Any body ever measured hydraulic tappet clearance on a M102/M103?

[Stretch]

G'day Folks,

A few people have (rather rudely) asked me if my W201 is a diesel!

I know that that's possible but it has a nice little M102 in there.

I've had a look at the engine and all seems as I remember it before I took it to bits...

...oh dear(!)...

...but I can not help but to wonder if I have the correct height ball socket feet fitted between the hydraulic element and the valve stem. To check this (and the operation / clearance of the hydraulic elements) there's a procedure in chapter 05-214 (in the FSM).

It all looks kind of gucci with a special tool that fits onto the rocker arm =>

102589042100 - only 10 left in the world and costs about 230 euros from the dealer (cheapest price I can find)

I think the special tool essentially is a clamp that is used to compress the top of the hydraulic element.

I was wondering if anyone here has seen or used this special tool.

I was also wondering how loose the rocker arms feel on a M102 / M103 engine with the hydraulic follower touching the lowest part of the cam lobe.

[Stretch]

To put this into context - the local dealership doesn't have the special tool so I guess that shows just how often this measurement is made in the real world

[Stretch]

Here's a picture borrowed from the FSM - page 16 of the PDF available on www.startekinfo.com



The special tool get clamped around the bottom of the hydraulic unit.

A top piece gets screwed into this fixture so that there is no movement of the special tool fitted to the rocker arm.

A DTI is set with pre-load on the top of the special tool

The top piece gets screwed down so the hydraulic element is compressed and this is measurement "Z"

From this procedure I assume that the rocker arm under normal circumstances should be touching the cam lobe and the cup (55) that sits on top of the valve stem should be touching both the bottom of the hydraulic element and the valve stem.

My little cups are loose - it looks like I need to buy a set of feeler gauges (my others are in storage at the moment) and check to see how big this gap is. If necessary I'll have to remove a camshaft / follower saddle and measure the heights of the cups (55) and see if I have the 3mm or the 3.5mm versions fitted...

...to be continued

[Zulfiqar]

I do remember a person on this forum making one himself.

[Stretch]

Originally Posted by Zulfiqar

I do remember a person on this forum making one himself.

I've searched and searched and so far have only come up with this =>

86' 300E lifter noise



Nothing self made found yet

[Stretch]

...I hope this isn't oil related trouble after all...

...the little sockets under each of the hydraulic units are 3mm thick - so in principle I could get the thicker ones but I don't think that's necessarily gonna help me as the hydraulic units look like they only protrude by 1.9mm (measured)



I think I have to re-fit and then crank the engine over to see if oil fills these little buggers or not before I start trying to spend my way out of this!

[Stretch]

To bring this thread to an end - I have learnt

1) If the car sits for a long time the oil drains away and you get a gap - so don't panic about gaps unless the engine has been used recently!

2) A change of engine oil to a better spec'd viscosity cured the problem of a little bit too much nose