Figured you guys might appreciate some of what i'd consider creative genius... or perhaps considered by others as insanity

Back in June I decided to replace the head gasket. On the rear of the head, there is an oil galley, sealed on the HG by a metal ring, much like a fire ring for a cylinder. As many, many OM617s do, mine was leaking oil externally from this, plus my intake/exh gasket was leaking.

Removed the injectors and hardlines, and pulled back the PS pump and bracket.
Pulled out the battery, DP heat shield, and pulled back the DP from the turbo.

From there, we got a bit off course. Bear in mind, this is a MB factory rebuild motor that was swapped in sometime in the 90's.

The BEST next step would have been to remove the turbo and the oil return line. However, MBZ forgot to put a washer on one of the nuts for the turbo flange. This caused one of the nuts to seize onto the stud, so the turbo was permanently affixed to the exh mani. Twas a massive hassle, but i managed to remove the small 10mm bolt holding the exh mani to the block bracket, then removed the turbo/mani together. Without having a lift, this prob would have been really, really miserable to overcome.

Back on track, I put the motor at TDC 1, marked the T chain/cam pulley, disengage the T chain tensioner, and pulled the cam gear with chain attached. Removed the gear, then used a ratcheting tie down
affixed to the fender to keep tension on the chain.

Went to town on removing the head bolts, removing them in order, and stabb'em through a pizza box in the orientation that they were removed, that made it easy to figure out which length bolts came from where. Note - REMOVE THE ROCKERS before taking the head bolts out. After bending a rocker shaft.... You can fit most of the head bolts through the groove in the rocker shaft, however it is very, very tight, and might require rotating the shaft a bit.

Gasket matched the icky ports, and the turbo/manis. Took the head to the MS even though it was running properly. Head warped a little, resurfaced .004", 5 new exh valves (brass, steel is NLA)

With the rebuilt head, albeit a few thou under min thickness (OK it so far!), I bolted the cam and rockers, then set valve clearance. Much easier to do it on the bench, than in the car. From there i put the GP and ancillary bits back on, then plopped it on top of the HG and block.

Mounting up the head to the block was difficult. Aligning the machine fit dowel pins from the block into the head was tricky. HG is teflon coated and seemed to slither around under the head. I ended up plopping the head on the block, removing the cherry picker, then centering the head atop the HG. As the HG moves around, i thumbed in a few of the head bolts, and the little allen bolts in the T chain area. The head refused to "fall into place".

I ended up starting with the little allen bolts in the T chain area, and just started lightly putting them in with the impact gun. I knew the HG was centered because of the bolts i put through. The first few bolts through the HG near the dowel pins basically pressed the pins into the head. Didn't take much torque, but you'd think that 100lbs in cylinder head would be enough to do it. From there, slapping the manis, turbo, lines, injectors, PS pump was cake.

Pretty sure i didn't gain any ponies from the porting or better valve sealing, but for some reason it has less exhaust smoke now. Used to make visible smoke at night when at full throttle. Always figured it was blow by from the turbo, but maybe that theory was wrong? Also, for some funky reason the motor has a bit more vibration now. Perhaps because the combustion chambers are effectively smaller now, yet i didn't do anything to compensate for this?

Overall, this was pretty easy HG project. Cost ended up being around $700 total. The Pelican Parts HG tutorial was great, but my turbo/mani prob derailed it. Some of the stuff on there you can get away with not doing.

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Rebuilt!

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Super cool! Thanks for taking the time to write this up and share.

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Old Blue - 83 240D 6 speed manual trans, OM648
Green Machine - 2001 Europa G500
87 300SDL Bought on Peachparts. Low-ish miles..?

Family Truckster - 2012 VW Touareg TDI

Patchouli Wagon - 2004 E500 - SOLD
333k mile 97 BMW 750il V12. - SOLD
The Californian - 85 300TD - SOLD
Daily Super Sedan - 03 Audi S8 -SOLD

It's a bit late now but the trick to installing those cast iron heads is to use a couple of old, long head bolts with the heads sawn off. Start them in a couple of threads. This keeps the gasket in place and makes it MUCH easier to set the head into the proper alignment.

I cut a slot into the sawn off end to use a screwdriver for removal. I also taper and round the ends.

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“Whatever story you're telling, it will be more interesting if, at the end you add, "and then everything burst into flames.”
― Brian P. Cleary, You Oughta Know By Now

Making alignment studs is brilliant!
The alignment dowel pins do not adequately hold the gasket in place for mounting.

Luckily I had a long skinny flat screwdriver to help align and shift the HG around.