83 240D engine rebuild, sludge build up and gear wear

[engatwork]

I am in the process of rebuilding the 240D engine and figured I'd post a couple pics showing the sludge build up versus gear wear. The car is showing 267k miles and I don't have any doubts that it is original mileage. The first shows some sludge build up on the rocker supports and then the gear wear on the oil pump drive gear. Unfortunately, you have to replace this as an a$$embly and believe it or not the most economical place I was able to find them was the dealer where they had 17 in stock in Germany.

I would not feel comfortable rebuilding this engine and not replacing this gearset while I am in there. The last pic is some of the assembly work. It is moving along pretty good.

[sailor15015]

Wow that's one pretty block. How did you get it that clean? Pressure wash and silver spray paint? I ask because I have the engine from my wrecked '85 sitting in my garage and I'm just itching to get into it so I can get my project car up and running. Very nice.

[73MB280SEL]

Ditto on the engine block--man that is clean. The cylinder walls, do I see crosshatching still visible or is that just the light?

What about the gears, how worn is too worn? From the pics, you could make the case that they could last longer--I mean they don't run the engine timing like a gasser's distributor.

sholin

[engatwork]

The block is just back from the machine shop with brand new cylinder sleeves and pistons. The gears are worn to the point that I refuse to put them in an engine that I have $2k worth of parts and machine shop work in. If ya'll thought pistons were expensive then go out and purchase this gearset. I painted the block cast iron gray after being chastised in an earlier thread about rebuilding one without painting it.

I have attached a pic of cross hatching in the brand new sleeves.

[t walgamuth]

they look pretty worn to me.

did you find the oil pump gears worn similarly?

ditto on the great looking block.

tom w

[engatwork]

Tom - these are the gears that drive the oil pump. There is wear on the mechanism where the oil pump "tab" fits into the slot on the shaft of one of these gears but the wear is no where near as much as it is on the gear teeth. If I were to run these gears I would not run them much more that about 50k miles past where they are now. I will try to get a pic of the slot that the oil pump fits in and post it.

The cross section of the teeth on the gears is down to approximately 60% of what it was new.

[Bama1]

Originally Posted by engatwork

The cross section of the teeth on the gears is down to approximately 60% of what it was new.

My eyes must not be as good as they used to be...I actually cannot see if they are worn that much ...however, I agree that I would not risk the other fine work you are doing by scrimping a few dollars and reusing worn or marginal parts!

I figure that high integrity mechanics would do the same for the sake of having a solid rebuild with their name on it.

Good work and good luck,

Toby

PS Thanks for the extra photos! Keep it up

[Hatterasguy]

Cool! How do you usualy break them in?

[engatwork]

It came out good. I have attached a pic of the performance intake I have mounted on it. Now where did I put that Sawsall.

Is the scoop already installed on the hood?

Sorry, I couldn't help it.

[engatwork]

The pic with the K&N filter was a spoof.

Anyway, I have put about 400 miles on the engine and it starts easy, does not use any oil and runs out good BUT the first start of the day start ups are pretty alarming because of the smoke. I don't really see any color to it and suspect it is unburned fuel. I'm considering having the injectors tested.
Any thoughts/comments?

[engatwork]

It may just need to break in some more. Amount of smoke seems to be decreasing. I'll probably still get the injectors tested over the next couple weeks.