New here with broken car.

[alexanderfoti]

Erm, that wear is not ideal. I suspect the car has been run low on oil in the past or had long service intervals.....

Can you feel the marks with a finger nail?

 

[LostKiwi]

Not ideal but I wouldn't be overly concerned unless the camshaft is sloppy once all bolted up.

 

[Diddles]

The car has got full service history done every year. I knows its history since it was brand new. Standard yearly mercedes service intervals.

It did have the timing case seals go at about 30,000 miles and coolant was going into the oil.

Also the engine the engine internals look very dark, (carbon build up?)

Yes you can feel them with your finger nail.

All the other pictures I see online shoe nice and clean internals not dark and orangey. Not sure why as its been well looked after.

 

[alexanderfoti]

I agree, difficult to tell from the photo, but I would put those back together and run then, the worst looks like the camshaft but if its not rough to the touch it should be fine.

 

[alexanderfoti]

The car has got full service history done every year. I knows its history since it was brand new. Standard yearly mercedes service intervals.

It did have the timing case seals go at about 30,000 miles and coolant was going into the oil.

Also the engine the engine internals look very dark, (carbon build up?)

Yes you can feel them with your finger nail.

All the other pictures I see online shoe nice and clean internals not dark and orangey. Not sure why as its been well looked after. View attachment 42500

It does seem quite dark. Possibly done lots of short runs and not up to temperature. It may have gone over a service interval by a few k miles at some point. Don't take it for gospel, I know some people who run their cars 10k past the interval, then service it and stamp the book, horrible.

 

[Diddles]

My parents have had this car since 0 miles and always had it serviced on time except the last one which was overdue by 1200 miles.

But probably needed a good thrash and its never been driven hard in its life.

 

[alexanderfoti]

My parents have had this car since 0 miles and always had it serviced on time except the last one which was overdue by 1200 miles.

But probably needed a good thrash and its never been driven hard in its life.

I wouldn't worry too much. The MB intervals are too long for this engine anyway. When they have been abused they jump chains at 70K so 86 is good going!

 

[LostKiwi]

The brown colour is varnish formation from oxidation of the oil. Can be caused by lots of short runs not allowing contaminants to be disposed of, poor quality oil, too long between changes or incorrect oils. So called long life oils don't help.
Some cars are prone to it but never have an issue. You can get varnish off again with a wire brush and acetone if it bothers you or when its reassembled do very short interval oil changes for a while using high detergent synthetic oils.

 

[Diddles]

Thanks it doesn't bother me too much I just like eveything to be nice and clean. I'll give it an oil change every 6 months when its up and running.

Just praying the pistons arent damaged now or otherwise dont know what I would do. Would be a great shame to scrap it as its immaculate inside and out.

 

[LostKiwi]

You'll almost certainly have impact marks on the pistons but as long as they aren't too bad then it should be ok. I had an Essex V6 years ago which did 9 out of 12 valves. Replaced all the bent ones (didn't need guides) and it went back together and ran perfectly.

 

[Diddles]

From all the stories ive read of the same thing happening never read that the pistons were shot. So hopefully im not going to be the unlucky one.

 

[Diddles]

Even with bent valves doesn't 100% leakage on the leak down test seem a bit excessive.

 

[kid-jensen]

There comes a point when you add up all the cost of parts that you exceed the price of a good used engine.

Have you checked on ebay for a trader (with good feedback) offering used engines? My bet is that it will be cheaper than rebuilding the one you have.....

 

[Diddles]

Parts will set me back around £600 so not bad at all considering the car is free. Can't guarantee a used engine either considering this is a common problem.
I know the history of this engine right back to 0 miles so I want to repair it, as long as the pistons are ok.

 

[LostKiwi]

Even with bent valves doesn't 100% leakage on the leak down test seem a bit excessive.

Not at all. The valves are inclined at quite an angle so if they touched a piston they could be bent by quite some amount which leaves a nice big hole for gasses to escape.

 

[Diddles]

Thats good, i think I'm just expecting the worse. Just eager to get the head off now. Will do a few more bits tonight then remove the head Sunday and get parts ordered.

 

[LostKiwi]

Even if it has done a piston (not that I think it will) its not a huge job to replace once the heads off.

 

[Diddles]

Got the head off this evening, and i found what I had been dreading. Pistons are damaged, ****ed off is an understatement.

 

[alexanderfoti]

Oh dear! Pop a new piston in it.

Sump off, conrod bolts off, cap off and push the piston out from below.

 

[Diddles]

If i was going to do it I would replace all four as the others don't look good. I didnt rotate the engine to check the height of the pistons, condition of bores etc as the bores had metal in them and i had to walk away from it.