Top End Rebuild - Day 23

Spent about 2hrs on the car today and got the mixture control unit on, fit the driver's side injectors and fuel lines. May have spent only 2hrs installing the parts, but I must have spent at least another hour fighting with that special hose clamp that's used to hold the air duct to the throttle body. Once you loosen that clamp, that's it, its game over, you can't re-tighten it again without taking it completely apart and fitting the end of the loop back into a little slot. Really annoying.

The end pieces on the air distribution hoses look yellow, yes, they are the old pieces. But the hoses themselves are new. I just transferred over the end caps. The fuel injector nozzles and O-rings are new as well. I had the fuel injectors soaked in a bottle of seafoam for almost 1 month now I think. I used a bit of dielectric grease on the injector seals and fit them into the nozzles.

Getting the injectors in, fitting the injector retention brackets and the fuel lines is all a bit fidgety. But once you've done it a few times, you really start to get the hang of it. And dare I say you actually start to appreciate the German engineering. Well at least some of it :)

When fitting the timing chain back on, I dropped one of those tiny circlips for the master link into the engine. I've got an old magnet tied to metal wire that I fed down the engine in the hopes I could probably pick it up if it stopped somewhere along the way. But didn't find it, so I ordered a new chain link from the dealer (about $8) just for the circlips. What's interesting is that if you buy the IWIS branded chain link, you only get two circlips, but if you buy the link from the dealer you get three! Now isn't that interesting. They just know that you're going to drop one so they just give you one extra.

When using my magnet again today for something else, I found the missing circlips stuck to it. Ha! I actually did get it back from the engine.

Its nice to finally see the engine bay starting to take shape. Really not looking forward to fitting the exhaust.

Top End Rebuild - Day 22

Spent about 4hrs on the car today. Did the final 60N.m retorque stage on the head bolts and fit the intake manifold. Used a bit of silicone on the fittings for the short water hose between the intake manifold and water pump because the replacement hose I used was 1-3/4" (44mm) internal diameter, which is about 2mm bigger than the original. Mercedes wanted something like $80+ for a meter of that hose. I wasn't going to pay that when I only needed 55mm worth of hose. Got some generic - but much better quality than the original Mercedes hose, from Car Quest for $35/meter.

Used Gasgacinch on the intake manifold and cylinder head sides when fitting the intake manifold. Thanks to the two little dowels in the cylinder head, fitting the intake manifold gasket goes without a sweat.

Top End Rebuild - Day 21

Another 2hrs today and the passenger's side head is on. This time it went on neatly. Noticed that one of my new head bolts (the qty 18) had bad threads. I'm thinking of re-using one of the old head bolts. I can't see any differences in size. But the shank design is slightly different between the new and the old bolt. Should I wait and re-order a new bolt? Or should I just use one of the old ones? Leave a comment. I'm going to torque the head down tomorrow.

I also fit the guide rails on the driver's side. I put some copper grease on the pins so they don't seize up like before. But it really took some hammering to get those guys in. I used an old exhaust manifold gasket to protect the pin and knocked them in with a hammer. What's the proper procedure for this job? I can't get them to go in any further using this technique. I might hit the cylinder head with the hammer this way.

Top End Rebuild - Day 20

Torqued down the driver's side head today. Did the 1st and 2nd stages. The 3rd stage calls for a 10min settling time and retorque to 60Nm. Going to do that some other time. Probably when I've put on the other head.

With 18 bolts a side, and having to change attachments for each bolt, this becomes really laborious. For bolt #17 and #18 I had to use a little bendy piece to get the wrench to fit without hitting the firewall. Used my new Armstrong 64-085 1/2" drive torque wrench. Rated from 10lb.ft to 150lb.ft. Accurate to 3%. I set it to 44lb.ft (59.7Nm) to do the 60Nm stage.

I was really worried about stripping the threads in the block. But all went OK with stages 1 and 2 so I'm not worried about the stage 3 retorque.

Top End Rebuild - Day 19

Spent about 2hrs on the car today and managed to fit the driver's side cylinder head. Didn't go as smoothly as planned but got it on eventually. Had to take it off the block a few times and re-set it. Might have messed up the nice seal the Gasgacinch made but hopefully this shouldn't be a problem. This gasket is supposed to work without any sealers anyway.

What confused me first is that the driver's side cylinder head is about an inch wider than the block and it extrudes out into the centre of the V. Thus if you stand on the driver's side of the car and try to position the head using the top of the head as reference you'll get it wrong.

I lightly lined the bores with a bit of the RedLine Assembly Lube I used on the cams.

























God I hope it went on OK. Going to torque it down tomorrow.

Top End Rebuild - Day 18

Finally all the pieces to complete the heads were ready. Got some RedLine Assembly Lube from TrackWerks and assembled the heads today. Really messy business.

Going to try fit the heads this weekend.

Top End Rebuild - Resurfaced Heads

I just got my heads back from Hosie & Brown. Had them resurfaced - about 3 thousandths of an inch was taken off, and got them to replace the valve stem seals. The photos don't really do much justice. The heads came back with a mirror finish.