My 560 is smoking very badly. I took it to 2 different workshops. Both told me that the valve guides are worn (Due to the petrol not having lead any more)
Both the shops says that thy can have the heads redone, but the one guy want to “Helicoil” the block before replacing the heads and the other says it is not necessary.
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Cheers
Depends on how many miles. If only about 125Kmi, then some new valve seals probably will fix things for a few years. If more like 175kmi, then a valve job is necessary. If the car has ever overheated, go with the Helicoil job. If not, maybe take your chances without it, but if the headbolts dont take the torque, then its more work and more parts to take the heads back off and do the helicoil job. Charlie
I would find a different shop that knows these cars, these two don't. It should be obvious that these cars have aluminum heads and therefore HAVE to have hardened seats in them. Therefore lead is a moot point. On top of that Mercedes Sodium filled valves are a good as it gets. If this is the first time the heads are pulled it's quite easy to tell the condition of the threads, either they are still in the block or they are on the bolts.
Thank you for all the replays
I will take it to another shop on Monday. The engine has 161 000Km (106 000Miles) on the oudo. The car was services every 10 000Kms and never overheated as far as I know. With the last service the shop suggested a synthetic oil (Futron I think) After that particular service the car was not used and was standing for about 5 months. I was still running 100% after that and then about a week after I started using her again the smoking started. She never used more than about 500Ml of oil on about 4 to 5000Kms (And even now the oil usage is not excessive), but the smoke is. The one shop pulled off the tappet covers and replaced the valve stem seals. That did not solve the problem. The oil pipes under the tappet cover was checked (Apparently the can brake and pump oil to the wrong areas). I then took it to another shop, that guy showed me that there is some play on the valves itself. He wanted to replace the engine with a second hand one, witch I did not want to do as I don’t know how that engine was maintained. I then took the car from him and now I have to get it fixed. Mercedes Bens here in South Africa is way to expensive, and they don’t really have qualified personnel for the older vehicles (my opinion).
I will keep you guys posted on what the other shop says.
Happy motoring
Pieter
Replace the engine because of some play in the valves? The bottom ends of these engines are bulletproof even with moderate abuse. It sounds like yours should be just great. And how did he show you the play in the valves? To do that you have to remove the cam follower and the valve springs. If he didn't do that you just found bozo shop number 3.
The reason the oilers and actually the plastic clips are so important is because if the clips pop out or break they can starve a lobe or flood the bank. Valve guides are not designed to operate under a lake of oil especially if they are worn a bit. Too much oil on a bank can cause the "fog the intersection" routine. Hit the brakes real hard and the oil sloshes forward and covers some guides, take off and all the mosquitoes get it.
Thanks for the advice, I will keep you guys posted on the progress.
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