Weekend projects

[s class]

Not much progress on W116's lately, but on Saturday I removed the engine and transmission from a 300D.  Its a project I'm doing for someone else, and the first step was to strip the engine bay to address a previous bodged repair.  The left inner fender and headlight bucket are about 25mm too low, so the car looks terrible when all assembled.  I will be welding in a new headlight bucket and radiator cross member. 

On sunday I took the cylinder head off my wife's W202 C180.  It was suffering from a water leak to the outside of the engine at the right rear corner - a common problem on the M111's.  Its at engineering now.  I was very impressed with the internals of this engine- 254000km, with regular oil changes, and the bores show their original honing marks clearly.  There is no lip at all at the top of the bores. 

Photos to follow when I recover some of my energy...

[Big_Richard]

wish i had your energy S-Class, you're a machine 

[s class]

Thanks PB - its all about Motivation.

The 300D project is for some pocket money, the wife's car, well thats not 'billable hours', but she needs a car to drive, and it has to be done fast.  If I don't get the C180 back together again this coming weekend, she will be using my R107.  Now thats motivation. 

[s class]

Photos of the 202's head job....  sorry for the crappy phone photos (taken at night)

[TJ 450]

It looks like a very neat and practical engine to work on... plus, it has a double row timing chain, DOHC, 16 valves. I'm impressed.

Excellent work!

Tim

[s class]

TJ, I am VERY VERY impressed with the design of this engine.  It is so simple, yet effective.  Elegant. 

you cannot believe how few gaskets there are -

head gasket
inlet manifold gasket
exhaust manifold gasket
o-ring where the thermostat housing meets the timing cover
o-ring for mounting the thermostat. 

Its just beautiful.  The design is also interesting.  It looks very much like half of a W140's M119 v8.  Same layout and design concepts. 

[s class]

Practicality?  Once the radiator, fan and shroud were removed (not really necessary for the head removal, but the radiator is being replaced too due to a leak), I could stand in the engine bay between the engine and the A/C condenser....  It was like working on the engine on an engine stand. 

[s class]

Any suggestions on a preferred potion for cleaning up the gasket residue off the block face?

[oscar]

This might sound a bit obvious but I bought a can of Permatex Gasket Remover ages ago and used it on the suspension pump to block gasket and recently on a couple of Holley carbs I've been mucking around with.  It worked really well, turns the stuff into goo no damage to iron or alloys.  Some elbow grease occasionally needed but I thought the stuff worked brilliantly.

[TJ 450]

I've been considering asking the same question, as that's where I'm up to with the alloy block M116... I don't like the idea of using a Scotch Brite or similar on the block surface, as I have seen suggested on a few occasions.

I reckon I should give the gasket remover a go too.

Tim

[s class]

Well I guess with an alloy block you have to be even more careful.  This is a cast iron block. What about the traditional method of carefully scraping away with razor blades?

[koan]

What about the traditional method of carefully scraping away with razor blades?

Don't think there will be any head gasket left behind so the gasket stripper won't be required.

A spray of WD-40 and a razor blade scraper is what I used.

koan

[s class]

Thanks guys. 

Update - its now Friday lunchtime here, and i've just had news that all the required spares are waiting for me at the main dealer, and also news that the cylinder head is ready at engineering.  This has all come together nicely - I have to have the car back together this weekend....

[s class]

Right, its all back together again.  It took me a lot more hours than I thought, but anyway, the wife is mobile again. 

The reason for removing the cylinder head was a water leak to the outside of the block, at the right rear under the exhaust manifold. This is a common problem on the M111 engines.  Once I had the block's gasket face cleaned up, it was apparent that there was corrosion pitting of the face in the area where the leak had been.  I decided I could not count on the gasket sealing there, so I spread a thin film of hermetite sealant under the head gasket in the damaged area.  Hope it was a good decision.  So far so good, but only about 25km driven...

[s class]

Thought you guys might get a kick out of seeing the invoice from the engineering shop.  I don't know what this type of work costs elsewhere in the world - prices are in South African Rands - divide by about 7.5 to get US$ or divide by about 7 to get AUS$