Greetings!

I'm new to this site and this is my first post.

I recently started help my father inlaw to tear down his '96 C220's motor to replace the head gasket that was obviously leaking. Unfortunatly we are new to these cars and have gotten into a bit of a bind.

My first question for the group is how the heck do you remove the timing cahin to remove the head? We have already removed everything we can find connected to the head but It doesnt look like it wil be coming out with the chain still there. We rotated it around and around looking for some sort of master link but to no avail. It took me about 15 minites of forcefully rotating the crank when I realized life would be much easier if we removed the plugs releiving the compression and hard turning.

My second question is what would be the best manual to get for such a procedure. We've searched high and low and I cant seem to find any good engine manuals for this car. I also went to the BENTLY MANUAL site and couldnet find the right book for the model and year.

Any help regarding my dilema would be appreciated.

Here is two shots of the motor. One is of where we are in the removal of the head and the other is a close up of the chocolate milk (oil-coolant) that was all over the place.

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Simon Mestas

I think you are supposed to grind a link apart.

But you'll probably want to check out the www.haynes.co.uk site, and look for book 3511. right hand drive - but should be extremely helpful none the less.

Graet pictures, hope you post more. I demand you shoot color photos and a step by step write up of what you encountered.

I don't do disassembly anymore and don't think we have had a 220 head off anyway, but your pictures look a lot like the front of a 104 motor that we do about one a month.

On those we pull the chain tentioner and remove the exhaust gear from the cam. With the extra amount of chain it is lifted over the cam adjuster on the intake cam.

For some light reading you might look to this article I wrote on 104 head gasket replacement: http://www.babcox.com/editorial/ic/ic100345.htm

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Steve Brotherton
Continental Imports
Gainesville FL
Bosch Master, ASE Master, L1
33 years MB technician

Make sure you mark everything (dampner at 0°, reference cams and gears) so it'll go back together without being off a tooth. Keep taking pictures.

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95 E320 Cabriolet, 159K

thanks for the replies guys!

Im still a bit confused so I guess Ill try to find a manual. I see that they sell Mercedes Technical manuals and there are also Haynes manuals. Does any one care for one more then the other?

I also cant seem to find any chain tensioner to loosen up. There is in the image a black plastic chain guid in the center of the two cam sprockets. The left sprocket seems to be attached by a few bolts and the sprocket to the right has quite a but of stuff built around it. The sprocket to the right also has a large tab welded to it which must be for some type of timing adjustment.

Any other direction on this head removal will be most helpfull.
I'll post more photos of the removal as soon as I have some progress.

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Simon Mestas

The chain tensioner is behind the alternator...It pushes on the bow rail.

I don't mean to be rude, but I think you may be over your head on this one. There are so many little things you could do wrong that would cause the valves to hit the pistons and blow the engine, that I would take it to a pro!!!

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Benzmac:
Donnie Drummonds
ASE CERTIFIED MASTER AUTO TECHNICIAN
MERCEDES SPECIALIST 11 YRS

I think you're right Donnie. This is not a job for a beginner.
One of my friend with a E420 decided to replace his timing chain one Saturday morning. A "slight" error in the re-positioning of one cam shaft gear gave him the opportunity to buy 4 brand new valves and 2 pistons.
Jackd

I'm kinda with Donnie here. The questions you are asking are good but they give me the impression that you may be in over your head. This job is not one to be taken lightly - even for a seasoned diy'er.

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Jim