W108: 280SEL AC Leak

72 280SEL came in to try and find an AC leak - there was dye in put into the system at some point, so with it running for a month or so with that in it, I figured I'd whip out the light and start looking.

First source was this port - it's slightly cleaned off and looks like someone modified it slightly as it's not completely domed. Found the shrader valve to have a small leak. New shrader valve and this is good to go. 

Next leak was at the connection at the back of the AC compressor from the right side seal. Removed and replaced both seals with new and this is leak free.

At this point, the car still has a leak somewhere in the system. I found the evap drains to be clear of any dye residue and took apart as much of the interior to see into the evap box as I could with no signs of dye. That's not to say it's 100% leak free. There was some modification done to the AC system, so until that can be sorted by a shop who can braze the correct lines for the new dryer, I can't do anything more.

So, some pics of the car then.

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S130Z: FLCA Progress

In a spur of motivation, I finally decided to push back some appointments and get to work on the Datsun. Starting with getting the car back on the ground - after some 4 odd years on jackstands.....

For a bit of extra steering angle, help in reeling back the positive camber the Z31 front strut tubes introduce, and a bit more track width, I extended the FLCA's 2". Cut the arm in the back, welded in 1/4"" places as extensions/bracing and ran a 1/2" solid metal bar to add some strength underneath.

 

At this point a quick coat of black spray paint and some klear effex glittery clear coat I had laying around to dress up the arms. 

Here's the completed arm. I drilled out the spot welds for the factory sway bar mount and moved the entire assembly 2" back with a small gusset for bracing. Not really needed, but it's there. I'm still debating on just running a small 1/2" wide strip of metal towards the front of the arm to help with any flex there. The entire control arm is fairly well braced so I'm not expecting it to do any bending.

With the T3 tension rods, we'll see how this thing aligns and handles. Should be interesting - if I hate it, I'll go straight back to stock lol

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ClubFR: DD57 Shawano

***** If you see a pic you want to use, feel free to do so. Just credit! *****

2016 season open at USair in Shawano - good to be back

Did more pit shots than anything out on track, lots of rust to knock off for a lot of drivers

Simba's S13

SUH DOOD?!
You just know you can have a good day when out doing drifty things

Reece's Carina

I regret not paying enough attention to snap a quick pic or 10 of this AP1. For how hard guys say these are to drive, this guy was killing it.

Petar's LS FC3S locking up some fronts at the top of the roller coaster of love

Yo, G37S ?

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W210: Shake and Bake, Motor Mounts

Have always had a rather annoying, albeit small, vibration with a cold engine. A couple quick glances down in the depths of the engine bay revealed some collapsed motor mounts. So while I had an ounce of downtime, I ACTUALLY DID SOME WORK ON MY OWN VEHICLE!

Tools for the job: 17mm box end wrench, stubby 17mm box end, 3/8" 13mm socket with roughly 6" extension - that's all. Took me 45 minutes from start to finish. 

What's up collapsed mounts? Feelin' a little down? 

Here's a quick vid of the mounts 

This mount was totally fried. Drivers side, so it's had it's run in with with some dropping diesel fuel and oils. It disintegrated itself to the point where it opened up and started letting it's fluids bleed out. 

This is the passenger side, which hides underneath a heat shield. One note when doing the passenger side - you are not supposed to remove the heat shield. More so, you will not be able to remove the upper bolt with the heatshield in place anyway as it will hit off the exhaust manifold. Just loosen it entirely and jack up the motor enough to where you're able to remove the mount by slightly lifting the fastener. New mounts line right up with their tabs.

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Sunday Meet Ups, Sunday May 15th!

Will be May 15th from 10am - 12pm at DiMaggion Cafe in Harwood Heights, IL. 

7326 W Lawrence Ave, Harwood Heights, IL 60706
Right across the street from the Buona Beef

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W210: Damn Mercedes, back at it again with the afterthought

Seems like the work flow hasn't stopped at all lately. This time around it's a 2000 E320 with the notorious snapping control arm!

