[Seemed like a good idea]

So, I've spent about 3-4 days learning the way of the 116/117 Mercedes Camshaft. I'm trying to replace/repair my wife's 1983 380SL engine, we purchased the car with a seized left side camshaft, best part is the previous owner drove it with the cam siezed, one only the right half of the motor and looking at what it did to the camshaft sprocket, he drove it awhile. He had ran the car out of fuel and plugged up various parts of the fuel system as a result at which point the car REALLY didn't run well, if running on 4 cylinders wasn't bad enough. 😆

My question is can someone point me to a list of Mercedes part numbers for 116/117 camshafts? That would help me with my search for options.

 

[Blenter]

At least in Canada, the there's a MB page with a list of all of their official auto parts and accesories. Here's the link for the camshaft search result for your wife's car: Search Results | MB Parts.CA. Here's the specific link for the left side camshaft and right side camshaft. I would think there should be an US official page site (just don't know it yet), so pretty sure you can order online from a US site. If not (which is very unlikely) worst thing it can happen is you ordering from the Canadian site, which is not that bad delivery wise, etas are very acceptable these days.

Hope it helps!

 

[NYw126-91]

Your damage may extend beyond what you see. Metal on metal usually produces fillings and bits and pollutes everything in and around it.Looks like the backside of the chain has hit the opening? A MB dealer can easily help you. Bring your VIN and credit cards. You can also use AutohausAZ for parts like I do 2-3x month. These are fairly common

 

[GearheadGreg]

First, some folks should just not have a vintage automobile, let alone a MB. It just baffles me that some people are actually at all in any way integrated into society.
I'm paying attention to this thread because under the custodianship of my MB's previous owner, my passenger cam oiler was disconnected for an unknown time. It gave the cam mild scoring to all the lobes, and surely the shims too. After I handle my bigger MB problems, I was considering replacing it with better...
Was thinking there is a different cam grind for European models...more emissions&more horsepower?

 

[AlterSchinken]

I have found this site to work well for part numbers, this is a page for the US 380 engine.:

https://partsouq.com/en/catalog/genuine/unit?c=Mercedes-Benz&ssd=%24%2AKwHC9ufYv8CGxZGTo7fiwJqOrqm3xsnExdfE-4vTgtXK07vWhYXW0suYgpyd2tbOhYHCycLAxYyIgencmYTTzNWyvNTYi86ZysDOxcXd1JOLnYrExsfCx4yIgszP-4vTgNXK09TYi8rY0svUxsHHz8KbhZfSgpXVytPU2IvK0NLL1LHS3dSXx4WB0sfButLd1ILKhYHSwNSKAAAAAKWsmJo%3D%24&vid=0&cid=28475&uid=1825&q=

There is a code stamped on the rear of the cam, for the US 380 the code is 62 for the left and 63 for the right side cam.

I think a good used engine will cost you less than trying to get this one in order. There are still a number of 380SE/SEL around in junkyards and you can also use a 420SEL engine and transfer the entire 380 induction system over.

 

[nobby]

YIKES!

1984-1985 Mercedes-Benz Camshaft 1160516201 | MB Parts.CA

 

[Seemed like a good idea]

Your damage may extend beyond what you see. Metal on metal usually produces fillings and bits and pollutes everything in and around it.Looks like the backside of the chain has hit the opening? A MB dealer can easily help you. Bring your VIN and credit cards. You can also use AutohausAZ for parts like I do 2-3x month. These are fairly common

Yeah, I'm figuring it's going to need to be completely torn down unfortunately. To add insult to injury, with the sprocket being ran so long, it lost tension on the timing chain and after borescoping the cylinders the other day, after doing leak down tests, we have a lot of bent valves on BOTH sides of the motor. I throw in the possible damage to the left bank of cylinders that weren't firing but receiving fuel (cylinder wall washdown) we might have a boat anchor on our hands as it might take more money to repair than what the engine is worth. Ugh. Here's a pic of the worst bearing journal of the dead cam, two are very badly hurt

. So yeah, makes me wonder how much metal got past the oil pump prefilter and oil filter? The bearing pillar was already split when I took the valve cover off. I had to use a small hydraulic press to press the dead cam out of three of the pillars. Best part is, being told it was a fuel isssue only, I honestly don't think PO knew about the cam situation, we got it running when we got it home. If somebody would tell me you could only have half a V-8 firing and have bent valves on the half that were firing and the car would still start and run (?) I don't think I would believe them if I hadn't seen it myself. Not that you were going to drive it anywhere, but even with all this internal damage it ran. Crazy.

 

[Seemed like a good idea]

I have found this site to work well for part numbers, this is a page for the US 380 engine.:

https://partsouq.com/en/catalog/genuine/unit?c=Mercedes-Benz&ssd=%24%2AKwHC9ufYv8CGxZGTo7fiwJqOrqm3xsnExdfE-4vTgtXK07vWhYXW0suYgpyd2tbOhYHCycLAxYyIgencmYTTzNWyvNTYi86ZysDOxcXd1JOLnYrExsfCx4yIgszP-4vTgNXK09TYi8rY0svUxsHHz8KbhZfSgpXVytPU2IvK0NLL1LHS3dSXx4WB0sfButLd1ILKhYHSwNSKAAAAAKWsmJo%3D%24&vid=0&cid=28475&uid=1825&q=

There is a code stamped on the rear of the cam, for the US 380 the code is 62 for the left and 63 for the right side cam.

