Reinstall Cylinder Head sequence on OM606.962 - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

kwmccauley · #1 02-08-2011, 09:54 PM

On Friday I will begin reinstalling the cylinder head on my 1999 E300 turbodiesel. I have an engine hoist and will use it to slowly lower and maneuver the head on to the new head gasket. If anyone has done this job please let me know if you installed the exhaust manifold on the head first or installed the head first then bolted on the exhaust manifold.
It would seem easier to install the head on its own and add the exhaust manifold later. My only concern is clearance between the head and the turbo's three bolt mounting flange once the head is on the block.
Thanks,
Ken

KarTek · #2 02-09-2011, 05:50 AM

Ken, I've had the turbo and manifold off several times and it's really no problem. The oil feed line is a little difficult and you have to get at at least one turbo mounting bolt from the bottom but other than that, it's OK.

kwmccauley · #3 02-09-2011, 06:33 AM

KarTek,
Many thanks. Will go at it with the head only and bolt on the exhaust manifold later once the head bolts are in before I go through the full torque procedure on the 26 head bolts.
Ken

warmthesea · #4 02-20-2011, 05:56 PM

I have removed the cylinder head off of my 1999 E300TD, OM606. Glow plugs #1 and #6 were frozen in place. I successfully used the drilling, tapping and extracting procedure on #1, but #6 didn't work out as well. After much anguish and pain I decided to remove the head. It is currently at Vellios Machine Shop in Lawndale for a valve job while it is out. The engine has 214,000 miles. This is my first time and I was hoping to find some advice for putting it all back together. Any advice, no matter how small or trivial would be so appreciated!
Thank you,
Dale

kwmccauley · #5 02-21-2011, 09:23 AM

Dale,

Good timing. I just completed this job and started the engine yesterday. I am happy to pull some notes together for you and other readers. To help me focus it on your project can you tell me if you plan to do any other work while you have the top end of the engine apart? For example, in addition to the valve job, I replaced the timing chain, tensioner and guide rail. Also did the 6 hard plastic fuel lines, fuel shutoff valve (w/O-ring) and had new nozzles installed in the fuel injectors and got them balanced for correct pop-off pressure. If you are focused mainly on the head replacement I will focus the notes in that area.
Thanks,
Ken

warmthesea · #6 02-22-2011, 01:46 PM

Ken!
Thank you so much!
I do hope things went well for you when you started her up again.
Hoping the same for my little unplanned fix-it project
---> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyScW8gAFjM

In response to your query, I'm most concerned with being able to put her back together properly. I'm not planning on replacing the timing chain, tensioner, guide rail, aside from new guide rail pins. Those things seem fine to me, as well, that stuff seems tricky!
I am replacing gaskets and o-rings that i've found taking things apart. At the same time I am trying to find a fuel leak coming from somewhere around, or from the injection pump. I'm afraid it is leaking from the pump itself somewhere, can't exactly tell without being able to start it. I have in the past, recently replaced the plastic hoses and 0-rings with viton, the seals that connect the hard lines to the top of the pump have all been done and all those seem just fine. So if there is also any advice available for fuel leaks about the injection pump, but below the top of it, I would be most grateful!
Thank you again Ken! and all PeachParts Shopforum users!

EdzBenz · #7 02-22-2011, 05:29 PM

Thank you for the posts and suggestions on the head gasket reassembly. This is a project I plan to tackle in the next few months and I'm reading up on anything I can find for the project... especially "other" items I can do to the engine while I'm at it.

kwmccauley · #8 02-22-2011, 10:07 PM

This job was just completed on Sunday, 2/20. Performance is great and after 100 miles it seems all of the fluids are staying where they are supposed to be.

An engine hoist or some type of lifting equipment is highly recommended to do this job. The cylinder head with exhaust manifold mounted is not all that heavy but the ability to maneuver the head and position it properly on top of the new head gasket the first time is vastly improved with a hoist. It also helps in getting the turbocharger mounting studs to line up with the mounting holes in the exhaust manifold.

To attach the hoist to the cylinder head I made two identical fixtures of plywood drilled on each end with a hole to fit the 7mm bolts that will fit the threads of the head. Into the top of each of the two wood blocks was a heavy duty screw-eye to use as an attachment point for the hoist chain (S-hooks attached the chain to the screw-eyes). Mercedes has very nice aluminum fixtures for this but the cost and lead time did not make sense for me on what I hope is a once in a lifetime project. The MB aluminum fixtures are part # 119 589 01 40 00. They are called cylinder head lifting brackets.
The wood blocks worked just fine.

I used the parts system on EPC to identify and get all of the parts I needed in advance. Also used AllDataDiycom (best $16.95 I ever spent) for procedures, torque values, etc. as well as thoroughly researched several forum resources before doing this job. This forum and others were very valuable sources. Thanks to all past contributors!

