I have a 560 SL which is familiar to most of you here on Shop Forum. Today, I took my car into the Shop for the Timing Chain replacement as the car has 120K on the speedo. I wanted to be sure that I didn't have a chain failure.

The car was running like a top. Tach sat dead hard on 500 RPM and the car never missed a beat. I got a call at around 3PM and was asked to stop by the shop.

Seems that when the chain was replaced and the engine started a racket was coming from the engine which has been determined that the Valves were misaligned and had eaten into the head. Just 3 valves on the right hand side. As it looks to me, I have 3 burned and cracked valves on the intake side. May be two exhausts and one intake, not sure, I am busy vomiting while I write this note.

My question is how could I have valve and lifter (Stated that the lifters did not have the valves properly aligned) problems and the car run as well as it did? Could the problem be that a valve was bent when the chain was installed. They removed the head to repair the bent valve and decided that because of other damage that could be seen that it was time for me to pay for a valve job?


It really doesn't matter now as I have no choice but to do the work. however, is there any way to tell what caused the racket and the valve noise after the chain install. Can you see a bent valve and how do I get my hands on the bent valve to prove thats what happened?

Could it be that I had a serious problem waiting to happen or am I getting hosed into engine work I shouldn't have to pay for?

I'm not looking for sympathy just some technical understanding. It could be they bent the valve or valves and the inspection turned up the cracked valves and wear and that would need to be done sometime up the road.

Am I getting hosed or has a mistake turned up a problem that would have needed to addressed in the near term?

Who do you trust in this world and how do you know when you are being taken advantage or not? I guess that is the age old question.


Any and all advice and direction appreciated.

__________________
1988 560SL
Black Pearl/Palamino