My brother and I are rolling a new timing chain into his SDL tomorrow, anything special to watch out for?

Peter

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1972 220D ?? miles
1988 300E 200,012
1987 300D Turbo killed 9/25/07, 275,000 miles
1985 Volvo 740 GLE Turobodiesel 218,000
1972 280 SE 4.5 165, 000 - It runs!

Yes, make sure one of you pulls and keeps tension on the old chain as it comes up from inside. ideally I think you want to keep placing links onto the cam gear as they come up. It will pprobably take two people. I rolled one in by myself, and if I had not already taken off the timing cover, I would have been. The chain slipped back inside a few times because I had a hard time feeding in, turning the crank, and feeding out with only two hands. Once it is all the way through, wire or zip tie it onto the cam gear right away. You don't want to drop any connecting link plates inside, so stuff rags or something around the cam gear. Also stuff something in the oil return hole at the back side of the head (it is on the passenger side). have fun!

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andy t
'78 300d
'95 volvo 850, wagon
'86 300sdl - engine out, maybe I'll have it rolling by June

whole bunch o' bicycles

Yeah DON'T DROP IT!

Just take your time, and follow the FSM procedure. Its really not that tricky. You also need at least two people to do the chain on a 603, its not a one person job. Said helpers should be pretty strong and know there way around an engine well enough to be of help, and know whats going on.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

I'd hope you're doing the guide, tensioner rail, and the tensioner while you're in there... Silly not to.

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I'm not a doctor, but I'll have a look.

'85 300SD 245k
'87 300SDL 251k
'90 300SEL 326k

Six others from BMW, GM, and Ford.

Liberty will not descend to a people; a people must raise themselves to liberty.[/IMG]

The way to do it so you know your not going to skip any teeth on the cam gear is to use 2 vice grips to keep the chain on the cam gear sprockets at all times. Just put a vice grip on the left side of the sprocket, turn the crank till this vice grip is rotated to the right side of the sprocket, then take another vice grip and put on the left side, before taking off the right side, then keep repeating till the old chain is out. You could use this method to do it yourself, because there really isn't any way to screw it up if you always have at least one vice grip on the chain at all times. I don't think it's possible for the chain to slip off the crank, so you don't need constant tension on the old chain that's coming out.

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87 300D - Running on Veggie oil; 260,000 plus miles; Original #14 head

New chain is in, rough idle completely cured. My brother insists that it was only 5 degrees off, but when we got the new chain in (without jumping on the cam, at least on the new chain side), it was 12 degrees late. Had to jump it one tooth ( a real pain, since my brother keep insisting on breaking the chain with only two sproket teeth holding it and it slipped.....).

Too much injector noise, but that may cure itself. Broke the elbow for the blowby tube so had to get a substitute and grind it to fit (took longer than the chain swap minus fan and such).

If you do this, plan on taking the fan off, cranking the engine around with it in place is a big PITA. Use some thin cardboard between your hands and the rad, else you get most of the skin sliced off.

Peter

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1972 220D ?? miles
1988 300E 200,012
1987 300D Turbo killed 9/25/07, 275,000 miles
1985 Volvo 740 GLE Turobodiesel 218,000
1972 280 SE 4.5 165, 000 - It runs!

Well, it keeps getting better!

My brother came over about 5 and told me we had to go pick up his wifes car, it crapped out (the one we pulled the chain in). I had visions of a broken chain and $7000 in parts since we didn't test drive it and something had gone badly wrong.

Get there and his wife informed us that the low oil light had come one part way into town and that the oil pressure was going down, so she found a place to stop and call (didn't have the cell phone with her). Smart gal, no damage done other than soaking the engine compartment with about six quarts of oil.

My brother crimped the seal ring for the chain tensioner going back in (he gets in a hurry). Squirted oil pretty good, six quarts in 10 miles!

Nothing to replace the seal at McParts, the only place open, so we made a quick trip to the machine shop where he works and we turned a couple seal rings from 6061 aluminum.

Fixed the leak, so $50 later she's back on the road, but with the vibration problem we pulled the chain to fix back in spades.

The serpentine belt is both shot, and now soaked with oil. The vibration was initially caused, I suspect, buy the power steering pump slipping badly -- this caused the engine to shake as the belt slipped and grabbed. Moaned and groaned something terrible when I drove it home so long as I was near idle -- above that it smoothed out nicely.

I'm not telling my brother he put a chain in to cure a bad belt....

He's picking up a new belt tomorrow, so I guess we wil put that on in the evening AFTER he takes the car to the car wash and gets rid of some of the oil -- there is oil on the top of the rear bumper!

The good news in all this is that I now have a new seal to fix my leaking chain tensioner and I can go back to a leak-free car.

Peter

__________________
1972 220D ?? miles
1988 300E 200,012
1987 300D Turbo killed 9/25/07, 275,000 miles
1985 Volvo 740 GLE Turobodiesel 218,000
1972 280 SE 4.5 165, 000 - It runs!