I'm trying to figure out why the oil pump has to come out before the timing cover is removed. Also does the oil pan need to come off to get the timing cover off? All the bolts are removed, looks like it should just slide away from the block. Any tricks would be appreciated, really don't want to rent the equipment needed to pull the engine. Don't think I can get the pan off with it in the car.

You don't need to remove the oil pump, but you need to remove the oil pump drive chain. It goes down from the crank.

If you are doing this to a 380SL then the pan is one piece and has to come down. If you have a sedan the pan has a subpan and is simple.

On SLs we support the motor off a frame setting on the inner fender and drop the subframe rather than pull the motor.

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

Thanks Steve,

Not sure if you saw my previous questions. Chain Guide broke, removing the timing cover to remove any broken bits. Hoping dissassembly can stop there. Is dropping the pan really necessary? It looks like it should just slide out, once the 20yr old gasket/seal is broken loose. Thats a good idea about dropping the subframe. Just really adds to the work load.

We've done a few hundred of those rail failures and never pulled a cover for that purpose. We have pulled the subpan on a bunch, but we have probably left the pieces in a few SLs.

We have done a huge number of chain conversion though on the 81-83 380's that had single row chains. Here is a picture of one showing basically how we do it. The support is one we built but we now have a nicer one we bought. Unfortunately the oil pump is removed so one can't see the reason for it being removed... the drive chain.

Attached Thumbnails

 

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