R107: 1985 Mercedes 500SL "Barn Find" Rescue

So I'll be running a new series posts in the next couple weeks on a 96 Puch Worker and this "barn find" R107. I may be alternating back and forth between the pair in posts, we'll see what time allows for me. In the mean time - this is an 85 Euro Spec 500SL. It's has NAm lights, but all of the vacuum adjustment bits are in place.

She's been sitting for the better part of 15 years - last registration was 2010, but the owner figured he would be able to drive it out of storage so registered it and failed. So it sat 7 more years before it was sold to a good friend of mine. I'm excited to get this beast running again and I'm sure he's just as excited to be bringing back an otherwise unmolested original with 35k miles.

She does have some cosmetic imperfections - namely dents and scratches throughout the body from sitting in a fairly active storage area. They look terrible, but I'm of the opinion that they could be brought out by a good PDR guy. Whatever we can do to save the original paint to the car. I'll document this the best that I can!

Last "official" registration before the  2010 tags was 93...... She's been sitting!

She's somewhat of a rare bird with options. Has heated leather seats, ABS, and a full jump seat set in the rear.

Mileage

Here's the engine bay - this will be detailed up the best that I can (I'm not a detail guy by any means) - but all the rubber will be replaced and the entire engine gone through to ensure proper and reliable running.

Sorry ole girl, I'm not cleaning you....

Here's a quick shot of the cam lobe through the oil fill. This engine looks like it was extremely well taken care of. No sludge, no cam scoring, no rust, nothing. The oil also looks brand new on the dipstick, which is a great sign.

We'll see what I can do to just get the old girl fired up for the first time. I think I'll make it a point to just give it an oil change, stick a battery in it, and see where I'll go from there. I need to make sure the running gear is in good order before I get carried away with anything else. I'm eager to get going on this and the upcoming G project.

Read More

W463: 1994 Mercedes G350 TD Engine Swap Part 4 FIN

This is the final post on the truck, so prepare for a picture dump.

I don't have pics of the injection pump apart - like I said before, I need someone shadowing me with a camera when I'm doing some of the more in depth stuff. Regardless - here's a shot of the RIV tang. This is where I insert my lock tool to hold the pump as it's stabbed back into the block at roughly 15* ATDC. Fine tuning is done with my A/B light via this port. The pump was adjusted to 13*ATDC for a bit of advance. Coupled with the new injector nozzles at 135bar everything should wear into what is essentially factory spec. It's a tad louder than normal, but it'll quiet down over time... as long as fresh clean fuel is used and the truck is frequently driven.

Here's where the motor was with injection pump stabbed in, vacuum pump and other ancillaries installed. 

When I was interrupted by the 9 foot, 400lb skid containing what's essentially a G350 President rack. Nice rack.

Test assembly. Not a fan of a few pieces, some holes were slightly off kilter which I'm glad I found out about on the ground not on the truck.

Here it is on the truck.

Fast forward a couple days...

I have a habit of disassembling freshly done cylinder heads and lapping valves in myself. I've had a few cases of shit work (not with my machine shop) and I promised myself to never take a chance on someone getting ready to go home.

Because the engine that was in the G already was a factory reman - it has shaved numbers. Meaning this cylinder head was completely gone through by MB when assembling their new motor.

 Here it is pre - torque on the engine. 

and torque'd.

With the cam installed let's see where our timing markers are....

Here's TDC cyl #1

Notch on the cam lining up perfectly with the notch on the #1 cam tower. It's almost like I know what I'm doing.

She's looking like a complete motor again.

Manifold on - new studs at both front and rear with new copper nuts. 

Fast forward a couple days and the motor is in. 

Injectors and lines installed, running new vacuum lines

You may ask, why does it seem like there's a multimeter sitting by my light....

This truck had absolutely the most IDIOTIC and invasive alarm (with immobilizer...hint hint)

As a PSA to anyone who may be reading this - should you want to install an alarm and/or immobilizer on your Mercedes....stop it.

Luckily I'm not the one that was left doing the removal... I got my money's worth that Saturday night.

So with that out of the way:




She fired up after about 15 minutes of cranking. Usually I'll prime the system myself so it'll only take about 2 minutes of cranking - but I needed to see oil pressure before I let the thing take off on me.

Once it was running - I went through the A/C system, got it blowing nice and cold.

Surprise! All that oil that pumped itself through Cyl #1 now ended up on my shop floor.....

There she is, outside under her own power and left out in the rain to wash off any dust it might've accumulated.

There was so much oil in the exhaust the smoke was a steady blue smokescreen. I took it for a 150 mile run up to a spot on the lake and she cleared out nicely. Made for a couple sweet pictures and brought her back to the shop where I parked her up in the other building so I don't have to look at it until it got picked up.

Read More

W463: 1994 Mercedes G350 TD Engine Swap Part 3

Moving along I started the disassembly process to get to the bottom of this particular engine's failure.

Here's my answer.

 

Catastrophic failure of the head gasket in the oil passage reinforcement area. This isn't all too uncommon on 603's, but this is absolutely the worst case scenario anyone could ever be faced with when it comes to these old rockets. It's a shame though, because if the owner had caught it a bit sooner, it most likely would have saved the engine. It was a headgasket away from staying with him.

Then came transferring over the oil pumps and oil splash trays. The G wagen is below - which is full length and the oil pump pick up is much deeper for the deeper pan.

Here's the standard 3.5L tray and sedan pick up.

The following are a few pictures of the reassembly process. Some of it, I suppose.

This is with the timing cover/water pump assembly installed. Mercedes does not use gaskets for the timing cover's. It's up to the individual doing the work to use whatever sealer they prefer. Myself? I use anaerobic sealers for just about everything on the engine. They allow for more expansion (think steel on aluminum) and are far less prone to leak down the road.

I'm also religiously against RTV. I hate seeing it, I hate cleaning it, I hate seeing it in oil pick up tubes because people run inch wide beads and figure the more comes out, the better the seal.

Engine got all new timing gear, It's one of those processes where if I had someone around me taking pictures it would be great. I can't stop halfway through something and snap a few photos.

To be continued! 

Read More