Spark Plug Horror! Look! - Page 3 - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

JoeR · #31 10-26-2006, 10:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gilly

Oh, on the guides you just "wiggle" the stem to check for looseness. At your mileage I doubt they are worn. To be nuts-on accurate you use a dial indicator and find out how much play there is. In other words you wiggle them just as I am suggesting but measure the results, not just a "general feel".
Gilly

Getting ready to do the seals on my daughter's M103 soon here. I've never seen an acceptable number for "wiggle" for checking guide wear though. Assuming this would measure play at the top of the valve, correct?

Anyone have numbers??

TIA, Joe

jhodg5ck · #32 10-26-2006, 10:54 AM

How many miles on the car? Anything past 150K and they'll be loose. Past 200 and they'll be shot.

Jonathan

Gilly · #33 10-26-2006, 05:17 PM

This is just by interpretation of new values and critical limits: new is was about .030mm, critical limit would be out around .050mm (not inches!)
Gilly

the tenor man · #34 10-27-2006, 01:09 PM

Hello,

I'm not sure but I think I remember reading about valve stem seals in that engine being problematic. I think MB replaced some of the early ones under warranty. Does the name Viton sound familar....just guessing.

The Tenor Man

P.S. That mileage sounds awfully low for that year...hmmm.

Gilly · #35 10-27-2006, 04:06 PM

Right mileage is low, but older car. The seal material hardens with age and then they don't seal very well.
Gilly

Merkey · #36 11-04-2006, 12:19 PM

Interesting....
I stated that the oil had been changed to 20/50 and sure enough the oil consumption went from a quart every 300 or so to a quart in about 1500 miles.
After my last post I did a 1300 mile trip to the Bay area from OC.
I set off from Orange County and the car was running rough.
Frustrated, I stopped in at a local Kagen Autoparts and grabs some new plug, and put them in ... the only had Bosche platinum 2's.
It didnt make much difference and the car grumbled and misfired all the way to Monterey......... It still did 21 mpg and I did that leg of the trip on one tank... 380 miles!
Here is where in got interesting...
As I said the car was a little unhappy all the way. When I stopped for gas, it refused to restart straight away. I spun the starter 3 times and it would not catch, on the 4th attempt I gave it a little gas, and it started but stalled as soon as I let it drop to idle. 5th attempt I kept it at 2000rpm for about 20 secs, then let it idle... it didnt stall, and I drove off. It continued as before grumbling and misfiring until I stopped for the night soon after.
Next morning it started instantly!
It grumbled until it was warm, then it ran PERFECTLY all day!
So for the next few days, that was how it was.... bad on startup and perfect when warm..
Driving around San Francisco in traffic, on a warm day it didnt miss a beat.
The only thing I did notice was a that the SRS light was flashing now and again.

When I got home it was running great!
I thought it would stay that way.... but now its running really bad again!
We checked the Voltage Regulator bushes, just for fun, and they looked fine.
Any other ideas?

Gilly · #37 11-04-2006, 03:43 PM

Check the OVP fuse
Gilly

Merkey · #38 11-04-2006, 06:17 PM

Checked the fuses... look fine. OVP is about 2 months old.

Is it possible that the temp sensor is bad?

Gilly · #39 11-04-2006, 08:27 PM

Could be but wouldn't explain the SRS light, which I believe the OVP might. Good call on the voltage regulator brushes, might want to have the charging system and battery checked and think about checking or just replacing the OVP relay.
Gilly

Merkey · #40 11-04-2006, 08:37 PM

I did my search on the SRS light and so that was why I did check the VR brushes.
I am less worried about the SRS light for now... maybe its a bad contact on the steering wheel.
Felt that the VR brushes might be the culprit for other stuff tho!

I will do a search on the Temp sensor.

Merkey · #41 05-21-2007, 01:50 AM

Here we are again!
Just finally got around to doing the valve stem seals...
Look at the condition of the engine inside!
Now almost 19 years old and has 72,000 miles on!
Awesome!

The job took us about 5 hours going slowly. The old seals were soooo hard!
Funny thing was that the old seals were brown on the Exhaust valves and black on the inlets... and the new ones were the opposite... and yes, we did check the sizes and fitted the correct ones on the correct valves!

Sadly the misfire is still there, as bad as ever.

We put in new Champion plugs, but we finally got some Non-Resistor style and the will be here next week.
I am really frustrated with tracking this silly misfire down.
Any more ideas????

Holmesuser01 · #42 05-21-2007, 10:20 PM

Those images are beautiful. I look forward to the day that I can get my 2.3 liter 190E to stop the oil leaks. Your engine is stunning.

My engine has never been cleaned. I've only owned it a little over a month.

Bruce

Merkey · #43 05-22-2007, 01:18 AM

Thanks Homer!
We have not cleaned it, or only a little rinse to get rid of the grit and grime before we opened her up. It was the inside that stunned me. We bought this car for $3000 with 64,000 miles about a year ago. No history really, and I have never seen an engine that clean inside!

Ok, here is the real update!
I think we have the misfire figured out....
Today after my son got home he said it was running worse than ever.
I pulled the plugs just to see if they were looking black or something. They all looked light grey as they should. I reinstalled them and it was then I did something from an old past memory. I grabbed a pair of insulated pliers and pulled the plug leads off one at a time, just to see if I could isolate the misfire to one cylinder or another.
It was very noticable that when #1 was pulled there was NO clicking as the plug boot was pulled up!
I stopped the engine and grabbed an old plug, inserted it in the lead and held it against the head. The spark was weak and inconsistant.
I pulled lead #1 out and grabbed my multimeter. Guess what.... it read OL or open... no connection!
I swapped it for an old Jeep one I had in the garage.... BINGO!
No misfire!
I dont believe it!
The leads are BERU and according to the receipt from the PO they are 18 months old!
Maybe that is it, but we need to get some new leads before we are sure!

Merkey · #44 05-28-2007, 01:42 PM

Car is running better than ever. It seems that the recent problems were a bad #1 plug lead. Most probably caused by pulling the plugs out every 500 miles and cleaning them!
Oh, also for everyones info here is the valve spring compressor we used for the job. It worked fine, even in the area of #5 and #6 cylinders where there is no room. You reverse the lever end and push up on the bar instead of down.
This item is much cheaper than the official tool and I can only say it worked great!

I didn't make comment before but the seals were so hard you couldn't squash them... like hard plastic!
We looked at the valve side clearances too and it was barely noticable side play.

I will report back on the oil consumpsion.... it was running at about 1 quart per 500 miles!

t walgamuth · #45 05-28-2007, 02:37 PM

if those are the good leads, they might be damaged and not worn out.

i would consider just changing the known bad one with the parts kit from mb.

tom w