I'm in the process of doing the head gasket on my son's 190e and I can't get the slide rail bearing bolts out! I've got the slide puller and bolts/washers and even removing the radiator and condensor to give them a good whack didn't make a difference! I've soaked them over night in wd-40 and warmed the head up and nothing. The whole engine is moving I'm hitting it so hard.

I've thought about drilling them out but I worry about getting shavings into the inards of the engine...

Any suggestions???

-Thwarted

Well, nothing else worked so I drilled and tapped them another half inch and then drilled them about the depth of the head wall and that did the trick. They had pretty much welded themselves to the head. Not the best design for something that will need to be removed during the lifetime of the engine!!

Okay, so all that is done, next issue: this is oviously the original head gasket, so it is stuck pretty hard to the engine block. Pulling up on the intake manifold does nothing. I can't see any decent pry points, so I'm guessing I need to rent an engine hoist to yank it off. Any other suggestions? Should the head be coming off easier than this?

Thanks for any help!

Steve

Not familiar with that engine but from other MB engines:

- no brackets holding the manifolds to the block?

- no EGR line from the exhaust manifold to the intake manifold?

- no bolts from the head down into the timing chain cover?

Sixto
93 300SD

Hmmm.....I found and took out THREE smaller bolts. I'll take another look tonight to see if I can find a fourth. That may well be the problem!

I did already disconnect the intake manifold support bracket, and I've taken the exhaust manifold off altogether since I'm planning on replacing all the studs and nuts...again all original with 13 years of corrosion! Boy I must admit this car is a lot tougher to do than any others I've done (Saabs and Porsches). Does Mercedes employ very small German gnomes to put these engines together??? 8^)

On a positive note when I took the plugs out they looked pristine after 20K miles of teenage driving!

Thanks!

Steve

Well I had been looking at a schematic for the earlier single chain head, so I didn't realize the bolts are placed a bit different on my later dual chain head! The fourth bolt was outside the valve cover and buried amongst the sensor connectors, and was a standard 13 mm hex, not an allen head. Took it out and one mild whack and off the head came!!

Now I just have to re-assemble it....8^)

-Steve

When I did that job, the pins came out fairly easily using a bolt with a stack of washers for leverage. The car was about 12 years old then with 150K on it. Strange that yours were so tight.
I do agree that it's an unfriendly design, though.