617 Engine Swap tomorrow - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

biopete · #1 07-28-2006, 10:09 PM

Any last words of advice? What is "the propeller shaft at the transmission"?

The 1980's 300CD 's engine and tranny is going into the 1981. These are both NA engines. The 1981 engine blows by 1 quart of oil about every 300 miles. The starter is bad and takes 2 people to start too often (one to tap/beat on it with a hammer handle and one to hold the key to start) The exhaust manifold needs replacing. Low compression on 2 cylindars. It still cruises at 75 or 80 on flat land . The CD engine has 160K miles and starts awesome in the cold without hardly a glow. Leaves no oil spots. Rust was its demise. I hope the tranny is as good as the one in the 81 as I am not going to separate them now.

thanks

rhodes2010 · #2 07-28-2006, 11:29 PM

Let's see... I did a 1981 into a 1980 Just last December.

Definitely do not let the two piece driveshaft separate before you get to paint
marks on them both so they align back exactly the way they are in the cars.
Do it for both, you never know when you will need the spare.

You can paint the marks while you are under there disconnecting the trans
from the driveshaft flexplate. - Which is the propeller shaft at transmission you asked about.

Definitely lift out the trans and engine still bolted together.
I strongly recommend a load balancer for shifting the weight and angle easily.
(Harbor Freight $21 when on sale).

I lifted the rear of car to make the angle at the front end easier.

Do think about those motor mounts while in there. Check for the heat shields on the motor mounts (one of my cars was missing them).

Good luck !

RSCarey · #3 07-29-2006, 08:44 AM

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/showthread.php?t=148726&highlight=engine+swap

I just did one in the early spring. It wasn't really difficult, but did take a lot of time.

The best thing I ever did was to buy the load leveler. Man, what a difference!

RSCarey

biopete · #4 07-29-2006, 01:15 PM

Thanks all for the great tips. going for it.

biopete · #5 08-03-2006, 01:36 AM

I'm doing this project at my good friend's place as i do not have the facilities. It is going great and I am having a great time. I highly recommend this to anyone . It has been pretty uneventful. Everyone is right, get the load leveler. These engines come right out. There is nothing you can not do the the car after you do this.

It is a big job. This is my first engine pull. My friend is experienced but not helping except when i have a question. We started with the rusty donor car. Had to tow it to the site from my house and then back after we got the engine out. We didnt start towing until 2 pm on Saturday. I got most prepped before dark. Next morning pulled engine. Probably 8 hours on that one. Then I cleaned it, had to tow car back to my house. Lots of work all around.

The next day, Monday, I pulled the engine in old yeller, the receiver, by myself, start to finish in under 5 hours. I cleaned that greasy engine bay. Since then I have been working a few hours a day taking best parts from each, cleaning, piddling here and there, checking out this and that and learning. You wil want to do a lot onece the engine is out as you can see everything.. I had all new AC components for a DG makeover so i'm doing that at same time. Now I'm ready to put donor engine in tomorrow morning and hook up AC hoses and try her out.

Its a big job thats for sure. I've just been taking my time and doing a little here and there and enjoying this car. You see so much of the car when you pull an engine. Really almost all of it. This is sooo fun and for once my wife is not angry with me for spending a week on the car

Something about Air Conditioning and getting that junk car moved.

Oh, I found out my old engine DID have an egine block heater. It just did not have the cord. I suffered all winter thinking it did not have one . Maybe it does not work.

Here are some pics of clean donor engine and pulling the worn engine. The worn one is so clean because it is a junkyard engine and probably a recent install. It has the crayon markings on teh valve cover and IP.

Thanks all for advice everyone. Happy wrenching to you.

greasybenz · #6 08-03-2006, 01:44 AM

Are those injector line heaters from fattywagon i see on the engine?

biopete · #7 08-03-2006, 01:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by greasybenz

Are those injector line heaters from fattywagon i see on the engine?

And funny thing, last night I wasted an hour taking off that injector spider to put on the donor. It would not fit

Not sure if it was just the years of being on the engine or if the 1980 (the donor) 617 is just a little bit of a different in this area. If someone tells me it should fit ill try later in the fall or winter.

