Blaclick, Ohio Tech Session Info

[Naj ✝︎]

Cees,
What was the thickness of the head. Is there enough meat on it to give it a shave? Will you be doing that? (Believe minimum thickness is 84mm)
naj

naj
'Kloines Scheisserle'
65 230SL
68 280SL

[n/a]

Cees and Joe,

This 4 th. picture looks a lot better. Thaught there was something wrong with the engine.

Keep up the good works

Willy, 230 SL 1967 - 220 SEb 1965

[Cees Klumper]

Naj - we measured the flatness of the head, it seemed quite allright and asked the shop to verify that it did not need to be ground and they confirmed that it was not necessary. It had been done once before, judging from a numbers inscription in the head. Oftentimes shops will do this 'shaving' routinely but it is probably not necessary in most cases. There is only a maximum of 1 mm that can be taken off before the head is useless, so you really don't want to have this done unless absolutely necessary.
The head came back from the shop yesterday, the new valves fit ever so nicely into the new guides. The only play left now is to allow oil to lubricate the assembly! Haven't decided whether to put in synthetic oil yet.
It will be very nice to be putting it all back together. Potential bad news is the camshaft - there is some pitting in one of the lobes, probably from sitting too long in humid conditions. I may put in a euro cam when the engine makes its way back to Amsterdam. Hopefully I'll be able to pick up the block this afternoon from the shop and I promise more smiles in the next photos!

[n/a]

What a gathering, can't wait to see the visual outputs

Steve in Atlanta
1966 230SL

[ja17]

Photo of early arrivals in Blacklick. Three very nice 113 showed up Friday evening. Klaus, Tom and Mike with their beautiful 280-SLswith Cees and Bob. In the morning the fun begins.

Joe Alexander
Blacklick, Ohio

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[Naj ✝︎]

Cees,
I suggest initially fitting a fine mesh 'running in' filter.
Part # 000 184 4225.
Interested to know what oil you choose.
naj

naj
'Kloines Scheisserle'
65 230SL
68 280SL

[rwmastel]

Well, I had a great time!  It was great to meet everyone and make some new friends.  Here's a partial list of the W113 Group people who were there (I can't remember everyone):

Joe Alexander (& his wife)
Cees Klumper
Rodd Masteller
Doug Kim
Richard Madison
Tom Sargeant
Bob Geco (& his wife)
Pete Lesler
John Olson
John Sutter
Phil Kiefert
Dick Mentzer
Klaus Drexl
Michael Salemi
James Pancoast
David Pease
Erving ?
Mark ?

There were other Group members there as well as several local section MBCA members, but I'm bad with names and can't remember them all.  We had 40 names on our attendance sheet!

Many thanks to Joe & Mary Alexander for all their efforts in hosting this event for the second year in a row.  Great job!

Rodd
1966 230SL Euro
1994 E420

[n/a]

In reading the email thread on the event, it sounds like there was video being shot and edited...and presumably being sold. Any updates on where things stand...ie: who do I contact to order the bvideo or a timeline? I'm green with envy reading and seeing all the photos from the event. What an incredible opportunity for Pagoda lovers!

Fred Silha
1968 Euro 280SL 4-speed

[rwmastel]

Fred,

Dick Mentzer and I tried to tape as much as we could.  Dick had a camcorder on a tripod and another to hand hold.  I had one to hand hold.  Dick is now back in California and has watched some of the tape.  He says the audio is not very good because the event was mostly outdoors and the cameras were too far away for much of the audio.  He will be doing what he can with all the tapes.

Personally, I would like to at least get a good marketing tool video for the Group.  You know, "Here's our Group & here's what we like to do.  Please join us!"  It would be great if we could get some actual technical or mechanical material to be presented in a good quality manner, but I doubt that will happen.  The event was in a garage and outdoors, it's not set up to be recorded, nothing was rehearsed, it was hard to hear, etc., etc.  There is just no way for a couple amatures to do a professional job.  It will be interesting to see how much good material is on the tapes.

Please do not be in a hurry to receive any taped material, Dick and I are amatures at taping.  Dick plays with video as a hobby and will be mixing the tapes as he has time.

P.S.  The engine rebuild that Cees and Joe did over the past two weeks was seperate from the Tech Session.  That will not be on these tapes.

Thanks,

Rodd
1966 230SL Euro
1994 E420

[Cees Klumper]

Here's a link to a group photo of the tech session in the photos folder - the person trying to sneek out of the photo on the far left is Joe Alexander himself; the two people being visually separated by the Mercedes star are board member and California regional representative Bob Geco and his wife Sharon ...

http://index.php?topic=405

white 1969 280 SL

[ja17]

Tech Session Wrap-Up;
Fifty-Six people attended the session over the two day period. A total of ten very nice and different W113 cars showed up. Many other W113 owners traveled long distances and left the SL's at home due to weather or time considerations. Some additional Vintage
Mercedes SL's and such were displayed also (190-SL's, 450-SLC, 300-SEL 6.3, 250-SE Cabro, 280 W114) . The weather cooperated for the most part. Some early birds (Michael, Tom, Klaus, Bob, Cees) showed up
Friday Night for refreshments and an advance preview.