Some cautions worthy of note:
[*]clean the engine block gasket mating surface as thoroughly as possible being careful not to scratch the surface[*]avoid holding parts over the opening to "the abyss" where the timing chain resides. If you drop something down there it is not trivial to recover.[*]Treat the camshafts with care and follow the torque procedure when replacing the 7 bearing caps. The caps are labeled 1 through 7 on the passenger side top of each the bearing caps. #1 goes at the front of the engine with #7 at the rear. The camshafts are hollow and susceptable to fracture.[*]Clean out the 26 cylinder head bolt holes. I used a compressed air blow gun with a rag around the top of the bolt holes to keep oil from getting where I did not want it.[*]After the cylinder head is back on the block and properly torqued down in the recommended bolt specific sequence of 15nm, 35nm, turn 90 degrees then wait at least 10 minutes and turn another 90 degrees, install the six new seal rings and bolt down the camshaft housing with two 7mm x 41mm bolts. These are a very unusual size. I used two of the cam bearing cap bolts with washers to take up the excess length. This keeps the cam housing from moving around as you replace the cams. This is VERY important. Remove the two bolts when you need them to install the last cam bearing cap.

I used new head bolts (26 pieces). If you plan to reuse the old ones measure them to make sure they are still in spec. The long bolts can be a maximum of 117mm. The short bolts can be a maximum of 104mm. The new bolts are 2mm shorter than these maximum length specs.

In terms of the fuel leak that you asked about, one place I had a leak previously was at the fuel shut-off valve which bolts to the left side of the injection pump. The fuel shut-off valve is part number A 000 078 44 49. The O-ring seal on the back of it where it mates to the Injection Pump (IP) is part # A 021 997 75 48. The other place is at the O-ring on one of the six hard plastic fuel lines. It sounds like you already took those out of the equation by replacing them recently.

Where the coolant pipe exits the left rear corner of the cylinder head, I installed a new O-ring prior to reassembly. This O-ring is part # A 012 997 51 48.

Ordering the cylinder head gasket kit simplified some of the parts ordering since it contained many of the other gaskets and seals required. For example, in addition to the head gasket, the kit included the intake manifold gasket, exhaust manifold gasket, O-rings for the so called "bushes" of the trim cover. These "bushes" are the risers or stacks that surround the fuel injectors when installed. The head gasket kit also included the fuel injector heat shields and the six O-rings that seal between the top of the cylinder head and the camshaft housing.

If your cylinder head was resurfaced by the machine shop ask them what thickness of material they removed. This will determine of you can use the standard 1.65mm thick head gasket or need to order a thicker "repair size" which is 1.85mm.

ONCE THE TIMING CHAIN GUIDE RAIL PINS (2) ARE REINSTALLED IN THE HEAD, STUFF CLEAN CLOTHS INTO THE OPENING TO PRECLUDE ANYTHING FROM FALLING INTO THE ABYSS MENTIONED ABOVE.

Spend the most time and focus the most care on proper camshaft alignment and timing. The crankshaft should still be at TDC from when you started the job. The exhaust cam dot at the 3 o'clock position should meet up exactly with the intake cam dot at 9 o'clock AND the #1 bearing cap bore should line up with the hole in the intake cam gear. If you marked at the start of the job which tooth on the exhaust cam drive sprocket matched up with which link on the timing chain it should be straightforward to bolt it up in the right position to maintain the timing as it was before.

I installed all new fuel return lines. The original fabric covered hose part number is A 605 078 05 81. You will need to cut this into 6 pieces. One piece is 340mm for the return line from injector #1 to the fuel return line fitting at the fuel filter, the other five are 165mm to daisy chain between the fuel injectors. The stub (cap) at fuel injector #6 is part # A 605 070 00 55.

Get some new fuel line clips that hold the rigid fuel pipes (6) to the valve cover and cylinder head mounted brackets. The clips are part # A 603 078 01 41. I replaced all 7 pieces. Torque on the rigid fuel lines is 23Nm on the injectors and at the IP.

Also installed a new O-ring inside the EGR valve prior to reassembly. This is part number A 606 997 06 45.

Check the oil and refill the coolant. One thing I did was leave the top off of the coolant expansion tank to keep any pressure from building up in the cooling system until after the new head gasket had a chance to get used to its new home. This may be unnecessary but it gave me some peace of mind.

When you are ready to start it up for the first time, it will help reduce cranking time if you fill the pre-filter and final fuel filters with fuel. As you know, there is no priming method on this engine and it takes a while for the fuel pump to purge the air from the system. My car was out of commission for some time so I brought the battery up to a full charge while I was putting the engine back together. This helped when it was time to crank and purge the air from the fuel system.

