E300TD 1998 - Glow Plugs - can they be removed without fully removing the manifold?

[Mr.Billy]

I have spent the past week dreading the Glow plug change on my 97 E300.
I even prepared my tap and removal tool. The strange thing I found all of them simply came came right out without a threat of binding. I did give them a squirt of WD before taking them out. The engine was also warm. I removed the flappers from the intake, and cleaned them up. I bought new vacuum lines. The car has 140k on it. The plugs were changed at 60k the last time. I am going to have a friend at a machine shop dip the intake to get all the crud out of it. I am also going to do the EGR bypass retro, to lessen this crap.
I have a few questions:
1. IS there a problem with trying to clean the muck out of the ports on the head side? Like if some of this muck falls down while I am trying to scoop it? Will the valve train simply eat it?

2.The intake gasket: I didn't plan on using sealer on it, I have seen some post where they have used it. From the looks of my car, the dealer did not use anything other than the gasket.

3. I am going to put antisez on the plugs, what is the factory Nm torq? Nm torq on the in-take manifold?

4. I tried to get the breather rail out of the intake manifold, and my first attempt broke the single dude on the end, then I gave up. 4 of them are plugged up with gunk, I would change them all out, but what does MB charge for these pieces? I might just dip the thing with them installed.

Regards,

Bill

[Kajtek1]

Originally Posted by Mr.Billy

1. IS there a problem with trying to clean the muck out of the ports on the head side? Like if some of this muck falls down while I am trying to scoop it? Will the valve train simply eat

The gunk is soft stuff, so unlikely would damage the cylinders, but I would not advise taking the chances. I did cleaning job on 603 engine head removed. The valves were closed, so I scraped the build up with side of screwdriver and than having air nozzle with long, curved tip I blow all the dirt out. It still left some gunk on the valve shaft, but per my observation the main problem is heavy build up on the cross-over pieces, while the head passages did not have that much. For intake and cross over piece I used pressure washer at 3000 psi.
Having the head on the engine you'd have to keep turning the engine to have the valve closed and do 1 at the time, but that should not take too long.

[Kajtek1]

BTW. In my teenage years I was strongly involved in building flying models, powered by miniature engines. I remember that polishing the intakes and smoothing out rough corners made big difference in the output.
Observing the rough surfaces in the MB intakes I was tempted to grab a polishing tool and smooth them out, but that would be endless job and doing that on 200,000+ miles engine would be kind of late.
Than miniature engine turning constantly at 16,000 rpm is different from diesel cruising at 2500 rpm

[Mr.Billy]

I will just scoop what I can out of the head without going crazy
I found the part numbers for the breather fittings It takes 4 doubles 6060160181 I found for 3.38
The single fittings you need 4 6060160081 are about the same price.
Mine are all brittle, and a few of them leak..

I checked all of the vacuum lines and they need to go as well.

Does anyone have the factory torq handy. I don't have access to my files.

Bill

[Kajtek1]

603 engines do have WIS available on the net.
Try http://www.w124performance.com/servi...603/01-415.pdf for torques.
I am 99% positive they are the same for 606 engine.

[warren032]

I made an L-shaped tool with a rounded edge out of sheet metal to go down deep into the ports and lift the sludge straight up & out. Only so much you can do with a screwdriver or other tool. Then used small amt of solvent and paper towels until I was down to the bare aluminum. I THINK IT MADE A HUGE DIFFERENCE!

You might also consider reaming the GP openings. I got quite a bit of carbon out on a few the cylinders.

The car runs like a rocketsled now. Fuel mileage improved dramatically. It will almost screech the tires. I can honestly say it's as fast if not faster than most gas cars. Also, it hardly smokes at all when floored getting on the freeway whereas before it used to just pour out the black smoke. I over 600 mi on a tank before it got cold here in the Midwest (mostly hwy driving).