m117 500SEC engine refresh/swap questions
 

Ok, after a good bit of hunting, I have an engine on the way to replace the shattered one in my car. The question I have for you all is what would you replace on this engine before stuffing it in it's home?

From reading other's suggestions and accounts here, I'm already planning on replacing the parts on the list following this, but I am open to suggestions of other parts that should come out before it goes in the hole, as I'd really prefer not do this again any time soon!

Timing chain
timing tensioner rail
Timing chain guides? (the rest of them?)
valve cover gaskets
cam oilers
rear crank seal (rear main seal)
trans torque converter seal (input shaft seal?)
any hardened rubber fittings
injector bushings? (planning to swap to MegaSquirt relatively soon, so this is low priority)
motor mounts
transmission mount
flex shaft disks/center bushing block
intake upper/lower half connection donuts (8 rubber rings, whatever they're called!)
oil pump chain/tensioner?
front crank oil seal?
valve stem seals?


As mentioned briefly in passing just above, it has a MegaSquirt computer headed for it, and most likely some form of forced induction shortly after the EFI is running stably.
I'm trying to keep this in mind, so as to avoid spending heavily on things that will be pulled off the engine once it's in the car and proven to run, as well as to help in replacing the bits that need to be in GOOD working order for the extra load it will putting up with, as I play with it.

Any suggestions of stuff that I'm obviously overlooking?

Thanks for any and all input!

wow nice pics, thats a euro motor??? With egr and an idle air valve?

Assuming that the engine that is in the car currently is stock to the car, yes it's a euro motor.

Doing the vin check on the ru site, it was delivered in Ulm Germany in 1982 (registered as a 1984, though...)
It has lived in CA, so it may have had evil things done to it in the name of CARB approval.

That'll be nice to have an engine you've gone over completely while it was out of the car. Congratualtions on getting a terrific Benz, and good luck with it!

ahh ok, did you get another euro motor to replace it ? ;)

One of the others on one of the forums had an engine from a 500SE sitting, so I should have an engine as soon as the movers can get it here.
I didm't want to go US spec, so it took a bit of looking, and waiting!

I just want to make sure to do any reasonable preventative maintenance while it's on the engine stand and easy to get to!

Is it my imagination, or are there more SECs on the market lately?

I'm not sure on that.
I'd been watching for a while, and found this one badly listed on CraigsList. Text only, poor description and REALLY bad title on the listing. I'm halfway surprised that I even looked at the listing!

It did come with a blown engine, and I suspect that this engine would be a massive money pit if someone were trying to repair the stock engine. As I'm not worried about matching serials, though... :D

Some have suggested that the price of 560SECs go down as the price of gas goes up, but it doesn't seem like that would be true.

got any other pics of it besides the trunk triangle? ;)

I'm pretty sure that there are others of the car overall in the same gallery, but if not, I'll put the rest up when I get home..


Anyone have any further suggestions on parts to replace while the engine is out?
I want to go ahead and get the parts on order so I'll have them relatively soon after the engine gets here.

Ok, now I see what you meant about the triangle image! I'd forgotten that I'd even loaded an image here in the gallery.

There are a couple more pics now, one from the side and one head on.

Thanks for the comments, all. I finally just went ahead and ordered most of what I could see being accessible while the engine was on an engine stand, and would be a pain when it was reinstalled.

Timing chain, tensioner, and all guides(may not get to a few of them, but ~$20 for all the lower ones, couldn't hurt)
oil pump chain/guide
valve stem seals
intake/exhaust gaskets
intake manifold plenum seals
cam oiler clips
valve cover seals/crush washers
rad hoses
water pump gaskets
thermostat/seals
engine/trans mounts
flex discs
front/rear main seals

Hopefully all this will give a bit of a headstart on keeping this engine running in good shape for the foreseeable future! (especially since it hit me what I just dropped in preventative maintenance parts.. My bank account is hating this car already, and I haven't even driven it yet! :D )

I'd be curious to see a close up of the top of your engine to see what is routed where. Mine is a mess! They even have an injector from what looks like an old 450 engine inline to the fuel distributor which seems to be functioning as a frequency valve. other vacuum lines have been teed and run all over and others connect to nothing.

Johnhef,
There are more pictures of the upper end now up, http://www.flickr.com/photos/hey_allen/collections/72157603932525091/

Let me know if you need other angles, or close ups of other areas.

2nd.