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#1
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Dr. Frankenstein at work – The head transplant is completed
Finally Done. Jeez, that was a lot of work.
She fired right up & settled right down into a nice melodic tick tick ticking idle. I let her idle for about 30 minutes with the cooling system flush, then changed the oil and now she’s cooling off – I need to drain the flush out of the cooling system. Once I have that done, its time to go for a drive. The only question is whether or not to take my toolbox with me. Not taking it with me implies a certain amount of foolhardy overconfidence & invites Murphy along for the ride. Taking it with me seems like a concession - a prelude to defeat; but maybe it’ll keep Murphy at bay. Decisions, decisions… I am continually impressed with how straightforward these cars are to work on. It seems as though the engineers at Mercedes-Benz took a completely different approach with the 123’s compared to some of the earlier designed cars (such as the 107’s, which can be a real pain in the ass to work on). R&R’ing the cylinder head is not really all that difficult; time-consuming, yes -- frustrating, no. While it's not exactly child's play, I really believe that this can be tackled by most do-it-yourselfers. All it takes is a little fortitude to jump right in, very few specialized tools, and the patience to follow through with the little details. There are a few things that can be rather tedious, but there are not really any “gotcha’s” to look out for, and this whole thing was accomplished with a minimum of cussing. If anyone is going to be doing this, it is a good time to do a lot of little preventative replacement items. I did the oil cooler lines, all of the little cooling system hoses, motor mounts (again), engine shock absorber mounts, front crankshaft seal, timing chain & rails, and adjusted the injection pump timing. I’ve been driving the 450 & 500 around while working on this one, so it is going to be interesting to see if I can (still) be able to notice a difference in how it runs as compared to before. (Discounting the long cranking, misfiring, & billowing clouds of smoke, of course). Wish me luck – I am not a member of AAA anymore, so any towing expense is out of my pocket… RTH |
#2
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Best of luck. But it sounds like everything went well so you likely won't need it. Re: this being a job for DIYers, what types of other projects have you attempted prior to this one as far as mechanical difficulty goes? Just curious as this may be something I may attempt one day.
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2008 GL320CDI 6K 1970 280SL 112K 1982 240D 210K (Sold) 1973 220D 220K (Sold) 1967 200D 160K (Sold) 1992 400E 139K (Sold) 1988 300E 148K (Sold) 1987 300D 257K (Sold) 1991 300E 108K (Sold) 1987 300E 131K (Sold) 1978 300D TMU (Sold) 1980 300D TMU (Sold) MBCA Member |
#3
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way to go RTH
It is my feeling that if someone can do a brake job - including calipers/rotors on the W123 then they are competent enough to do the cyl hd R&R. Did you do the timing chain guides at the bottom of the engine area too?
When I first ran the 240D after the rebuild I kept driving around a 5 mile perimeter from the house for the first 25 miles. Just try to carry a cell phone with you Once I get the 240D where I want it I am probably going to pull the head on the 300D to see what I have. My plans were to get to 250k before doing it but it is based on when I take the 240D down off of the jackstands - doing brake hoses (at the calipers) and front wheel bearings this week.
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Jim |
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I agree completely with you. This is not rocket science. Patience, diligence, and common sense is all it takes. Oh, yes – some tools will help. And just a bit of mechanical aptitude.
About the rails: I only replaced the banana (tensioner) rail & the upper guide. From what I understand (not saying much there ) the lower guides in these engines are not usually a problem. I've gotta run - time to go turn my engine into shrapnel (check my other post) RTH |
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