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  #16  
Old 12-13-2005, 10:41 PM
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A bunch of monks once got into an arguement as to how many teeth the horse had. Some say they read the horse had X teeth and others said Y. Finally, a young monk asked, why not look at the horse itself?

Same here. Why not go to the dealership itself instead of guessing, poling, etc, etc and ask the mechanic itself?

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  #17  
Old 12-13-2005, 10:58 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Austin85
I once paid $1,400. to go to Amsterdam..........
Uncle Sam sent me for free.....TWICE 45 days of working for 1 hour each day and partying the rest. When I got home I slept for like 3 days straight.

Boy do I hope that estimate is WAY off.

Ce.
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  #18  
Old 12-14-2005, 11:43 AM
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I'll let you know in a few months

I am the guy who bought the car mentioned in the first post. The reason I bought it is that aside from the fact that it does not run well (it most likely has a cracked head) the car is as close to a museum piece as you will find. It looks like something you would see if you stepped into a time tunnel and went back to 88 or 89. The car drives well and has been maintained extremely well according to the complete set of mainternance records that are there so I think that it is reasonable to assume that most problems are isolated to the head. (The front tranny seal leaks a little bit but I can deal with that)
I have owned and done all of the work on my cars for over 10 years and this is not my first basket case so here's my take on it.
You gotta go with someone like Metric with this one and their basic cost for
a head rebuild is $520 plus $70 shipping round trip. The chance for an uncracked head is pretty slim so you have to get new "22" head ($1850) and refit the prechambers into it from the old head. Because the car was well maintained, the cam is probably OK along with most of the valves, springs, tappets, and prechambers but you have to figure on spending some money on those items.
To put it together right you need to spend a couple hundred for new head bolts and a head gasket set and while you are in there you need measure the chain for wear and replace it if necessary. You also need to replace that exploding vacuum pump so that you don't have to face the heartbreak of a wrecked engine somewhere down the road.
So in summary, in a worst case scenerio you could easily spend 3-4 grand on parts to do the job right and it is probably 16 hours to R&R the head. (Does anybody know what the book says for labor?) There is always the possibility that you could find a good rebuildable "17" or "22" core in a junkyard and save some money, and there is the remote possibility that the head is not cracked but you have to plan on the worst case.
Even in the worst case, though, you end up with a pretty classy car because you started with one. I have a couple of sons in their early 20s that will work with me on the repair because they know that an old well maintained diesel Benz is cooler and a lot better than a big new car note.
My plan is to pull the head in a few months when the weather gets warm enough to do that and then go from there.
The bottom line is that this job is big bucks and you can only financially justify it if the car is perfect in every other way.
The scary part is... if you take it to a mechanic and he quotes you 5 grand to do the job and he runs into a cracked head and worn out valves and bad prechambers is he gonna cut any corners? The scarier part is will you have someone who is competent enough and honest enough to care? If you do it yourself then you know that the job has been done right and that everything you paid for got done.
I say that because looking at the maintenance records that came with the car you have to question the competence and honesty of some of the places that work on these cars. For example, front shocks were "replaced" in 2000 at 98,000 miles and again in 2005 at 103,000 miles by the same shop! Has anyone ever had a Bilstein that wore out in 5,000 miles? (the ones on my 300SD lasted 185,000 and were still fairly tight)
It's a jungle out there.
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  #19  
Old 12-14-2005, 01:30 PM
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IF the car doesn't have a fairly new vacuum pump...

Put it on the list. They are known to kill motors. Your right, the beauty of doing it yourself is saving 50% on labor plus you get the parts at 20-40% discount. Hence, you can afford to throw a couple extra parts if needed.

Best luck fixing the car

Michael
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  #20  
Old 12-14-2005, 06:42 PM
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Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Lafayette Indiana
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ten to twelve

hours to r and r the head on a 603.

tom w

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..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.
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