560SEL Birthday Presents

[TJ 450]

Hi All,

I've been somewhat preoccupied of late, although I have just purchased a few parts for the 560SEL. On the car already are a set of rocker cover gaskets and a new coolant reservoir.

Next;



The car is residing here at the moment;


Fun, fun, fun.

Tim

Tim

[s class]

Very nice, glad you are pushing ahead with this one. 

[TJ 450]

Yes indeed. I hope to have this ready to roll into an exhaust shop fairly soon. With the new engine mounts etc, I will have an aftermarket system fabricated and possibly mated to the front pipes with flanges.

Not a lot needs to be done now, and then I can give the engine a thorough testing and attempt to get the car registered.

Tim

[oversize]

Where did you get the cells and were they expensive??  Are they the same as 6.9 ones?  I notice one has a different bracket...

If possible go with flanges rather than slip-joints on the exhaust

[s class]

On the 6.9, the master plus 2 front spheres are the higher pressure red-dot units.  The rears are the lower pressure blue/green dot units.

The W126's use the red dot sphere only for the master, the other 4 are the blue/green dot units. 

[gf]

So cool Tim! Ive always wanted a w126. Hope the roadworthy goes well! I take it the running cost of a 560 would be simular to a 6.9? If so ill just look on in envy

[robertd]

Hi Tim,
Good to see you going the full monti on the 560, should be a great first mate to your 6.9, you won't know which one to take out for a drive?
Rob

[TJ 450]

Yes, what S Class has said about the spheres is correct.

The cost for these was around $700 all up (for the four), and the high pressure one I picked up from Goldacre at the 116 meet. I purchased them off eBay, and they came from the US.

I think I will find the experience of driving the 560 to be superlative! Even just sitting in it is.

It's the perfect partner for the 6.9 indeed.

Tim

[Tony66_au]

I have nearly bought 2 of these babys Tim, Even went to Sydney to have a look at a nice Green one that turned out not to be what they said it was.

Once you have driven one around a bit you are hooked badly.

[TJ 450]

Well, I fitted the spheres today. What a disgusting job it was (the car is still filthy).

The day was complete when I received a shower of foamy suspension fluid in my face, haha.

All is good, although the pump is leaking, so I'll be fitting another tomorrow.

One needs to remove the left headlight to remove the front left accumulator on these.

As for the running costs, it depends on which version... An Aus spec 560 would be comparable to a 450SEL to run in terms of cost, I would say.

They are a nice relaxing car to drive.

I drove this UK 500SEC for a few months. It was gutted with rust under the rear window of course. It was very potent though, and drove well.



Tim

[TJ 450]

A long overdue update...

The spheres worked a treat, and I've now moved on to the engine to try and work out what may be wrong with it.

It has been determined that the valve guides are shot on the exhaust side at least, with one actually loose to the point that it is playing along with the valve! It appears that this is the "oil consumption" issue, although the true state of things remains to be seen when I remove the heads.

I have already removed the heads from the spare engine, and found some water damage in one cylinder due to rain water ingress, otherwise it is perfect at just over 100,000km. I intend to use these heads after a thorough reconditioning on the high compression bottom end, providing I don't find anything untoward with it when I remove those heads.

Tim

[s class]

Cool, that's the spirit.  I thought your previous 380 experiences might have scared you off the aluminium blocks.  Go for it!

[TJ 450]

Indeed S Class, I'm hopeful this will work out.

More news by the way,

I removed the RH head from the ECE motor in the car and have inspected #3 & 4. There's nothing wrong with them.

The other six cylinders remain a mystery at the moment, as I need to remove the LH head/cam to be able to turn the crank.

The heads are free of significant corrosion, and all the head bolts were nice and clean when removed.

So far so good!

Tim

[TJ 450]

I removed the LH head. Everything looks great so far, although I still need to turn the engine (I'll need to vac out the deposits first).









For comparison, here's a pic of a damaged bore from that M116 380 engine I once had...



Tim

[s class]

That does look good indeed.  I'm glad to hear that there were no dramas with the head bolts.