Dan16V,

Send your head gasket to Cometic and have a multi-piece steel gasket made.

You don't want 0.010" of wire to crush on the o-ring set-up. That is too much to crush. 0.003-0.004" would be plenty.

And Jim, your bore can look just great but still be very out of round. So at least get them measured. Excess blowby goes both directions, and when the case oil gets past those rings your are much more likely to start the Detonation process again and loose a 2nd motor.

Jeff

Speedybenz,
Thanks for the tip. Cometic is actually only about 45 minutes from my house! But, I called them up and to do a custom set up, they need an order of at least 50 gaskets to make it cost effective since they have to make new tooling. So, that won't work. But, I'm still in communication with them because it might be possible for me to make the tooling and so keep the cost down. I work at a tool and die shop, so making the tooling shouldn't be a problem. It's more an issue of them wanting to work with me on this. Once they have the tooling, they can make additional gaskets for relatively inexpensively.

Later!

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87 190E EVO II Turbo

An update ... I got my head back from the shop yesterday. They welded up the burned spots before milling the head and replacing the guides. I reinstalled the valves and did step one of the valve adjustment process. I need four shims of a different thickness so it is parts wait again. I really wanted to set the lash onthe valves myself for the experience. It took longer than I thoughit would (will be quicker next time). I will begin assembleing the block tomorrow.

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

Jim,
When you installed the head studs, did you leave out the bracket in the front of the cylinder head that mounts on the stock head bolts between the cam sprockets? Or did you modify it to work with the studs?
Is the car back on the road?

Thanks!

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87 190E EVO II Turbo

Daniel .... I just installed the engine back into the car today. I still have a day or so of work before it will be roadworthy. I broke a ring installing one of the pistons and it took three weeks to get a replacement set of rings (they came from a depot in Spain).

My engine did not have a bracket that mounted on the cylinder head bolts. There is a bracket that passes under the timing chain in the middle above the water passage but it does not come close to the head studs.

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

Something's messed up in my head then. Uh, my cylinder head . I definately have a bracket that you guys don't. Check out my post HERE
How does you bracket look? Or was it missing entirely?

Later!

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87 190E EVO II Turbo

Post a picture of the bracket and I will try to tell you about it. I have rebuilt several of these engines.

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Benzmac:
Donnie Drummonds
ASE CERTIFIED MASTER AUTO TECHNICIAN
MERCEDES SPECIALIST 11 YRS

Benzmac,
I posted a pic under your Turbo thread. Jim sent me a few pics of his bracket and it appears that my head is from a slightly different casting, perhaps an early one. The portion of the head that the bracket mounts to doesn't exist on my cylinder head. Instead, the bracket mounts to the head bolts. So, I'm going to have to come up with a way of mounting it to the studs.

Later!

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87 190E EVO II Turbo

Jim,
I have one (1) set of "gapless" rings for std. bore piston that you could have for FRee! Let me know.

__________________
MERCEDES Benz Master Guild Technician (6 TIMES)
ASE Master Technician
Mercedes Benz Star Technician (2 times)
44 years foreign automotive repair
27 Years M.B. Shop foreman (dealer)
MB technical information Specialist (15 years)
190E 2.3 16V ITS SCCA race car (sold)
1986 190E 2.3 16V 2.5 (sold)
Retired Moderator

Maybe DOC will look at that pic. Mine is VERY different from yours. I am sure that it is a casting difference.

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Benzmac:
Donnie Drummonds
ASE CERTIFIED MASTER AUTO TECHNICIAN
MERCEDES SPECIALIST 11 YRS

MB Doc .... Thanks for the offer of the rings but the engine is currently back together. I had it running yesterday to check everything and I found about three quarts of oil on my garage floor. It appears to be leaking from where the oil filter housing bolts onto the block. I say, "appears" because it is impossible to see anything in the area. I plan to take off the intake manifold today to trace the leak.

This is the first time that I have rebuilt a computer-controlled engine. Such a difference; after final assembly, it started and idled on the first try.

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

Well I found the oil leak after an hour or so of disassembly. I had not noticed the remains of the old gasket on the block between the oil filter assembly and the block. A little scrapping and cleaning and another hour to reassemble and the engine runs without leaking.

Everything is not completed. I still need to check the ignition and engine management parameters, recheck the valve adjustment, and double-check all of the little details.

It is just a relief that it is now mobile and I can drive it out of the garage.

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

Did you install studs in the engine?

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George Carstens

Yes ... I installed the ARP head studs for a Ford Pinto 2300cc (part number 151-4202). I used their lubricant and torqued the head to 85 ft-lb.

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

Well Guys, I am about ready to close out this thread. The engine has been rebuilt, reinstalled, driven and the valves adjusted twice. My last item was to check the fuel map and ignition settings (I run the SDS digital engine management system) on a dyno at the local racing shop. After the first run, it was obvious why I burned the pistons on the track; the engine was running too lean, about 14+:1 under boost. After some adjustments, the fuel/air ratio is now about 12:1 with the ignition retard pulling the advance down to about 20 degrees BTDC. One of the items that these runs showed was that my supercharger belt was slipping above 4,000 RPM. The supercharger maintains a boost of about 6 psi until 4K and then it drops to about 4.5 psi. I should be able to fix this by having a machine shop lower the lip on the pulley so that I can fit a shorter belt (it is loose).

In third gear, it pulled 174 HP and 180 FT-LB of torque. This is a solid 40% gain over the baseline runs on the same equipment in October 2001. You can see the graphs of the air/fuel ratio and boost pressure on the bottom of the dyno plot. It is not a monster like Donnie's but it is a very peppy daily driver.

Donnie .... Thanks for posting your fuel map on the site. I used your ignition retard values and my dyno guy said that they were "right on".

Attached Thumbnails

 

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