83 240D engine rebuild, sludge build up and gear wear - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

engatwork · #1 09-21-2006, 07:08 PM

I am in the process of rebuilding the 240D engine and figured I'd post a couple pics showing the sludge build up versus gear wear. The car is showing 267k miles and I don't have any doubts that it is original mileage. The first shows some sludge build up on the rocker supports and then the gear wear on the oil pump drive gear. Unfortunately, you have to replace this as an a$$embly and believe it or not the most economical place I was able to find them was the dealer

where they had 17 in stock in Germany.

I would not feel comfortable rebuilding this engine and not replacing this gearset while I am in there. The last pic is some of the assembly work

. It is moving along pretty good.

sailor15015 · #2 09-21-2006, 07:12 PM

Wow that's one pretty block. How did you get it that clean? Pressure wash and silver spray paint? I ask because I have the engine from my wrecked '85 sitting in my garage and I'm just itching to get into it so I can get my project car up and running. Very nice.

73MB280SEL · #3 09-21-2006, 07:55 PM

Ditto on the engine block--man that is clean. The cylinder walls, do I see crosshatching still visible or is that just the light?

What about the gears, how worn is too worn? From the pics, you could make the case that they could last longer--I mean they don't run the engine timing like a gasser's distributor.

sholin

engatwork · #4 09-21-2006, 10:56 PM

The block is just back from the machine shop with brand new cylinder sleeves and pistons

. The gears are worn to the point that I refuse to put them in an engine that I have $2k worth of parts and machine shop work in

. If ya'll thought pistons were expensive then go out and purchase this gearset

. I painted the block cast iron gray after being chastised in an earlier thread about rebuilding one without painting it.

I have attached a pic of cross hatching in the brand new sleeves

.

t walgamuth · #5 09-21-2006, 10:56 PM

they look pretty worn to me.

did you find the oil pump gears worn similarly?

ditto on the great looking block.

tom w

engatwork · #6 09-21-2006, 11:03 PM

Tom - these are the gears that drive the oil pump. There is wear on the mechanism where the oil pump "tab" fits into the slot on the shaft of one of these gears but the wear is no where near as much as it is on the gear teeth. If I were to run these gears I would not run them much more that about 50k miles past where they are now. I will try to get a pic of the slot that the oil pump fits in and post it.

The cross section of the teeth on the gears is down to approximately 60% of what it was new.

Bama1 · #7 09-24-2006, 02:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by engatwork

The cross section of the teeth on the gears is down to approximately 60% of what it was new.

My eyes must not be as good as they used to be...I actually cannot see if they are worn that much

...however, I agree that I would not risk the other fine work you are doing by scrimping a few dollars and reusing worn or marginal parts!

I figure that high integrity mechanics would do the same for the sake of having a solid rebuild with their name on it.

Good work and good luck,

Toby

PS Thanks for the extra photos! Keep it up

Diesel Giant · #8 09-24-2006, 07:46 PM

Its amazing how nice these engines look when they are not covered with 20 years of dirty oil mess.

Who does your machining work on the block?

engatwork · #9 09-24-2006, 07:56 PM

I'm actually pretty fortunate. There are two automotive machine shops that I trust to do the machine work for me. One is Franks Automotive Machine in Griffen, Ga and the other is Cassidy Diesel Automotive Machine shop in Macon. Cassidy runs a little higher but know these engines like the back of their hand

.

I got the head on today.

Diesel Giant · #10 09-24-2006, 08:00 PM

Well that is good to know since Macon is only 1.5 hours from Atlanta at a slow pace. Hey you need to move up here and we can do a megga shop together.

engatwork · #11 09-24-2006, 08:03 PM

LOL - I can always come get em

. If you come accross folks needing an engine rebuild please send them my way because I've got the shop

. Just let them know that it takes me approximately 8 weeks to go through one.

pawoSD · #12 09-24-2006, 08:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by engatwork

LOL - I can always come get em

. If you come accross folks needing an engine rebuild please send them my way because I've got the shop

. Just let them know that it takes me approximately 8 weeks to go through one.

If my engine gets tired I'd be glad to send it your way for a rebuild, looks like you do an excellent job! Wow! Thats scary thinking about the wear on those gears....my engine has 247k of original miles....only 20k less than that one. After 300k do these engines fall into the "could have a horrifying failure at any point" category??

I am using synthetic oil now, maybe that will clean it up and make things last a little longer.....

engatwork · #13 09-24-2006, 09:52 PM

Quote:

After 300k do these engines fall into the "could have a horrifying failure at any point" category??

I am not so sure. Looking at this engine I feel it could have easily gone to 350k without any problems BUT I was tired of having to add oil every couple/few days

. The ring lands look pretty tired and there was some build up under the rings.

Unless something else rolls into the shop my '81 300D is next on the agenda and it will be interesting to see how it looks. It is showing right at 250k and I replaced the timing chain within the past 4 months which made starting alot easier. It does not use oil badly enough to warrent a rebuild but I want to get a good look at the gears for the oil pump and the oil pump drive. In addition, I have been running a filtered vegetable oil blend and I want to see what the pistons look like. Based on what I could tell when I changed out the chain it looks like the guides are getting pretty tired.

Thanks for the compliments. My philosophy is that if you are into one this far you want to replace every thing else that requires pulling the engine or could destroy the engine if it fails. My goal is to build them to go another 300k+ miles

.

Hatterasguy · #14 09-24-2006, 09:57 PM

Thats an amazing amount of crap on the rockers. I had the valve cover off the 603 last winter to do the TC and everything looked like new, no sludge of any sort in sight!

20k mile oil changes maybe?

The rebuild looks real good though! Do 603's??

t walgamuth · #15 09-24-2006, 11:23 PM

with good care i think a 240 would do 500k.

tom w