woooow hold on a minute fellows....


1. your missing the whole point....some how we are not communicating..

on the drivers side there is a guide...for the timing chain... it actually connects to the head with a stud....so you will have to deal with this guide... its impossilbe not to deal with it...

2. Yes, you can leave alone the chain tensioner on the passenger side...


Go ahead and reuse your bolts... draw your head gasket on a piece of card board and number the holes and stick them in it....

3. take back your unopened head gasket to the mb dealer. and buy one from fastlane which sponsors this site... 70 bucks is all you need...

4. no mb dealer will replace a head gasket you installed they will blame its faliure on your installation....


5. I just replaced a head gasket this week on this same engine... and you would be absolutely insane to try to remove this head with the exhaust and intake manifold attached...... insane......to do this you would have to lift it straight up with a lift and all the fuel and electric lines would only allow you about 3 inches.... but there is a secret only someone knows who has done this....


the secret is that this head will not lift straight up....I was only able to lift it about a 1/4 inch straight up just enough to clear the studs for the gasket placement then i had to pull it out in the direction of the exhaust manifold...

without ever having done one i thought you could leave the stuff attached as well but now that i have done it i think the only way is to remove the manifolds...


anyway if you showed up at the machine shop with the intake and the exahust manifold still attached the machinest would hand you a ratchet and say take them off....

you are right indeed blue ranger. I removed the outer chain rail somewhat, I am reluctant to break a piece off and have it fall into the timing area below. I stupidly did not even think the inner rail is attached to the head, it just did not register. I should be fine getting the outer rail off and taking the inner rail out with the head. there seems to be a lot of clips on this rail. if it was to break, how do I keep plastic pieces from falling into the timing area below? I wonder how the benz techs go about doing this. I hope it does not involve taking off the whole timing cover.

Be careful not to break it if you do you will have to remove the timing cover to install the new one.
MB has a special tool to remove the guide pin, like a small slide hammer, I removed mine by taking a piece of thick steel and bending it in a u shape to form a bridge over the guide pin and guide rail, drill a hole in the steel above where the pin will be and get a bolt I believe it is a m6 same size and pitch as your valve cover bolts, long enough to thread into the stud and pull against the steel, you can take up extra space using washers.
Mine took a surprising amount of force. It is a pain, but you must take it out.
Good Luck.

__________________
“Fundamentally, sustainable development is a notion of discipline. It means humanity must ensure that meeting present needs does not compromise the ability of future generations to meet their needs.”--- Gro Harlem Brundtland


1989 300se 250,000
1983 BMW 528e 100,000
1999 Olds Alero 80,000

These pretzels are making me thirsty.

I just got the pin out of mine last night, it took a lot of force with a slide hammer I made, I took a piece of allthread 3/8 and turned it down to a 6 mm and threaded it I used about a 2 lb. piece of round stock with a hole in it, becareful and protect the condenser so you don't poke a hole in it, leave the intake and exhaust in the car and pull the head up towards the paas side because of the hose to the water pump, and get help lifting it out makes it more controlable, hope this helps

now your in the ball game...

good work....

removing the manifolds is really not that bad.... another big mistake i made is not putting it at tdc big mistake becasue the machine shop will give it back at tdc....

second big mistake i made was to break the guide.... i droped some little pieces down inside... but i am going to try to use a real long needle nose and a flash light... i already bought the new guide it was cheap...

I am reusing the bolts....

Most important thing of all is that you get all the water and debree out of the bolt holes.... a few drops of water will give you false tork readings and you will think your sealed and a few weeks later you will have a leake...

look for a turkey baster and qtips and vacuums and just use your imagineation....

i think i will put the pin in the freezer over night before i put it
into the head.....

tell me what you think....about this ideal...

sounds like a good idea. freezing it should shrink it a bit but could also make it brittle. be careful. on the other vehicle I did, I chased the threads for the head bolts with a tap of appropriate size, this brought out some real nasty stuff. I think I will do this again. so one last question about this chain rail. I am probably going to have to break the outer rail due to many clips that I can not see. the inner rail can come out with the head correct or should I try and remove it completely before head removal? sorry about all the questions. its good that others are doing this at the same time. we should post up pics as to better understand each other. I took a lot of pics to aid in re-assembly in case I forget stuff.

the chain guide is very cheap at fastlane...

and you can just buy the top or bottom... but its so old and brittle just
buy the whole thing...

i will put mine back together this weekend and will take some pics...

also what size tap did you use on the head bolt holes..

You can indeed get the head off without doing anything with the chain tensioner although I've never tried it, but DON'T attempt to reassemble without removing the tensioner. THEN when putting the tensioner back in you push the ratchet plunger all the way through and then start it into the assembly again. This way, it will go into proper position once the engine has oil pressure.

If you FAIL to do this and try to put things together without starting the tensioner over again, you can have trouble or even break something.

Also, there is ABSOLUTELY no need to use new head bolts UNLESS they measure too long. If the engine has never been apart before it is almost certain that the head bolts will not be too long. It is a simple operation to measure them with a vernier or dial caliper and compare against the book dimensions.

Good luck,

Just a personal experience, I am still kicking myself for not resealing the lower timing cover while I had most of this apart. It is now where most of my oil is leaking. After getting the head to the shop, I really did not want to have to remove that megatorque bolt. At least my undercarriage stays lubricated.

the tap was used for toyota camry v6 heads and was a m10 1.25 I think. I will check the size for the 103 as soon as I get it off. am I the only one thinking performance products has cheaper prices than fastlane? I dont know what brand of head gasket set perf prod sells but its $59 as compared to fastlane's $79. its prob reinz. is there a diff in quality?

Too bad you had this experience, but on the 103 the lower timing cover does not often leak. It is only the upper. The 104 engine is a different animal in this regard.

Have a great day,

went to pick up my head and napa guy says i need exhaust guids so it
will be another week for me....


tell me do i really have to remove the chain tensioner....
i have my sprocket twist tied to a broom handle hanging in its position...

You not only must REMOVE tensioner, but you have to disassemble it and push the plunger all the way through and start it back through. Leave the tensioner out while you're putting the top sprocket back in place, then put in the tensioner after having seen to the plunger.

Good luck,

I have been using performance for over 15 years, they were better when they were in texas called IMCO as I remember still good prices but the old guys new alot more and would help, I pulled the plug on my tensioner and can't get it to come out of the hole so I can put in the new piston, anyone had this problem, thanks