I think a good used engine will cost you less than trying to get this one in order. There are still a number of 380SE/SEL around in junkyards and you can also use a 420SEL engine and transfer the entire 380 induction system over.

Those indeed are the cams in it. Thank you for that, I didn't think they were stock. I am still learning to navigate all the markings, part numbers, and resources just to get a handle on the cam situation.

 

[Seemed like a good idea]

At least in Canada, the there's a MB page with a list of all of their official auto parts and accesories. Here's the link for the camshaft search result for your wife's car: Search Results | MB Parts.CA. Here's the specific link for the left side camshaft and right side camshaft. I would think there should be an US official page site (just don't know it yet), so pretty sure you can order online from a US site. If not (which is very unlikely) worst thing it can happen is you ordering from the Canadian site, which is not that bad delivery wise, etas are very acceptable these days.

Hope it helps!

Thank you for these links! I have tried doing some searching, and not exactly knowing where to look or exactly what for produced a lot of non-leads.

 

[Seemed like a good idea]

First, some folks should just not have a vintage automobile, let alone a MB. It just baffles me that some people are actually at all in any way integrated into society.
I'm paying attention to this thread because under the custodianship of my MB's previous owner, my passenger cam oiler was disconnected for an unknown time. It gave the cam mild scoring to all the lobes, and surely the shims too. After I handle my bigger MB problems, I was considering replacing it with better...
Was thinking there is a different cam grind for European models...more emissions&more horsepower?

From what I know of the car's history, it was owned by an elderly man, who probably loved the car, it has euro headlights, one repaint, chrome spoke wheels, tires with 99% tread and sidewall cracking from age and was probably somewhat well taken care of. At some point he passed away and the car went to his grandson, who sold it to the guy I bought it from, who admitted he was a "Honda Guy" and didn't know to work on the car. I will give him some credit, at least didn't do anything to alter the car from stock, other than run the engine into the ground. I know where there is a running car with the appropriate engine, that may be the more sane option.

 

[RaceDiagnostics]

That engine is total junk, the cost to rebuild will be enormous. Best to look for a running replacement, not necessarily a rebuild which will also be expensive.

 

[Seemed like a good idea]

I'm afraid that very well may be the situation. I'm going to go a little further with tear down just to see how other parts look, probably pull both heads and drop the oil pan and just see how bad it is. I'm not at all against putting a used (not rebuilt) engine in, but I don't want to roll the dice that it's a good engine either, since I've already done that once. The valve train on these engines seems to be where the majority of the cost is, at least in this situation. I looked at valves, gaskets, chain guides, crank and rod bearings and I didn't think the prices were all that bad. But when you can drop $2400ish on two new cams and bearing pillars alone, that is a tad bit scary.

 

[Dikdaan]

Concur. Get a good used motor rather and swap. No point in throwing good money after bad I'm afraid.

 

[RaceDiagnostics]

When I found badly trashed cam/towers on my engine, I bought this running engine and trans from eBay for £350. It turned up two days later.

I ran it for about 10 years before doing any work on it.

 

[Blenter]

Thank you for these links! I have tried doing some searching, and not exactly knowing where to look or exactly what for produced a lot of non-leads.

Oh! After some more research I did find the US version site. Here's the direct link for the left-side camshaft and here's the right-side camshaft. Here's the homepage of MB parts US StudyPug | US. Hope this helps your search. I don't know why yesterday I couldn't find this for the life of me, not the best tech savvy person so doing things on the internet sometimes takes me more time than it should .

 

[Seemed like a good idea]

I'm going to pull the heads off and drop the oil pan this weekend and see what the insides look like. The only upside of the drivers side starving for oil is there wasn't much if any oil flow to help move metal debris elsewhere. I literally used a shop vac to suck up what used to be cam material at the base of the destroyed pillars. I might have found a parts car that took a pretty good hit in the driver's side front, probably going to shoot them an email and see about the engine.

 

[peter.k]

Go to copart. Find euro 500 sec or sel with low miles. Swap the engine. Enjoy

 

[Seemed like a good idea]

Go to copart. Find euro 500 sec or sel with low miles. Swap the engine. Enjoy

I did some reading about the various swaps people do. My preference would be to keep it Mercedes and somewhat straightforward, just so it gets done in a timely manner. I think as far as fun goes the 500 engine would be the way to go, but my wife is fine with it just being a cruiser. There doesn't seem to be an overabundance of older Mercedes donor cars near where I live. We're going to go check out a 380sec with a bad tranny, but good running engine and see if we can make a deal on that. It's a little bit of a drive but hopefully worth it.

 

[Seemed like a good idea]

Anybody know if a 1983 380sec came from the factory with a single or double row timing chain? It appears they may have started with singles, like the 380sl's? And either been coverted by Mercedes after the fact or swapped by owners? I'm intending to pull the valve covers off this potential donor car and have a look at the valve train anyway, just curious if all the 380 engines got the single chain at first?

 

[nobby]

Anybody know if a 1983 380sec came from the factory with a single or double row timing chain?

Well...if you try to buy a chain for an 83 SEC...it's a single.

For 1982-1983 Mercedes 380SEC Timing Chain 74392HT | eBay

Mercedes 380SEC Timing Chain - Timing Chains - Febi - 1982 82 - PartsGeek.com