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I realize that many of you will never have to yank your oil pan off a 1990 300, but I did. I figure I should tell a little about it.
I have these pages from a Mercedes Book. It gives the part numbers to many of items, the price for that item at that time, and also gives man hours to do the job. The oil pan says 4 hours. That told me that if a pro with all the good equipment is going to take 4 hours, then it will probably take me about 6.
Well...lol...5 hours and counting...and it is out.
Lets see what I remember....5 hours of trial and error can take its toll. You have no choice but to hoist the engine...either with a cherry picker or an overhead hoist. You can NOT lift the engine from underneath at the crankshaft, and be able to remove the pan. This pan has such an awfully obnoxious shape to it...wow.
First, drain the oil. I did not need to as all my oil was left back on a freeway on-ramp. Start removing the oil pan bolts. There are a crap load of bolts...more than normal. Also, there are larger bolts near the tranny, and allen bolts at the front. Those allens are a stupid size. I ended up taking a 1/4 allen to the disk sander...working my way to the right size..it might be 5.5 mm...not sure..have not measured it. There are a couple of 10mm bolts located above the cross member that were really tough to get at. TIP...for those tough to access 10mm bolts...leave those till you hoist up the engine. Remove the oil sensor wire from the driver side of the pan.
The engine mount lower bolts are allen as well. I have an SAE socket allen set, and I think it was the 5/16 that fit. Those came off pretty easy.
Now to lift the engine. I wrapped a chain around the second intake port, and on the other side, near the front of the engine on the passenger side, there are a couple of threaded holes. I found a bolt that fit, and screwed it through the chain. I removed the two spark plug cables so they would not get pinched, and put a piece of wood between the chain and head. Attached my brand new, just assembled cherry picker, and proceeded to lift. All looked good...couple of chain adjustments, and up we go...about 2 inches.
The oil pan fell off before the last bolt was undone. Trying to pull the pan forward, several things became obvious.
1.) the dipstick tube must be removed (duh..lol)
2.) the oil pickup is NOT coming out to help with pan removal.
3.) the upper radiator tranny cooling pipe must be dropped in order to pull the pan forward. You have to manuever around it, but it has to be dropped to do that. Once you get the pan forward to the point where the pan is now stuck at the crossmember, you can lightly reattach this pipe to get it out of your way, and to prevent spillage and contamination.
3.) the long tie rod, or drag link must be dropped from at least one side. That obnoxious flare at the rear of the pan is a major nuisance.
First, I had to drop one side of the drag link to get past that. I popped the passenger side ball joint, and was able to manuever the pan past that. Then...and here is where I spent a lot of time, getting that rear pan flare past the crossmember. I was stuck between the crossmember and a crank journal. If I could have turned the engine a bit clockwise, it would have helped. I could not get a socket onto anything that would turn...and access was really tight. I did not want to mess with using the starter either. This car lost all its oil, and has been sitting for about 2 months. I dont want anything turning until this system is oiled up again.
I lift the engine a bit higher....now the front of the pan is hitting the ground, and the rear of pan is hitting the jounal and the member. Now I play this cat and mouse game of lift the front of the car, and lift the engine, lift the front a little more, then lift the engine a little more. This is to increase the angle of the pan. Enough of this, and finally the bloody thing comes out.
I am now cleaning up the new used pan I paid $50 + $25 ship for. It is actually not badly dirty, I just want it as clean as possible. I dont foresee any install problems, but who knows. Will update when its done.
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