Well, I can now say I understand why there are only a handful of people who dive deep down into the depths of these older Mercedes engines. I suppose its not worth spending thousands of dollars on a rebuild to most people when you can go buy a decent running engine for a couple hundred dollars. I suppose its most interesting to everyone to see the pictures and hear the struggles and successes of other peoples journeys. So here is a thread that is going to follow this build from the start to the beautiful moment where the key turns and the engine is running again. This is the exact opposite of a quick and dirty rebuild where it takes one weekend and $100 in used parts. Be warned, this will be EXTREMELY Picture heavy.
but that is what everyone wants isn't it? Hopefully this can end up being a very helpful and informative thread to all the wrench-ers out there! I also hope that this isn't the last of my threads, and by the time im done with this car I will have yielded many helpful and informative threads on all the cars systems. So.... Here we go.
Obviously, the first step was to remove the engine. An engine puller is 100% absolutely necessary, with a leveler being extremely helpful to lean it back so you can get the tranny leaned back. This step is fairly simple and doesn't have too many tricks... The oil pressure gauge is always a tricky line to get off... and don't forget the ground cables. Other than that though, label everything and that's the easy part. I'm sure most people have the issue of their engines leaking EVERYWHERE, and honestly, that was one of the main reasons for starting this project.... So once the source of the leak was removed to be fixed, it was necessary to clean up all its mess... It took about 2 days, and the pictures don't really even do it justice, (see attachment. Sorry no before picture, switched cameras 3 times throughout this whole project) but after many bottles of different cleaners and rolls of paper towels the engine bay was a beauty. Simple Green seems to be a praised product by many of the people on this forum, but when it came down to it, it didn't really cut it. I made a secret potion that was a mixture of simple green, and like 3 different cleaners. It worked good for the light stuff, but anywhere that was flat there was a very thick layer of dirt oil mixture.. Oddly enough, foam oven cleaner did a great job. sprayed it on thick, let sit overnight, and it literally wiped off the next day.
Next was the disassembly of the grotesque engine... I will write that up soon. There isn't very many pictures from the beginning of the project, but gets heavier as time goes on. Please leave your comments and questions below!
