Well, more good news! The head is back on and the new water pump is in, as you can see in the attached photo. I will add a few posts with photos of the burned exhaust valve and the evil intake valve guide.

Art is doing a great job and is expecting to have the car running by Sunday afternoon. Peter can't wait, and took all the old valves and guides home tonight to use as desk decorations in his room. Most were pretty clean, except for the burned valve, as they all went through the head cleaning operation before they came off.

The exhaust valves were replaced, but looking at them they seemed to survive the 206,000 miles pretty well. Not worth trying to reuse, but overall they cleaned up pretty nice.

New chain and rebuilt tensioner are in too. Valve shims are due in tomorrow, and one will have to be custom ground by Art to fit. New driver's side engine mount going in, and a few hoses and other things that just crumbled with age when they were being handled.

Will keep everyone posted as more progress is made! Jim

Attached Thumbnails

 

__________________
Own:
1986 Euro 190E 2.3-16 (291,000 miles),
1998 E300D TurboDiesel, 231,000 miles -purchased with 45,000,
1988 300E 5-speed 252,000 miles,
1983 240D 4-speed, purchased w/136,000, now with 222,000 miles.
2009 ML320CDI Bluetec, 89,000 miles

Owned:
1971 220D (250,000 miles plus, sold to father-in-law),
1975 240D (245,000 miles - died of body rot),
1991 350SD (176,560 miles, weakest Benz I have owned),
1999 C230 Sport (45,400 miles),
1982 240D (321,000 miles, put to sleep)

Here is a view showing the cam sprockets, new chain, and new water pump below the head (well kind of hiding under the flow path bulge for mounting all the water temperature sensors. Jim

Attached Thumbnails

 

__________________
Own:
1986 Euro 190E 2.3-16 (291,000 miles),
1998 E300D TurboDiesel, 231,000 miles -purchased with 45,000,
1988 300E 5-speed 252,000 miles,
1983 240D 4-speed, purchased w/136,000, now with 222,000 miles.
2009 ML320CDI Bluetec, 89,000 miles

Owned:
1971 220D (250,000 miles plus, sold to father-in-law),
1975 240D (245,000 miles - died of body rot),
1991 350SD (176,560 miles, weakest Benz I have owned),
1999 C230 Sport (45,400 miles),
1982 240D (321,000 miles, put to sleep)

Here is the bum exhaust valve that got the whole process started. It was the only valve with any damage, once they were cleaned up. I will post another shot comparing the used but undamaged valve to the burned one. All the exhaust valves were replaced however, mainly because they did not look like they would meet dimensional requirements once you tried to machine the poppet to the correct seat configuration. Jim

Attached Thumbnails

 

__________________
Own:
1986 Euro 190E 2.3-16 (291,000 miles),
1998 E300D TurboDiesel, 231,000 miles -purchased with 45,000,
1988 300E 5-speed 252,000 miles,
1983 240D 4-speed, purchased w/136,000, now with 222,000 miles.
2009 ML320CDI Bluetec, 89,000 miles

Owned:
1971 220D (250,000 miles plus, sold to father-in-law),
1975 240D (245,000 miles - died of body rot),
1991 350SD (176,560 miles, weakest Benz I have owned),
1999 C230 Sport (45,400 miles),
1982 240D (321,000 miles, put to sleep)

Here is the comparison shot. Old, clean valve has 206,000 miles on it and is more than 16 years old! Jim

Attached Thumbnails

 

__________________
Own:
1986 Euro 190E 2.3-16 (291,000 miles),
1998 E300D TurboDiesel, 231,000 miles -purchased with 45,000,
1988 300E 5-speed 252,000 miles,
1983 240D 4-speed, purchased w/136,000, now with 222,000 miles.
2009 ML320CDI Bluetec, 89,000 miles

Owned:
1971 220D (250,000 miles plus, sold to father-in-law),
1975 240D (245,000 miles - died of body rot),
1991 350SD (176,560 miles, weakest Benz I have owned),
1999 C230 Sport (45,400 miles),
1982 240D (321,000 miles, put to sleep)

Finally here is the intake valve guide that caused the long, nearly three week delay. You can see a burr and some Aluminum pick up there and in some other streaks along the body of the guide. I will post a comparison with a "good" valve. Peter is taking it to school to have the outside diameter measured carefully so we can compare it to the others. The burr is on left end of the top surface in the photo. Jim

Attached Thumbnails

 

__________________
Own:
1986 Euro 190E 2.3-16 (291,000 miles),
1998 E300D TurboDiesel, 231,000 miles -purchased with 45,000,
1988 300E 5-speed 252,000 miles,
1983 240D 4-speed, purchased w/136,000, now with 222,000 miles.
2009 ML320CDI Bluetec, 89,000 miles

