I'm getting a valve job done on my 87 300e on monday. other than getting my timing chain, valve guides, seals and gaskets replaced. what else should i inspect or replace while i'm that far in there? your comments will be appreciated. thanks! adam

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Current Stable:
01 ML55 AMG
92 500E (a few mods)
87 300E (lots of mods)
00 Chevy 3500HD Diesel Box Truck
68 18' Donzi Marine
06 GT i-Drive7 1.0 Mountain Bike (with GPS!)

PREVIOUSLY OWNED:83 300SD, 87 420SEL, 88 420SEL, 90 420SEL, 86 560SEL, 86 190E 2.3-16V AMG, 94 E320

Just a comment.

I am presuming you have fairly high mileage on the car. With a valve job you will end up having a really good seal on the top end. If the engine has the high mileage the valves could be your weakest point now. After the valve job the piston rings could become the next week point. Consider having the rings checked or replaced also.

Something to think about.

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Mike

Adam, FYI. I did the head, etc on my '89 300E at 165K. when I inspected the bores, I could still see the original crosshatching on the cylinder walls, with no ridge at the top. Pistons were a little carboned up from oil burning, but easily cleaned. Unless you are or were having problems with compression loss or blowby, your rings/pistons should be good to go. This has a lot to do with maintainance (read as frequent oil changes)..

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Jeff Lawrence
1989 300e
2000 Dodge Grand Caravan SE
No matter what you fix, there will always be something else to fix..
"Warranty" is just another way of postponing the inevitable.

In older engines of all brands I would agree with Mike. The later engines, especially the newer design MB engines of the last fifteen or twenty years can take several valve, or top end jobs before it is necessary to attend to the bores, rings and pistons.

Used to, especially with engines under load such as trucks, you would sometimes lose cylinder integrity before the valves.

There was an article about this a few issues ago in the Star magazine. They confirmed what my opinion has changed to in recent years regarding this.

It is easy to determine the cylinder integrity before disassembly. Do a compression check, then squirt oil in the cylinders. Do a second compression check. If the compression increases, the cylinder integrity is responsible for the compression loss and probably also needs attention.

Have a great weekend,

Gentlemen,

Not knowing any details of Mr. Bourassa car. The mileage, maintenance schedule, first owner, second owner, first valve job, second valve job or why the valve job is needed. The point I was trying to make was. Do not go into this with blinders on. Make sure either he, or someone inspects the bottom end also. The reason that I gave, would be the exception and by no means the norm. I thought that was kind of clear, but apparently not.

For one not to know what affects a repair can have on another part of the engine. I can understand that. But for one to go through the trouble and the expense of having a valve job (overhauled) done. Knowing what it does to the top end and to think it would be OK to totally ignore the bottom end. What I mean by this, is to think the bottom end does not have to be checked. Not that I would expect the bottom end would need any attention, because it is more robust. I just do not understand that logic.

Mr. Shellenberg, I think your statement is true about any MB enthusiast would have reasonable maintenance done. I would also think it would be true to say that any GM, Ford or Chrysler enthusiast (just to name a few) would also have a reasonable maintenance schedule. I think a good preventive maintenance schedule is certainly the only way to go. When there is a car broken down on the side of the road. I would guess that, about 85% of the time, that break down could of been avoided. If that individual had a good preventive maintenance schedule. But even so, that is no guarantee. I think the average human life expectancy now is about 74 years old. If one eats right, controls their weight and exercises regularly. Would we all live to be 74 years old? I think not.

Your buddy has bragging rights. Even if he doesn't reach the one million mark. The miles that he has is an accomplishment. If we all had a 190D, followed the same maintenance schedule, same driving patterns and habits. Do you think we all would reach that one million mark? I think not.

A buddy of mine has, I think, a 1988 Ford Crown Victoria. At about 185,000 miles he was experiencing blowby and a shop determined he needed a valve job. They performed the work and everything was fine. No more blowby. After a period of time he started to notice some blowby. About ten months after the valve job he was leaving a trail of smoke going down the road. You can take a guess of what the problem was. Hint the head did not need any work. Granted, a Crown Victoria is no MB. But even your finer engineered automobiles in the world can have problems. Just read this forum.

In 1991 my wife and I brought a new Camry. At 4,000 miles the dealer had to replace the transmission. The car now has 218,000 miles and is still going strong.

I try to keep an open mind on things. I think, it would be fair to say, do not expect the expected all the time and expect the unexpected sometimes.

For the ones who just blindly do a valve job and for whatever reasons totally ignore the bottom end. By all means do so. It would also go without saying. If the rings needed to be replace the head should be inspected for the same reasons.

BTW did anybody happen to catch the Barrett-Jackson auction show on TV last night? It was on one of the speed channels. They had some classic MB's, 540-K's etc. Some real beauties.

Have a good week.

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Mike