Hello PeachParts!

The last time I was here was way back in 2008. At that time I was known as Red560SL. Unfortunately I was not able to recover that account so I came up with this new name instead.

Anyway, back in 2006 is when I first started this project. I did a lot to the car over a 2 year period which is documented under the red560SL account. But then in April of 2008 I parked the car because I had enough of the car. Every time I turned around it cost me thousands of dollars in special tools and MB parts and I was just done with it. I began to hate the car. It had a terrible rear seal leak and the trans started to slip as well. It was a money pit and took all my time and I never got to enjoy it. Believe it or not, I have only driven the car a little over 850 miles since I have owned it. That said, it is now December 2021 and the car is exactly as I left it in 2008. I have not started the car since 2008 either.....

I was tired of looking at my 560SL sitting in the garage these past 13 years so in November I pulled the transmission and sent it to Sun Valley Mercedes Transmissions for rebuild (will be done soon). All this is documented on my YouTube channel if you're interested.

I started to replace the rear seal by removing the old one and while doing so I found that the rear cover plate was damaged (found my leak). So I bought a new rear cover plate, but if you are going to do that, you probably need to change the oil pan gasket as well. And if you have done an oil pan gasket then you know it is a nightmare job. Basically you remove the subframe and everything else that's under the car to replace that simple gasket. So I decided to pull the engine instead. So I went out and purchased a hoist and a stand and I pulled the engine (never did that before). Believe it or not, pulling the engine was one of the easiest things I've done on this car.

I now have the engine out and on a stand. I have also pulled the oil pan and like I figured (my rabbit hole), I found broken guide pieces in the oil pump screen. Just 2 small pieces, but they were there. This leads me to believe I have a broken guide somewhere. It's not likely a top guide because I replaced those and the chain already. It must be a bottom guide that is broken (or it is from something else). If it's a bottom guide then the front timing cover needs to come off. YUK! It's not the oil pump guide.

So here I am today and I'm way too deep into this thing. I was only going to change a rear seal and now I'm rebuilding an engine. I'm not a mechanic and I don't know where to begin and I have no real manual to speak of. Years ago I had a decent manual, but I can't find it anywhere. Today I'm trying to rebuild this engine using horrible PDF's I find on-line:

https://www.tonk.ca/Index/117.5index.html

and:

https://www.tonk.ca/misc/service-man-engine-m116-m117/

Is this the best there is? The ones for sale on eBay claim to be for all Mercedes, but when I purchase one I get an email back from the seller claiming they do not support my 87 560SL. This happened with 2 different sellers. Even though their ads claim the 560SL is supported.

Does anyone know the sequence of tearing down an engine without screwing something up? I have never taken an engine out of a car and I have never taken an engine apart so I am here asking for any assistance I can get. I obviously have to remove the front timing cover to replace the guides, but I clearly need to remove the heads first and probably the intake manifold and what else? And what about all that timing stuff? I have a lot of tools including the MB front and rear seal installers.

I will probably need to send my heads to a machine shop once they're off. What else do I do? Do I take out the rods, pistons and rings? And what about the crank? Do I machine the crank, the case, the cam or? And what about valves and guides and seals and those springs oh my? OMG I am way over my head in this thing. I have knowledge of how it all works, but it's been years since I have seen the inside of an engine. The 1st and last time I rebuilt an engine was in the late 70's and that was on a 4 cylinder air cooled VW bug. This 560SL is a monster in comparison.

I know, I'm crazy, but please don't tell anyone. I'm sure I'm not the first one that got in over his head.