STOP! You are reading the gages wrong, and you are off by a factor of 25.4. In the above picture, the big letters are the thickness in inches. The small letters are the thickness in millimeters.

The gage in the picture is .010-.012 inches, or .254 - .305 mm. For comparison, the wall of a soda can or a sheet of copy paper are about .005" or .13 mm, and the W123 front wheel bearing end play spec of .01-.015mm or .0004-.0006 in (4-6 ten thousandths of an inch) is the thickness of a sheet of aluminum foil.

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Ah thank you moon161,that makes perfect sense!
What a noob mistake,it's kind of confusing the way they put mm directly next to the # lol..
But yea that makes sense now, 0.012mm is nothing but .305mm/0.012" is pretty significant!

See,I'm glad I made this thread for many reasons lol

" Last but not least make sure that wherever you take the head knows what they are doing. Usually asking any local Mercedes dealer where they send theirs out to is fairly reliable. Or even an independent mechanic that does a lot of Mercedes. If nothing else they know where not to send them. "

Yes ask the machine shop if they have the tools to remove the prechamber. I asked my dealer last month which machine shop they use and I was told they send all parts requiring machining to the Mercedes shop in Toronto. All of the local machine shops were willing to take my head but after further questioning none had the tools or were willing to purchase them to remove the prechambers. It would have been a waist of time dropping it off had I not asked. Good luck!

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92 e300d2.5t
01 e320
05 cdi
85 chev c10

Just investigate the availability of a thicker head gasket. Plus the corrective factor it gives. It may even be possible to have the area of the surface built and only a very small cut overall made.

There are automotive machine shops. Plus there are the shops that do what is needed for average auto machine shops. In your case the thicker head gasket will probably do.

When something used to be tricky. I sent my work to the shop that does the exotic auto machine work for all of Canada..

What is even stranger is they were also cheap including shipping in those days. Anything they did was done properly and you could rely on it or they would not touch it. They are located in Montreal Canada about 6-700 miles from me. Building things up and restoring them where run if the mill for them. Some cars parts are just too expensive new to not have this done.

For example although I am not certain. They would possibly heat that head and pull the warped area down to a usable tollerance. Then mill the head.

My suspicion is you will have at least several shops in America that have this level of function. I think the reason they do not price gouge is the vast majority of work they do comes from other machine shops. Or exotic car dealers back shops.

Last is I might carefully clean up the area you are dealing with to get a better reading. There is a lot of junk on that surface.

I know of a little MB European shop about 45 minutes south of me,that I was thinking about dropping the head off at just to see what they think..they may have the pre chamber tools and could pull the pre chambers for me..
There apparently is a thicker HG available,there is one that is 2mm thicker available from Elring.
Yes there definitely is a bunch of crap on the surface of this head,that's after going over it with a razor blade and cleaning it up too! I got it as clean as I could..
So I take it 0.012" isn't a really warped head (too far gone) or is it savable?
Thanks again for all the advice guys,it's much appreciated.

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04 Sprinter 3500 - 310k
"Ich mag die Dieselgeräusche"
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IMO 12 thousandths is a big warp.

Yes, they make prechamber spacers or seals and thicker head gaskets. Everything needs to have the proper angle to the dangle to be happy, and that means making sure everything has the correct spacing.

You definitely want to be sure the machine shop can pull the PCs and work with the head. Machining is much more critical with diesels because the interference is very unforgiving and you don't have much wiggle room to skim. The 602 was popular, so you shouldn't have trouble finding a replacement head if yours is a no-go.

John at Costa Mesa R&D in Cali is an amazing machinist. He can thermal clean, bead blast, and then pull the warp out and/or skim the head flat. You might give him a call and see if he could work on an MB diesel head. He's familiar with VW diesels.

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I'd like to try and gather as many opinions as possible about if 0.012" is too much of a warp or not to continue with this car..this could be the determining factor if it gets parted out or not..
I potentially know where another engine is for $350 but again,the seller claims it won't start.. That's what got me into all of this,lol. Sigh

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04 Sprinter 3500 - 310k
"Ich mag die Dieselgeräusche"
https://youtu.be/YjrxHqNy5CQ
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Sorry I can't help with your question but did you try to source another head?

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92 e300d2.5t
01 e320
05 cdi
85 chev c10

I can't locate a good used one that's affordable anywhere,they're all north of $1000 unfortunately :/

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04 Sprinter 3500 - 310k
"Ich mag die Dieselgeräusche"
https://youtu.be/YjrxHqNy5CQ
✞

I would work with what you have. I do not think you are in a total disaster area. To me at least I would not feel that it was at this point. It could have been much worse.

You have to find out from a shop just how much material they would have to remove to flatten the head. That 2mm thicker gasket may get you by. Remember it is for situations like yours and you are not the first.

Picking a good automotive machine shop is always the path to satisfaction usually.

Machine work on your head will likely be half that plus all the parts you need for the job.

Sixto
83 300SD

Very valid points,I wonder if the thicker HG is required since it's 2mm thicker and I'd only be taking .3mm off?

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04 Sprinter 3500 - 310k
"Ich mag die Dieselgeräusche"
https://youtu.be/YjrxHqNy5CQ
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Once more material than allowed is removed from the head. The valve clearances to the pistons are reduced further than Mercedes wants. Another thought was it also reduces the chamber volume as the depth of the valve pocket is reduced. Using the gasket also allows you not having to shim up your pre chambers.

The swept compression from the slight additional thicker head gasket is probably not signifigant enough to worry about. Or if there is concern about it remove almost the 2 mm from the head would return you close to the normal situation.

You could never mill the head again though. You can spend as little money as you want or as much as you want. At least in this way we have free choice. Cost of head material removal is probably flat rate. All the information about using the thicker head gasket should be somewhere. Perhaps even from the gasket manufacturer.

I have no ideal if Mercedes allowance for head thickness reduction is written in stone but feel it is wise to respect it. You are over it obviously.

Great news guys,I came across this gem in a junk-yard from some advice of a fellow W124 enthusiast. I got the head,which is straight as can be and the car also had a recently replaced OEM Behr radiator which I snagged too,things are coming together!



Bad news is the head has 1 broken exhaust stud,and I managed to break off a bolt in the timing chain pin but I think with EZ-outs it'll be perfectly salvageable worst case I'll take it to a machinist.

Small victories

I'll upload some more pics when my computer isn't being stupidly slow. Oh and there was still cross-hatch in the cylinder walls,I would've almost boughten the whole engine but they wanted $400+ for it,which isn't bad but I just don't have that much right now.. Head and radiator was only $117 out the door,yay

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04 Sprinter 3500 - 310k
"Ich mag die Dieselgeräusche"
https://youtu.be/YjrxHqNy5CQ
✞

Why are all of the nice vented fenders 1400miles from me!!?

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