2000 C230 Timing Chain
 

On Saturday the timing chain in the Kompressor snapped. Car has just over 200K miles on it, rust has started eating away at the fenders and I'm afraid to see what it looks like under the plastic panels on the rockers. It was just above idle when it happened, but this means nothing with an interference engine.

I'm guessing that it would take about $1000 to get it back on the road doing the work myself, including doing a valve job and replacing a couple of valves. Given my current schedule, I'm not sure I really want to take this on. Has anyone else gone thru this recently?

Have a look on car-part.com for a used engine before you repair the one you have as that may be a more direct route. If you go the used route, have a look at the tensioner and chain rails before install.

If the miles are real, I'd give this one a try at $ 270.

1999
Engine
Mercedes C Class 99K,

6 MONTH WARRANTY W/O SUPERCHARGER W/O TBI, ENG#1119751202650 99,093 A DD034 $270

Borges Foreign Auto USA-MA(Dighton) Request_Quote 1-800-662-6150

Good advice to just get another engine.

Excellent advice. I completely forgot about that search site.

Started to take the cylinder head off and realized that some of the bottom bolts on the manifolds are inaccessible. This means they stay attached and come off with the head or the whole motor comes out. The more I looked at it the more replacing the whole motor makes sense.

The engine listed in thread 3 was still available. I called and they have had it sitting on a shelf in the wharehose for years. The car it came in was wrecked, the engine was tested and ran before being removed and placed on the shelf. The price is cheaper than the lowest estimate on the head repair, so I drove out and picked it up.

It looks better then the one in the car. It is 95% there. I'm going to pull the front cover and check the chain stretch, peering in the oil cap the cam lobes appear ok. No signs of any leakage or seaping around any gaskets. The Kompressor should be back on the road in a few weeks.

Something to do once you get the new motor. Pull the spark plugs, add a few teaspoons of oil and crank the engine. This will lube the cylinder walls and cranking with plugs out you should get oil pressure.

The engine will most likely have a valve tap once started because it has been sitting with a few valves open. Once it runs a while the lifters should pump up.