Owned:
1971 220D (250,000 miles plus, sold to father-in-law),
1975 240D (245,000 miles - died of body rot),
1991 350SD (176,560 miles, weakest Benz I have owned),
1999 C230 Sport (45,400 miles),
1982 240D (321,000 miles, put to sleep)

Here is the comparison. I am not sure if the end was cut off of the oversized guide or not, but the geometry of the guide bore in the head and the intake port would indicate a larger diameter guide needs to be a little shorter and does not need the taper. Jim

Attached Thumbnails

 

__________________
Own:
1986 Euro 190E 2.3-16 (291,000 miles),
1998 E300D TurboDiesel, 231,000 miles -purchased with 45,000,
1988 300E 5-speed 252,000 miles,
1983 240D 4-speed, purchased w/136,000, now with 222,000 miles.
2009 ML320CDI Bluetec, 89,000 miles

Owned:
1971 220D (250,000 miles plus, sold to father-in-law),
1975 240D (245,000 miles - died of body rot),
1991 350SD (176,560 miles, weakest Benz I have owned),
1999 C230 Sport (45,400 miles),
1982 240D (321,000 miles, put to sleep)

I can't wait to check it out on Fri or Sat-I have to drop off my TE for Nitrogen Cell replacement. Why do it yourself when Art can do it in an hour?

__________________
"If God had meant for us to walk, why did he give us feet that fit car pedals?" Sir Sterling Moss

Michael
2014 E63S Estate
2006 SLK55
1995 E500
1986 Porsche 944 turbo

Jim .... Are you sure that you are looking at the correct problem with the valve guide? My understanding is that the guide is pressed into the head and the inside of the guide is the bearing surface that "guides" the valve stem. The ware should be on the inside and the bur that you mentioned was caused by removing the guide from the head.

Ugly looking valve. It is amazing that it ran on four cylinders with a hole like that.

Thanks for the continuing posts and pictures.

__________________
Jim Villers
190SL, 230SL 5-speed, 95 E320 Wagon, 01 E320 Wagon, MGB, Boxster 'S', 190SL "Barn Find"

Jim,

The guide replacement procedure recognizes the removal of the guide will pick up a little Aluminum from the head, and the repair sizes come in increasing diameters to allow you to clean up the bore the guide fits in. If you don't get a good shrink fit the guide to cylinder head interface can leak engine oil into the intake or exhaust gasses back up through the area and into the engine interior volume. So you get some special tools to guide broaches to clean the bore up to a precise diameter while maintaining alignment with the valve seat (concentricity and perpendicularity). Your are correct, the reason to change the valve guide is that the guide inside diameter wears and gets larger. But the new guide has the same old inside diameter as the new, original guide did.

The car ran on three cylinders, not 4. It had next to zero compression in the number one cylinder. But it ran well enough on three cylinders that my son, who just got his driver's license was not sure it was running that poorly. I had a similar experience with my first car, a Fiat 124 Sport Spyder. The cure was a little less involved, but it introduced me to automobile engines and all the lovely little things they have and how they work.

Will keep you posted!
Jim

__________________
Own:
1986 Euro 190E 2.3-16 (291,000 miles),
1998 E300D TurboDiesel, 231,000 miles -purchased with 45,000,
1988 300E 5-speed 252,000 miles,
1983 240D 4-speed, purchased w/136,000, now with 222,000 miles.
2009 ML320CDI Bluetec, 89,000 miles

Owned:
1971 220D (250,000 miles plus, sold to father-in-law),
1975 240D (245,000 miles - died of body rot),
1991 350SD (176,560 miles, weakest Benz I have owned),
1999 C230 Sport (45,400 miles),
1982 240D (321,000 miles, put to sleep)

Well, the car is all together and running better than it has in probably 5 years. It still needs injectors, but at the moment Peter is broke and in serious debt to Dad for the head refurbishment. It also needs a new exhaust system, and the one on it is from TimeValve which came with a lifetime warranty. I don't know if I can find the reciept, but I will be contacting them. 12 years and 140,000 miles may be a lifetime to some (put it on at around 70,000 miles when the original system became impractical to repair), but not with any of my cars.

Michael, thanks for getting us in touch with Art, he is really a master mechanic and a great guy. I am certain the engine is in as near to new condition as is possible and that Peter has another dozen years to enjoy the car.