Drain holes plugged up and years of rusting got it to this point.

Luckily there was about an inch and a half of metal holding this together, so the wheel didn't totally escape the fender well. You can see it's been rotting away for quite a long time.

Pulled the arm off and got a better look at everything. The fresh brake is about 3/4 of the contact surface of the cast steel ball joint section. These arms have a tendency to rust and break here as the drain hole gets plugged up with road debris and water will just sit in the arm. Proper prevention is routine clearing of the drain hole and spraying WD40 in the hole every couple months. 

Spring was also cracked, but I couldn't do anything about it. Car sits level and all, so I let it be. New LCA and ball joint should, honestly, outlast the rest of the car.

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W116: Quick Brake Caliper Rebuild

 Had a 1980 300SD come in needing front brake work. Car was sitting for the better part of what seems like 10 years and the passenger front caliper locked up. Not only was the caliper locked up, the brakes seemed to be losing pressure when stopping. OH BOY.

I don't have a ton of pics as brake work is somewhat messy, but the passenger front was getting no fluid whatsoever. None - nada. Line wide open and pumping the brakes got no fluid out. After pumping my pressure bleeder up until the vent caps on the reservoir were damn near going to blow off and tons of pedal pumping, I broke free whatever was clogging up the line and got fluid flow to the caliper. I let about a pint flow through the system.

 

Here's the pass. caliper split in half.  

I realized only when I was taking this picture that I put the pad retainers in upside down. I'M A DOPE. Popped em off and flipped them, so no problems there. Popped the pistons out and thankfully they weren't pitted, so I honed the caliper, threw a new seal in and put the piston back in with new dust cover/pad retainer. Car should STOP.

Did some extra flushing of the lines while I had the chance. Fluid has probably been in the system for 20 years. All sorts of black, orange and green came out. Nice golden / clear fluid in there now. Will need to be flushed out again real good in the next year and a half or so.

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W126: OM603 #14 Head-Ache, Final

A bit of a delay in post here - the car is finished and cruising around happily. Needs an eventual re-time of the injection pump to get it perfect, but she's running beautifully as of now. 

We'll commence where we left off:

The head is prepped and ready for install. After checking over the new headgasket for any damage I laid it on the block over the guide pins. The new gasket has reinforced oil gallery area as well as reinforced rear corners (a common oil leak point for these long motors). 

A little bit of magic and viola, cylinder head laid in place. I chose to have the exhaust manifold assembly installed rather than removing it like I did with removing the cylinder head. Everything was torqued down on the bench so I'd have a good idea of how everything looks when tight.

Broke out the old West German angle gauge for torque setting. a 15nm tighten, followed by 35nm followed by a couple 90*'s is all it takes to get these heads down.

With that done, a bit of assembly lube on any of the cams mating surface to the head and torquing it down. Chain sprocket attached with the new upper guide visible in this pic. I replaced the tensioner rail as well, as it was easy to get to while I had the head off.

Valve cover and turbo installed.

Can somewhat see the cleaned up turbo here as well as the ceramic painted manifold.

Installing everything else. I don't have a complete engine shot, go figure. Looks damn nice with the refinished cylinder head, cleaned injectors, etc all in place. Damn near a brand new looking engine.

For future reference, I leave the intake manifold off the engine when I'm first starting the motor - this gives me an opportunity to watch the intake valve area for any problems and give me a nice vantage point for any leaks that may occur while the engine heats up for the first time.

In this case, cylinder #5 had no compression at all upon first start (mixture of lifter problem from cleaning and valve not quite seated) and was blowing fuel out of the exhaust and intake areas. I raised the idle of the motor to around 1.2k rpm and after about 10 minute of running and some heat everything settled in and the engine idled smoothly. In case this happens to anyone else, let the motor heat up some before shutting it down and tearing into it to find any problems.

For now - this OM603 should get another 100k and beyond without much problem. 

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