G'day, all. Just got through washing and detailing the 500E after various holiday travels, and right now it's sitting gleaming and happy in a nice warm garage (to beat the ugly weather outside).

I'm doing advance planning for the next round of maintenance, and I found this old thread which talks about factory mods to the oiling system on the M119 engine:

500E still Racka Racka's on cold start up????

This particular M119 is (probably thanks to excellent PO maintenance which I'm endeavoring to match) demonstrating absolutely no racka-racka noises or other sounds of oil woe. Even on dead cold starts after sitting for a week, it's perfectly quiet.

Nevertheless, I intend to keep this car for a long time and am a great believer in preventative maintenance. My thinking has been that I will fit in the various oiling upgrades at times when they mesh with other scheduled tasks -- I've got the part numbers for the oil filter checkvalve and the oil pump relief valve. Checkvalve goes in at the next oil change.

I'm a bit confused about the stuff that goes up in the heads, though. There are references to updated parts, variously dubbed "bridge connectors" and "oiler tubes" and "O-rings".

PartsShop shows "OILER TUBES" for part code 119 180 02 66, but doesn't say anything about how many are needed. Is that code for a set of tubes or a single tube or what? Are the O-rings integral to the tubes?

I'm going to pull the valve covers sometime in the next month or two and have a look around. Last time I did this (PPI), the valvetrain looked impeccable, and I assume it'll be the same now.

But I may as well just do the tubes while I'm in there if I can sort out what to order. Any words of wisdom? Removal and installation clues?

s/b

--

As I recall each of the valves in our engines have an oil tube, so that totals 32 oil tubes. I wasn't aware of a new part but haven't really researched it so it's possible.

I've heard that when you start hearing constant tick tick tick from your engine then it's time to replace your oil tubes. I had mine checked recently, luckily my mechanic didn't hear the tell tale tick.

I think you might find that if your car is only ticking upon startup then it could be the oil check valve. Let us know if this solves the problem after it's been replaced.

__________________
Afshin

Current:
02 C32 AMG

Previous:
92 500E
84 190E 2.3 5 Spd

Greetings Russ- you may wish to PM Glen-- I believe he's done this work recently to his E500.

Best regards
-fad

As I recall each of the valves in our engines have an oil tube, so that totals 32 oil tubes. I wasn't aware of a new part but haven't really researched it so it's possible.

Per fad's suggestion, I pinged Glen for feedback on this one, as his ride is being worked on, and Glen chose to have all of the tubes replaced while the covers were off.

Glen's take was that there are 16 of the tubes, eight for each bank of cylinders. His dealer mech was charging $16 each, but as noted, PartsShop has 'em for a decent discount to that, if one is willing and able to tackle the job as DIY.

I think you might find that if your car is only ticking upon startup then it could be the oil check valve. Let us know if this solves the problem after it's been replaced.

Actually, at this point, there is no tick and no problem. I'm just investigating preventative steps.

The engine is -perfect-, no tick, no racka-racka, instant starts, never overheats, pulls like a freight train.

I'm just intent on keeping it in that state of grace for as long as possible. A local indy wrench tells me that he is not surprised to see a well-cared for M119 engine last for a LONG time. He's got three regular customers who are over 250K miles without rebuilding.

I will probably replace all of the tubes at around 90K mi, as part of the timing chain/tensioner/rails package. Will inspect at 75K mi, or on an as needed basis if any noise ever does show up.

s/b

Oil tubes are quite easy to replace. If they are metal, you wont have to replace them. 500E/E500 are metal type. All other 119 motors are plastic. You can easily hear them when they are broken. You all probably know what your engine sounds like at idle, so if you do hear a loud ticking coming from the valve covers that you did not hear before, thats probably it. To replace its quite easy. Pull vavle covers. Pull bearing bridges one at a time. Each oiler tube is held down on its left and right by the bearing bridges. REmove the 2 bolts on each bridge around the oiler tube. replace oiler tube. retorque bolts. there is no need to remove all bearing bridges at once. the hardest part will be removing the drivers valve cover.

Does this engine have the oil tubes that fail?

helmutvonschet is correct.

No need to replace them as preventative maintenance on the 500E's M119 engine because they are made of metal.

My local dealer tech who also has a 500E confirmed.

:-) neil
1988 360TE AMG
1993 500E

Is it possible that the earlier 500E's had the metal oiler tubes and the later E500's had the plastic tubes?

I just spoke to Glen about this and his were definitely plastic. Here is a picture of his engine when the work was being done

Attached Thumbnails

 

__________________
Afshin

Current:
02 C32 AMG

Previous:
92 500E
84 190E 2.3 5 Spd

for '92 M119 engines were metal. After that, I think they were changed to 'plastic'. My tech's '92 500SL has metal tubes; my '94 has plastic.

Here's link that shows what happens to the plastic tubes:
1) MS Forum: Tick, tick fixed tnx to Donnie!

2) My web page (click 'www house below'): Menu #19

All cars have 16 tubes not 32 and the plastic ones DO go bad: the end caps blow out and you lose oil pressure. It's not always noticable when that happens because the lifter 'tick-tick' starts about two weeks after the cap blows, so one is hard pressed to see the correlation between oil pressure and the tick.

PS: I do know that you can still get the metal versions since a member here just changed his plastic to metal. MS Forum link: E420 Oil Tubes/Power Loss

__________________
Regards . . . . JimF
-------------------
'94 S500 Cpe

Visit my Mercedes Web Page

I'll have to show this to my dealer tech with a 500E.

:-) neil