Sadly, i forgot to change the glow plug harness out (1980 has different gp relay plug) on the donor as well while i had the spider off

Sigh. This reminds me, the donor engine also has one more sensor in the head than the 1981. What is that?

brabus · #8 08-03-2006, 02:37 AM

what is that big metal crane looking thing? We use trees for that in texas.

rhodes2010 · #9 08-03-2006, 02:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by biopete

This reminds me, the donor engine also has one more sensor in the head than the 1981. What is that?

I know ! I Know! That sensor on the 1980 is the glow-plug temperature sensor.
I put a 1981 engine into my 1980 and now my 1980 has this extra sensor wire.
The second sensor back is the water temp on both heads.
I plugged the glow plug sensor in and left it laying in there.

I cannot get the hex plug out of the head, I thought about cutting it out but am
not going to bother.

So, your 1980 harness has two temp connectors, GP and Water.
You have to use the harness from the car (as oppesed to using the harness that came with the engine) because of the GP relay, as you found out.

Looks really good biopete.

biopete · #10 08-14-2006, 03:27 PM

Back to update you all. My engine and tranny swap was a success.

Huge job. Not real difficult. Just lots of work. Started Saturday night and drove it home the next saturday night. I had to work all that week as well. All in all probably 40 to 50 hours in it.

My donor engine had new mounts under it

. I left the tranny on it as i wanted to see how good it is and i knew the original was good. After a week of driving, everything is great. What a difference. The front end seems tighter. I'm guessing its the engine mounts and/or maybe the fact that this engine is firing strong on all 5 cylinders. The ac is blowing cold. Need to close the defrost vents.

thanks all for the help.

jrgslg · #11 08-14-2006, 04:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by biopete

Back to update you all. My engine and tranny swap was a success.

Huge job. Not real difficult. Just lots of work. Started Saturday night and drove it home the next saturday night. I had to work all that week as well. All in all probably 40 to 50 hours in it.

My donor engine had new mounts under it

. I left the tranny on it as i wanted to see how good it is and i knew the original was good. After a week of driving, everything is great. What a difference. The front end seems tighter. I'm guessing its the engine mounts and/or maybe the fact that this engine is firing strong on all 5 cylinders. The ac is blowing cold. Need to close the defrost vents.

thanks all for the help.

Congrats,good for another 200k.

biopete · #12 08-14-2006, 06:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jrgslg

Congrats,good for another 200k.

Yeah. 160,000 on the donor's clock. However, I am running a 2 tank SVO system.

But now i have my control point. If i get 200,000 out of it on WVO will people be convinced that WVO is safe to run in Mercedes 617 diesels? How long will it take to run 200,000 miles? At 200 miles a day that is 1000 days or about 3 years. Hmm. That would be a full time job to do that on WVO with collecting and filtering and all. It could be done in a year and a half. Looks like it will be a long time before anyone gets the answer.

The engine had a D2/ biodiesel combo in it when i first started it up again. Runs great. When i flipped the switch to veggie, i could feel the engine was not overjoyed. I believe it was because i did not have additional heat hooked up. I quickly flipped the switch back. My love for my new engine overcame my love for science at that point.

. Now, I have a 6 port switching valve so return fuel is looped into the proper filter when not returning. Also, I will run Biodiesel every now and then maybe blended with a little diesel to flush the system and make sure I get that overjoyed engine feel again. The long term experiment has begun. I will post a link to the blog in my sig soon.

02HD677 · #13 08-28-2006, 05:46 AM

My '82 300SD finally "gave-up-the-ghost" at 374K. I bought a newly rebuilt engine from an '81 300SD for $500!! I am going to put it into my '82. Since I recently had the tranny in the car ('82) rebuilt, I am going to use it. Do I really have to pull the engine/tranny together as a unit? ... and take all the ancillary stuff (exhaust,driveshaft, etc, etc) out? Yuck! Is there an easy (easier) way I can prop the tranny up (jack/jack stand) and disconnect/pull just the engine?