Taking my engine out of my pagoda this Saturday any helpful tips !

[JChristo]

Gentlemen has anyone attempted this from home like I will be doing this Saturday with a few Mercedes friends.

We pulled all the interior out last week to redo carpets,seats and dash. The car is half way there and the timing is perfect re entering paint workshop in a month.

Great way for me to connect with my dream car. It's what to easy to pay someone to do it all but if you have the opportunity to do some things why not I say. That's what life and owning a pagoda is all about.

I know the forum provides handy tips and information that will save me time money and headaches thus putting it out there to you all for your help.

If you are in Melbourne please stop by. Complimentary meals and accomodation offered but you may have to put up with two young daughters dancing,singing and on their iPads screaming.

Thank you

[Pinder]

Yes I pulled my engine out last year at home in my garage. I got a lift from craigslist. this guy down the street from me was selling it and an engine stand. I got both for $125.  It is a relatively easy engine to lift out. I unbolted it from the transmission first. i labeled all wires and took many pictures. I removed everything i could to get it to come out such as radiator and even took the headoff before taking the engine out. I used the head bolts as anchor points to strap the chain onto. it helps to have two people to manover the engine and lift. when putting the engine back I was able to do it myself.

[JChristo]

Thanks for sharing Pinder
Do I need to take transmission out as well if I'm doing full respray back to 180g silver ?
Undercarriage is still in silver I believe.

[Pinder]

i did not remove my transmission, left it in place (its a manual). I am not sure if the tunnel is supposed to be body color or not. my car was is an Ivory color. i painted the engine bay with trans in place and masked off the trans. I am not entirely sure that tunnel should be body color or beigh undercoat. I think only the sides and wheel arches are supposed to be body color. I think on this site there are articles about correctness of undercarriage paint.

[Benz Dr.]

I use nylon straps around the motor mount arms and a small chain at the back of the head to keep it supported. The engine has to come forward first and then out at a 45 degree angle. Once you get it up and forward enough you will probably need to lift the trans a bit to clear the nose panel. I use several fender covers over the nose panel to protect it.

Not sure what sort of lift you use. I have a cherry picker. I use a small floor jack under the trans to hold it up and to allow for forward movement. A small floor jack is a must for this job.

I remove the manifolds and injection lines before I start. Take anything off of the engine that would get in the way such as ignition distributor. I also remove the coil, battery tray and throttle linkage. You can easily break any one of those things during engine removal.

I remove the hood hinge on the RT right corner - use lots of masking tape to protect the hood edge and body. Remove the rad and then the water pump and fan. Remove the alternator. Removing the head will aid greatly in overall removal difficulty.

[dirkbalter]

I agree with above statement from Benz Dr. The more you can remove prior, the easier it will be. Also make sure if you us a cherry picker type arrangement to have enough stroke in the lift or keep the straps short enough the get enough height to get the motor over the front mask. (I almost didn't make it.

[dirkbalter]

and here

[dirkbalter]

and finally

[Pinder]

Well done!  I took a lot more off than you did to make things easier for me. But Im impressed you got it out with trans attached.  I did not not need to angle it so much without the trans.

[Tomnistuff]

I took mine out all by myself and will be putting it back in all by myself as well.  There are a few things I found really important.  Most has been discussed already, but, I did not use the nylon straps because I didn't trust them not to slip.  Also I used a pivoting "balance bar" that cost about $50 US to go with the engine hoist.  See the photos.  I pulled it out with the transmission, after removing the intake manifold, exhaust manifold, injection pump, radiator and engine fan.  I don't have AC or PS anyway so that was not a problem.  The way I attached the chains from the pivoting balance bar to the engine made everything really safe.  I also used a jack with wheels to support the back of the transmission for a part of the job, so that the trans did not contact the ground.  You may need to zoom the photos to see the chain attachment points.  You will notice that I removed the crank handle from the "balance bar" to avoid interference with the front chain.  I should have installed the "balance bar" with the crank to the rear because of the lifting angle of the engine.  The crank handle would not have interfered with the chain.
Tom Kizer

[JChristo]

Great photos Tom
We didn't get to take engine out last Saturday as there where a few stubborn bolts we thought we would spray and source proper tools. One being the heater thermostat that we didn't want to cut the line.
Hopefully will get there this Saturday. Your photos are really helpful and I will try to do the same as I'm sure we have all components.
Will keep you posted and post some pictures

Thanks again Tom for your help

JC

[dirkbalter]

Tom,
Looks like a clean nice job that worked for you. I like your balance bar and think it is a must if you fix the motor on 4 points. It appears that your are using a couple of the manifolds studs on the left side.  Not sure on the right.
However and I may be wrong. I would be a little worried to hang my engine, trans on the manifold studs. Considering their age and the environment, these are usually not in the best condition to begin with and on top of it, bolted to an aluminum head. I would be worried to bend them or worse, have them strip out of the head.
Dirk 

[Benz Dr.]

I suspend the engine from the motor mount arms and use a rear manifold stud only to get the proper angle to remove the whole engine. I would never lift an engine by the head bolts or manifold bolts. While manifold bolts are strong enough to support some weight, I've seen broken cam bearings from lifting a much lighter 190SL engine by its head bolts and strongly advise against it.

 I use nylon straps because they are very strong and they won't damage or scratch anything on the engine. We raise the engine off of the motor mounts, slip the looped ends of the straps through the arms, and then we place a large screw driver or similar into the holes in the ends of the arms.

We've done several installs and removals every year for a lot of years and have never dropped an engine or had one come loose. As always, you need to be careful and know what you're doing or things can happen very quickly. 

[JChristo]

Engine and transmission are out.
Gentlemen thank you for all posts and pictures as we were referring to them throughout all stages.
Today taking out all the remaining engine bay. How scary as I'm sure it's gonna be almost impossible to put back together again.
Then final door trims and she will be ready for paint prep.
Back to 180g silver 😊
Any helpful hints of what I should be doing at this stage please let me know as I'm sure I would overlooked something..


Cheers gents

[Pinder]

when I took my engine out I took a lot of close up pictures of all the wire harness and ends as they sit and labelled the ends with tap and take pictures of it. It was amazing how many times looking back at them helped me put things back correctly.

[JChristo]

Thanks pinder
Ive been doing this all along.

Got two different cameras and log book

Labelled all the wiring that's left .

My mechanic told me I had a problem with the heater core and that's why there was an extra heater hose connected to the firewall. This and the windscreen wiper linkages.

Should I do both these items now too before it goes into paint.

I still have a few days up my sleeve.

Thank you