I'm sure there are some points I did not think of in this summary so please ask and I will answer the best I can.

Best wishes for success. It sure does sound sweet when that engine fires up!
Ken

windjammer · #9 06-28-2012, 02:01 PM

Tks Ken, everything is helpful. Back to last email talking about the excessive force required (in my opinion) to loosen the head bolts is there a danger stripping or breaking the bolt or wrench? Did you losing yours with a bar or impact wrench. Looking in the manual for my old Diesel, the final setting for hex bolts are 74 ft/lbs--for 12pt 30/50/-90deg,90deg--what I assume to be equal 74ft/lbs and conforms to the new Diesel. Certainly not excessive. Your opinion--Hein

kwmccauley · #10 06-28-2012, 03:59 PM

Hein,

How much history do you have with the car? Owned it since new? Has the cylinder head ever been off the engine before?
If this is the first time the head is being removed and the head bolts now in there were originally placed there by the folks in the factory then your torque estimate makes sense to me. I do recall being quite worried when I loosened the first head bolt. It made a snapping noise and I thought the bolt or the 10mm tool had sheared. The good news is it was the sound the bolt made when it loosened after being in the head for 12 years and 260k miles.

If it would help you, I can attempt an experiment with the original head bolts which I still have. I'll have to think about how to do this but I will attempt to lock the bolt in a large vise and go to increasing levels of torque until the bolt fails if I can make it fail before the 10mm XZN tool fails. The trick will be estimating the torque to failure since I do not have a direct way of measuring it.
Ken

windjammer · #11 06-29-2012, 11:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kwmccauley

Hein,

How much history do you have with the car? Owned it since new? Has the cylinder head ever been off the engine before?
If this is the first time the head is being removed and the head bolts now in there were originally placed there by the folks in the factory then your torque estimate makes sense to me. I do recall being quite worried when I loosened the first head bolt. It made a snapping noise and I thought the bolt or the 10mm tool had sheared. The good news is it was the sound the bolt made when it loosened after being in the head for 12 years and 260k miles.

If it would help you, I can attempt an experiment with the original head bolts which I still have. I'll have to think about how to do this but I will attempt to lock the bolt in a large vise and go to increasing levels of torque until the bolt fails if I can make it fail before the 10mm XZN tool fails. The trick will be estimating the torque to failure since I do not have a direct way of measuring it.
Ken

Hi Ken, forgot switching to Page 2. I mentioned that I finally removed all head bolts. Your suggestion is going above and beyond your "duty" you are just great to have you in our community. On another forum there is a guy who offered step by step guidance to head removal, he quit because he allegedly received hate mail for doing. It's hard to believe but if it is true its a real shame. You are right, when the torque breaks it has a real hard, metallic sound and for a moment one thinks its the tool or the bolt. I bought the car last Feb. with 122 k on it. Looks like brand new in and out, paid 10K for it and is worth every penny. There are no indication it was ever touched mechanically. It came with no service records and so performed all the things what is listed under Service B. All came to a screeching stop when this NUT writing the report though he new it all. Finding out the hard way that a lot is written in this wonderful forum for the asking--the hard part is getting an answer. Anyway, Ken, my hearty thanks. Cheers, Hein

PS. one more question: How heavy is the head, and how about the plastic top guide does it remain where it is after removing the bolt?

kwmccauley · #12 06-29-2012, 04:58 PM

Hein,

Glad to hear the 26 head bolts came out for you!

When I shipped the head to the shop that did the valve and related work for me the shipping weight was 54 pounds. This included the cylinder head, box and packing material. Not sure how you plan to lift the head off of the block in terms of exhaust manifold attached or not. If the exhaust manifold is attached your lift will exceed 54 pounds. Dealing with the weight was not such a challenge. It was more of an issue of reaching over the front fender to do the lift. That is why I used an engine hoist which was really overkill for the amount of weight to be lifted.
Also, if you have not yet done this I recommend raising the hood to the vertical position by pressing the tabs near the hinges. It makes for much improved access to the engine bay.
Hope you enjoy your weekend!
Ken

kwmccauley · #13 06-29-2012, 05:28 PM

Hein,

I do not know what this question refers to:

"...how about the plastic top guide does it remain where it is after removing the bolt?"

Can you provide a little more information about it and I will attempt to answer?
Thank you,
Ken

windjammer · #14 06-29-2012, 10:37 AM

Finally got the head bolts all loose with a 2' extension. This Stahlwille tool must be real quality--why not since it costs a lot. Baumtools sells the thing for $19.38 +16.02 shipping. Ordered via Peachparts it costs nearly 45 bucks! Just can't escape ripoffs There must be a way ordering direct.

windjammer · #15 11-27-2015, 09:34 AM

anyone know the siuze of crankshaft bolt