Breathing New Life into an Old Soul 65 230SL

[ABenzTek]

All,

A friend's 230SL was dropped off to me a couple days ago to breathe some new life into. He just purchased the car in non running condition. It was being sold "running" but was then taken off the block as it would just not start. Overall, the body is good, the underbody is better. It has a new interior (carpets, seats) and is just very clean overall. The goal with this is to bring everything back into as close of factory spec as possible. It's not going to be a concours restoration or anything, but a solid base for a driver quality car. Though, I'm known to be a bit anal retentive in details, I'm going to try and keep it driver quality.

There are a lot of non factory pieces that were added onto the car (AC, some oddball SAE hoses, clamps, etc), all of which will be removed and the proper Mercedes equipment installed.

Below is the link to my blog with all the progress thus far. I'll be uploading pictures, etc to the blog and posting the updated links to new blog posts here. It's far easier and quicker to upload pictures/text  via the blog vs here so apologies in advance to making you folks click away. I'm sure I'll have some questions on the chassis as I'm relatively newer to the engine, but from what I've been looking at, it's a simple old chunk of metal. I'm going to try and document the process the best I can. Anything that I'm rebuilding, will be a mini-DIY. Hopefully it'll be a learning process for both myself and others who are not well versed in Pagoda.

Here's the link to the blog section with what's been posted:

http://artisanexcite.blogspot.com/search/label/230SL  - I'm not sure how many posts show up per page, but there's usually a small arrow around the bottom right that'll take you to a new post set.

Via the blog you can search whatever you'd like and maybe I'll have something else to pique your interests.

Comments, concerns, critiques are VERY welcome! I'll keep this thread updated with new posts!

 

Allen

[jpinet]

Enjoy the process! As for the engine, I would not qualify it a simple old chunk of metal! There's a lot of Mercedes engineering in there and quite a few tricks come form experience. There is a few seasoned pros here that will probably confirm. Working on these engines is not Voodoo, but you have to know what you're doing.

[Garry]

Allen,

If you have not already done it, read through the Tech Manual which will give you the detail for deciphering the different plates like paint, door and Vin plates and the all important Date Card.

Garry

[ABenzTek]

Enjoy the process! As for the engine, I would not qualify it a simple old chunk of metal! There's a lot of Mercedes engineering in there and quite a few tricks come form experience. There is a few seasoned pros here that will probably confirm. Working on these engines is not Voodoo, but you have to know what you're doing.

So far I'm enjoying every bit of it. The only thing that has had me scratching my head was the timing guide removal down in the depths of the engine, but I did get that figured out after a bit of poking around. Overall, it's familiar territory. I'm sure I'll be getting caught up in some sort of M127 scandals though. 

Allen,

If you have not already done it, read through the Tech Manual which will give you the detail for deciphering the different plates like paint, door and Vin plates and the all important Date Card.

Garry

Hey Garry,

I hadn't even noticed the technical manual at the top of the page. I deciphered the codes and all within two minutes of me opening that page, thanks for that.

[ABenzTek]

A couple more installments in the progress. Engine's out and the real engine dissassembly started.

Chapter 7 Engine Removed: http://artisanexcite.blogspot.com/2015/04/w113-new-life-old-soul-ch-7-shes-out.html

Chapter 8 Engine Stripping: http://artisanexcite.blogspot.com/2015/04/w113-new-life-old-soul-ch-8-engine.html

Overall the work is going well. Only real hurdle for me were the two small allen hex bolts hiding inside of the head holding it down to the block. I knew there was something there, but I couldn't see them hiding in all of the gunk! Took a 15 minutes of picking at them to get the allen key to sit in them well enough to even bother putting some torque on them. After they were removed, a small hit with a soft deadblow and the head broke it's bond with the head gasket. There were all sorts of interesting things happening with the gasket around cyl #6. Namely, the gasket was damaged at some point - has been that way for a while too.

[ABenzTek]

http://artisanexcite.blogspot.com/2015/04/w113-new-life-old-soul-ch-9-its-big-one.html

Finished disassembling the engine. Full of surprises.

[kampala]

Allen,

Really nice photo update on the disassembly of the motor!  Appreciate the detail photos and your running commentary.  Very interesting and nicely documented on your own website. 

[ABenzTek]

Allen,

Really nice photo update on the disassembly of the motor!  Appreciate the detail photos and your running commentary.  Very interesting and nicely documented on your own website. 

Thank you!
I would really like to do something similar for when posting on the forum, it would just take far too long. The blog makes posting the pictures and commentary very easy.

To give back to the forum for it's wealth of information, I'll be including a link to it so anyone reading my blog will have a direct link back to here. 

[ABenzTek]

Now that the stripped down block and head have been dropped off at the machine shop (Integrity Machine in Chicago), I have time to get some future work sorted out.

I've been searching the EPC for an upper oil pan gasket and have come unsuccessful. What is the Mercedes procedure for sealing the upper pan (if at all)? There were gobs of RTV around the upper pan when the engine was disassembled and most of that RTV found it's way into the oil pump pickup screen. I'd rather not have that happen.

 

[stickandrudderman]

http://www.wellseal.co.uk/