OEM MB refurbishing

[rocketman1]

Good Evening from Texas.
Has anybody sent there short block/head or complete engine to the MB factory in Germany to be rebuilt?
I've gone thru the process with my Wife's 1969 Mustang Mach 1 with a blown 428 cobra jet engine. It took me 9 months to find the block and correct crankshaft, heads and to have all the work done here in my home town by excellent machinest's. (410HP@2,950 RPM)
That being said, I'm not  sure I want to turn my 1964 230 SL engine # 127.981-10-005909 over to these "motor heads"
Everytime I log in to our web site, the German Pagode E.V. Stuttgart site pops up also. I logged in, and with my poor German reading abilities (can't get it to convert to english) they do have a program to do this process.
Is this a stupid question? cause I probably could buy a small Island off the coast of Greece for the same cost!
I know we have suppliers on our web site that could do this, however how cool would it be to get it done by the Factory!!!!
Best wish's
rocketman1
David B. Lewandos
Corpus Christi, Texas
230 SL
500 SL
S430

[stickandrudderman]

Only you can decide if you think that having the engine rebuilt by Mercedes in Germany will be justifiable.
I doubt very much that they can do it any better than the best engine shop in your area, especially if you find one that is used to dealing with old Mercedes engines so that they can get the aesthetic details right.
Remember, all modern corporations are obliged to work to modern standard practice, and that often excludes the use of "harmful" chemicals which might actually be better quality so things like plating & painting might be better done by a smaller, less regulated company.
Sure, there are plenty of engine shops that actually aren't very good, but there are also plenty that are excellent.
I recently heard a story about a Mercedes bodyshop that had welded on new spring platforms to a 210 chassis (they commonly seperate from the chassis due to rust). Just as they had finished they had an audit by Mercedes and were told that the correct practice was to rivet the platforms, not weld and they had to cut the platforms off again and rivet new ones on like good little boys!

[Ulf]

Greek Islands are not expensive at the moment - some politicians have even suggested that they should give some of them away as a security for the billions that they are to borrow from the rest of the EU... :-)

[Shvegel]

Certainly the 428 is the more valuable of the two engines? Not a lot of quirks to our engines. Don't cut the head too much, Don't set the valves too deep, Change ALL the valve guides properly, Watch for the "Hidden screw" while removing the head.

A good machinist and a good mechanic with experience in these engines should be able to handle it.  But if you are going to ship it out why not the Mercedes Classic center in California? You could still say that it was rebuilt by Mercedes and the shipping would be much less of a hassle. Since they do a fair amount of work on some pretty valuable engines (Imagine telling a customer you ruined his 300SL gullwing engine.) I would assume the work would be first rate.

[tel76]

Why do you not send it to Metric Moters, who have a good reputation and knowledge of these engines, i feel sure they would do a better job than the Classic Centre,i know nothing of the Classic Centre's  facility but would wager that they would subcontract the machining as they would not have the equipment to re-bore,re-grind,re-face,etc,etc.
When they get the invoice fom the machine shop they will add a minimum of 15% to your final invoice.

[merrill]

I sent mine to metric motors.   before I did I asked Gernold at SL tech and he replied he sends all his rebuilds to them..