I did this job about 3 months ago on my 560SL. It's a 117 engine but should be the same. When you do this, expect to replace every vacume line under the manifold and all the rubber vacume elbows. I also overhauled the intake manifold and replaced all seals. Since the vacume lines are color coded and you can only purchase pure white replacement line, I color coded mine with colored shink tube. When I pulled the manifold off I damaged the rubber boot connecting the airflow sensor to the throttle body. That was about a $60.00 part. Also the clamp that connects the rubber boot to the throtle body is a two pice clamp. You order the band and the clamping mechinism as seperate parts.

I heard all the stories about striped out bolt but it did not happen to me. They all torqued up just fine. I replaced the leaking left head gasket and retorqued the right head. On some of the right head bolts I did get almost 1/4 turn additional from the point wher the bolt started. Therefore I will retorque my left head next year after I get a few miles on it just so that this doesent happen again. I will admit it is kind of scary retorquing. It will be the third time torque will be being applied to those aluminum threads.

If the cylinder head bolt should strip out, my plan was to buy a set of junk yard heads drill them and sleave them to the proper size for the helicoil kit drill size, insted of buying the $1600.00 tool drill plate. Warning the bolts that go through the cam bearings are at a slight angle from perpendiculare to the head.

I would highly recomend you get the 380SL Repiar CD before you start. It is typically about $100.00 online or $10.00 for a bootleg copy on ebay.

Things you should order before you start the job are:

1) Head gasket set
2) Intake manifold ring seals
3) Injector seals
4) Throttle body gasket
5) 10 meters of nylon vacume tube (replaces all tubing under the hood)
6) 1 meter of rubber vacume tube.
7) An assortment of Vacume Elbows
8) There is one vacume elbow attached to the throttle body which is an odd ball I was not able to find it on line. If I recal it goes to the charcole canister. I ordered mine from a local MB dealer after bring down the old one.
9) Airflow sensor rubber mounting isolators.
10) Throtel body to rubber boot clamp (Both pieces)
11) A water bypass hoes. You have to buy 1 meter and use about 2" of it.
12) A water outlet gasket
13) Valve cover gaskets
14) Cam oiler plastic fittings
15) Timing Chain and spare link (If you find a peaned over one let me know where you got it.)
16) 3 chain guides
17) 4 chain guide pins
18) Chain Tensioner if required
19) Since you will have the exhaust manifolds off it is a good time to replace the engine mounts. Use genuine MB mounts or nothing.
20) I also recomend you getting the pin pulling tools and the chain installer tool. The last guy that used a washer proceedure I gave him ended up taking it to the shop to finish the job.

A trick I used to get the exhaust manifolds back on is I got four 8mm bolts about 60mm long and cut the heads off them. I placed these finger tight in the cylinder head upper exhaust outlet holes and the standard studs in the lower holes. I then sliped the gaskets onto these bolts and the cutoff bolts served as a tool to hold the gaskets in place untill you got enough torque on the lower studs to clamp the gaskets in place then the cutoff bolts can be removed and replaced with the normal bolts.

The job is straight forward just like a Ford V8.
1) Start by disconnecting the batery.
2) Remove the fuel cooler lines going to AC line (Might not have this on a 380SL)
3) You will have to disconect the exhaust, remove the engine mount bolts and jack one side up at a time to get at the lower exhaust manifold bolts.
4) Remove the exhaust manifolds. The EGR tube comes out with the intake manifold.
5) Drain water from radiator and block using drain plugs on both forward sides of engine
6) Remove the power stearing pump, Alternator and distributor
7) Remove the tiny bolt on the back of the left head that supports the EGR tube. You will have lots of fun putting it back in later.
8) Remove all injector lines and injectors.
9) Remove the intake manifold with EGR tube attached
10) Remove came oiler tubes
11) Remove head bolts and remove head. Carful some of the bolts that look like head bolts only hold in the cam bearings.
12) Inspect heads and repair as required (mine needed nothing)
13) Clean out all EGR ports on head and manifold and also the head thats still in the car
14) Clean out vally under the intake manifold.
15) Clean all gasket surfaces (take your time with this)
16) Put it all back together and check for fuel leaks and oil leaks.
17) Dont forget that little EGR tube clamp bolt in the back of the left cylinder head.
18) I am sure there is a bunch of stuff I missed like removing the vacume line to the power booster or transmission. This is why I recommend getting the CD.

I used 20 ft-lb on the intake manifold bolts there is no torque value listed in the manual.