeuvre the engine.

The first task this morning was to remove the air intake vents so that the bonnet could be lifted higher. The main problem doing this is due at least 50% of the pegs used in the plastic rivets disappearing.



The car pushed out of the garage a bit to allow the engine hoist to be positioned.



The bonnet support felt very secure in this position, ready to lift.



It took nearly an hour to get the engine into this position, it kept jamming between the right exhaust manifold against the chassis rail and the bell housing on the steering box. In the end I had to remove the exhaust manifold on the right which took a at least 30 minutes due to the position of its fixing. You can also see from this picture it was wise to remove the fuel distributer etc.



From then on it was straightforward to raise the engine, level it and drop the car onto its wheels then push it back out of the way.



Engine dropped onto a trolley.



Next I dragged the car lift back into place.



I then assembled the engine stand and had a tidy up.





You can see here the problem area where the bell housing fouled against the steering box. I will trim some of this off to improve clearance.



I videoed the entire extraction but will need to edit/fast forward some sections as it's 90minutes long and rather boring.

Jim, why dont you remove the steering Box?
It is not that hard.

Hello Jim,

you did a great job! Can you estimate the high to the ceiling that is needed to remove the engine?

Best regards

Markus