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Saturday morning was a little damp, but the weather improved as the day went on. A nice display of colorful SL's dotted the green Blacklick landscape.

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Pete Lesler had a good assortment of new and used W113 parts available to purchase. Many owners found some hard to find items as well as maintenance parts in the mix.

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Joe Alexander lead various discussions on hand tools, literature, maintenance and repairs. Participants handled and viewed many W113 parts.

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Bob Gecco (car care professional),Pete Lesler (W113 expert), and John Olson (editor/author) lead discusssions or made presentations also during the two days. Cees Klumper (W113 Pagoda Group International President)gets the long distance award again this year (The Netherlands). Some very nice door prizes were given away during the event. Becker of North America (radios), contributed three newly produced very special W113 speakers and some nice shirts. The Eastwood Company shipped in some of their products along with three gift certificates. Bob Gecco also provided complimentary car care products.
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The two day session attracted a very nice collection of people and cars. The session ended Sunday evening after three W113 cars in attendance, recieved some minor "tweaking".


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Joe Alexander
Blacklick, Ohio

[athadani]

Its been real hot in Geneva this week and even with a new 75 degree thermostat, the temp needle went into red and past. Just managed to get into a parking lot and left the car to cool for half an hour. Had a hard time starting it and had to leave it to cool for another 30 minutes and then it started and worked just fine. All systems seem to be in order and I would really appreciate any help on how to diagnose. While driving, needle is at 180 and goes quickly to 190 and more when stopped at traffic lights or in a jam but then comes down fast to 180 when the going is good.

I am Clueless and my garage says it could have something to do with the engine block and suggests adding a substance to the radiator liquid to see if it changes color as an indicator. I hope its nothing serious.

Maybe someone at blacklick had a similiar experience?
Thanks in advance for your help.

Ashok
1970 US 280SL Auotomatic A/C Frigiking
athadani@bluewin.ch

[Cees Klumper]

Ashok - I believe you posted your question also elsewhere and replies were made to it, but here's some wisdom from previous Yahoo posts that may solve your problem, and that of others experiencing overheating:
"Most initial overheating problems are caused by air in the water pump housing. There is a vent line at the top of the housing, but this is generally inadequate to ensure that all the air escapes. It is usually necessary to back out one of the hollow screws that fasten this vent line to the water pump housing and head, and wait for coolant to emerge (this can be a risky operation if these screws have been in place for 30+ years)."
and
"MB's like we have are well known for getting air pockets in the cooling system when changing thermostat and coolant. I do not fill the system to max the first time. Leave about a half gallon or so of coolant out. The trapped air has to get out, and if there is a full coolant system, then the air is going to blow out the coolant. Start the car, let it warm up without the radiator cap in place. While the car is warming up monitor the temp gauge and the reservoir. Watch the gauge to make sure the temperature does not go into the red and you can see when the thermostat opens. The temperature drops rapidly. At that point you will see steam coming from the reservoir. When the temp has stabilized, add the remainder of the coolant slowly."
and, finally:
"The part number for the kit to improve engine cooling is 130-586-1220. Last I looked the list price was around $300. The labor to install in a 280 SL engine is listed at 3 hours. This kit is intended for late M130 engines with the thermo time switch mounted at the left rear of the head. Another way to identify would be this engine also has a single solenoid on the fuel injection pump (if it's a US version) and the shorter intake runner assembly with a clear neoprene vacuum hose to the booster. It would be for 1970 and 1971 models with this later engine. The service bulletin that describes this in detail is Advance Service Bulletin number 116 file group 20 dated October 1970. Make certain you have exhausted all other means to provide maintenance to all the other cooling items like radiator, thermostat, engine timing, correct fuel mixture etc before you go to the bother to install this kit. From what I can recall automatic transmission cars with AC are more prone to exhibit the need for this bypass system."

[Richard Madison]

Pete Lesler gave a talk at the Ohio Tech Session about originality of the W113 cars. Pete showed a couple of video tapes.

Here's a message from Pete:
 
To all who attended Joe's tech session: I had a great time meeting
you all and hope the information that I shared with you was helpful. I'm looking into making additional copies of the videos I showed
at the tech session. They need a bit of editing, which I will do and I will have duplicated professionally. They are not copywrited so there are no infringements in duplicating them.

If anyone is interested in getting copies, please email me off line so I can an idea how many to run. The larger the interest, the lower the cost will likely be.

Pete Lesler, w113sl@aol.com

[ja17]

Hello,
 If anyone else has any nice digital photos of the tech session, email them to me and I will add the to this string. Eventually I will erase these so as not to use up too much space. Also we can start a new file in the photo section.

Joe Alexander
Blacklick, Ohio
ja17@worldnet.att.net

[ja17]

Recent photo contributions from the tech session;

from Dick Mentzer;

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Joe Alexander
Blacklick, Ohio

[Douglas]

Thanks for sharing, Dick and Joe. I pasted your photo's URL into a message because I was having trouble seeing the image as an attachment.

Here's another possible caption: "Sure makes a lot of noise. What is it?"

Douglas Kim
New York, NY
#018260

[Douglas]

Here's a similar photo from my snapshots. My preferred caption would be:

If Mr.Clean drove a Pagoda, this would be it.



Douglas Kim
New York, NY
#018260