So, it took a while and we ran into some unique problems but it is done and runs great. Jim

__________________
Own:
1986 Euro 190E 2.3-16 (291,000 miles),
1998 E300D TurboDiesel, 231,000 miles -purchased with 45,000,
1988 300E 5-speed 252,000 miles,
1983 240D 4-speed, purchased w/136,000, now with 222,000 miles.
2009 ML320CDI Bluetec, 89,000 miles

Owned:
1971 220D (250,000 miles plus, sold to father-in-law),
1975 240D (245,000 miles - died of body rot),
1991 350SD (176,560 miles, weakest Benz I have owned),
1999 C230 Sport (45,400 miles),
1982 240D (321,000 miles, put to sleep)

Well, I can tell you that I've enjoyed reading about your engine rebuild, and am glad that the car runs great.

How can you tell that you need new injectors? Do they leak?

__________________
Paul S.

2001 E430, Bourdeaux Red, Oyster interior.
79,200 miles.

1973 280SE 4.5, 170,000 miles. 568 Signal Red, Black MB Tex. "The Red Baron".

Paul,

The injectors were suspect at one point in time, before Peter did the compression checks at school in their shop. I pulled the number one injector, and with the car running on the other cylinders, looked at the "spray" pattern. It was not detectable, visually, but holding the injector horizontally with a paper towel under and in front of the nozzle, expecting to catch the spray, it dripped on the towel directly under the nozzle.

The number two injector was the same. Art noted when he got it back together the idle is a little unstable when it is cold, but smooths out when it warms up enough to warm the intake manifold. He noted this is common with worn out injectors as the initial start up conditions result in poor atomization/evaporation of the fuel. As the engine warms up even the dribbling fuel gets evaporated off the intake manifold surfaces and makes it into the engine, approximately in the same quantity that was originally intended, just not quite as thoroughly mixed. Art noted with new injectors we should expect better fuel economy and response.

Art also suggested using Techron to make sure the deposits left by the evaporating fuel are minimized. Apparently the fuel contains some dissolved additives that are left behind when the liquid is allowed to evaporate off the interior surfaces of the intake manifold instead of being carried with the airflow directly into the combustion chamber.

A number of years ago this was a major problem for CIS type fuel injected engines. The deposits would collect on the intake valves adding to the unfavorable initial start up conditions causing rough idling, hard starting and stalling. The cure for this in the old days was to walnut shell blast the intake valves, usually "in-situ" until Chevron developed the Techron additive.

So, new fuel injectors will be next on the list, followed by lots of other stuff. Good to see my son taking a great interest in keeping this car alive. He seems to really appreciate how unique it is and how much fun it can be. And thanks to everyone for their interest and help through this repair. It was fun sharing some of what we learned and experienced with all of you. Jim

__________________
Own:
1986 Euro 190E 2.3-16 (291,000 miles),
1998 E300D TurboDiesel, 231,000 miles -purchased with 45,000,
1988 300E 5-speed 252,000 miles,
1983 240D 4-speed, purchased w/136,000, now with 222,000 miles.
2009 ML320CDI Bluetec, 89,000 miles

Owned:
1971 220D (250,000 miles plus, sold to father-in-law),
1975 240D (245,000 miles - died of body rot),
1991 350SD (176,560 miles, weakest Benz I have owned),
1999 C230 Sport (45,400 miles),
1982 240D (321,000 miles, put to sleep)

glad to see the 16v up and running, and thanks for the updates and pictures , i enjoyed reading them,
i would like to know arts number for some machining old porsche heads and the 16v some day, if thats possilbe
so it would be neat to race a fresh 16v with my worn in one
hope to see it on the road
thanks
dave aka stuttgart

Attached Thumbnails

 

daveCT,

Send me an email and I will provide you with Art's number. He was more than just a great tech, he put up with me and Peter trying to participate now and then. Made the whole experience pretty enlightening to both of us.

By the way, the TimeValve guys repaired the exhaust system for nothing. Drove by and they checked it out, agreed it was theirs and then made an appointment to have it exchanged or fixed at their discretion. They elected to weld up the leaks and it is doing very well now too. They were another great group to deal with, made me glad I bought the system from them way back when. Jim

__________________
Own:
1986 Euro 190E 2.3-16 (291,000 miles),
1998 E300D TurboDiesel, 231,000 miles -purchased with 45,000,
1988 300E 5-speed 252,000 miles,
1983 240D 4-speed, purchased w/136,000, now with 222,000 miles.
2009 ML320CDI Bluetec, 89,000 miles

Owned:
1971 220D (250,000 miles plus, sold to father-in-law),
1975 240D (245,000 miles - died of body rot),
1991 350SD (176,560 miles, weakest Benz I have owned),
1999 C230 Sport (45,400 miles),
1982 240D (321,000 miles, put to sleep)