I have a 97' 420E that has been basically trouble free. While accelerating onto a highway the other day the engine shut down instantly! Because I was not near home, the car was towed to the nearest dealership. I do a good deal of my own wrenching and I have a hard time trusting the dealerships. They informed me that my car had jumped timing! I have not gotten the details as to why it jumped timing yet, but will get the details on Tuesday. My question is this, because the engine shut down immediately without so much as a sound, is it a given that there is valve damage? Would positive results from a compression check be enough to avoid doing a complete valve job? Are there any other checks that could signal everything is OK without the MAJOR expense. The stealership quoted me $5,000 to $7,000 !!! I normally do my own repairs but I feel this might be too much for me, so I am trying to minimize the $$$ damage.

How many miles on it? Jumped timing is a plausible story - likely because the chain tensioner was loose or chain guides broken or both. They quoted you $5,000 to $7,000 for what? It's not necessarily damaged, but if it is, significantly, you're probably better off with another engine. Even a top end on a 119 motor is very expensive. 32 of everything just adds up. If it's not damaged you just need to go elsewhere to have it repaired.

The quote was a rough estimate for repairing the timing chain issue (which I am waiting for the details on) and the expected valve work. It's only got 122,000 miles on it.

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1997 420E
2005 HD Road King

If it's just timing chain, tensioner, guides, etc. it should be way less than $5k even at a dealer. I'd say dangerous to give them that much of a budget - they'd probably find a way to spend it. If it was me I'd tow to a good independent shop pretty quickly.

The dealership was planning on opening up the top end doing a complete valve job in addition to the tensioner, guides etc.. That was kind of the purpose of this post, to question their automatic decision for the valve work. I do agree that I should probably pull the car and send it to an independent shop after I get the details of their diagnosis. Knowledge is king and I am just trying to gather as much info as I can before talking to the tech. I have no intention of paying that much money for a repair cost that is equivalent to the total value of the car!

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1997 420E
2005 HD Road King

Sorry to hear about your trouble.

The Alldata quote to pull both heads and do a valve job is 38 hours, 24 hours for one side.

Both Banks 37.7
Notes
. . . Includes: R&I Head, Grind Valves & Seats, Transfer Necessary Parts, Make Necessary Adjustments.

My .02 is that in seven years of more-or-less following this forum, it's the first time I've heard of a four-cam V8 with this sort of trouble. There just isn't a lot of room for the chain to go anywhere. So I would sweat them on how they got to this diagnosis.

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Chuck Taylor
Falls Church VA
'66 200, '66 230SL, '96 SL500. Sold: '81 380SL, '86 300E, '72 250C, '95 C220, 3 '84 280SL's '90 420SEL, '72 280SE, '73 280C, '78 280SE, '70 280SL, '77 450SL, '85 380SL, '87 560SL, '85 380SL, '72 350SL, '96 S500 Coupe

I appreciate your 2 cents. I too could not find much info regarding this issue on the m119 engine. I am preparing for the discussion/debate tomorrow so any bit of information really helps. Thank you!

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1997 420E
2005 HD Road King