Introducing myself and my 230sl from France

[Figoulu]

Hi to everyone

I’m an enthusiast from France and since beginning of 2021 à proud owner of a 230 SL.

The car was bought as non functional, but the engine wasn’t blocked. The cylinders are worn, I made several videos on my YouTube channel.

https://youtu.be/zFuTw1gGE5M

After minor works i succeeded in restarting the engine to bring the car to the local ‘MOT’, a must to make the final ownership paper works.

Now…

The idle is unstable and I would say catastrophic, cylinders worn and lot of other stuff to address. I removed the fip to make it redone. It’s on its way. The car is as we say in French “in its juice” 😅

Next step is to decide wether or not I rebuild the engine myself (I have a previous similar job done myself on a 911) or send it to a pro.

Thanks for your welcoming.

[Cees Klumper]

Bienvenue Figoulou!

Best of luck with the re-commissioning of the SL. All the knowledge you may need is here.

About to be re-joined with my 280SL, just arrived in France a few hours ago. Just in time for the car's bi-annual 'Controle Technique'.

Please keep us posted!

[JamesL]

Welcome and enjoy the journey. There was a discussion here a few weeks back about engine rebuilds - they are more complex than a flat 6 but cannot imagine a lot more.

You have some lovely roads nearby when it is done…

[Figoulu]

Bienvenue Figoulou!

Best of luck with the re-commissioning of the SL. All the knowledge you may need is here.

About to be re-joined with my 280SL, just arrived in France a few hours ago. Just in time for the car's bi-annual 'Controle Technique'.

Please keep us posted!

Hi Cees are you living in France ?
Thanks for your support I guess I’ll need them 👍👍👍

[Figoulu]

Welcome and enjoy the journey. There was a discussion here a few weeks back about engine rebuilds - they are more complex than a flat 6 but cannot imagine a lot more.

You have some lovely roads nearby when it is done…

Hi James

As I don’t know where I go I would like to understand the difficulty of starting this job. I have gone thru the shop manual ad well as other docs and would certainly get more confidence in chatting with experienced guys who did it.
Do you have the link about the topic you talked about ?
I surfed on the forum already but it’s so vast that any shortcut to the point would be highly helpful

I think I recognized the location of your pic. If it’s the famous ‘mont ventoux’ it’s only miles away from home 😅😅

Thanks

[Mike Hughes]

Yes. there are some great roads in that part of the world.  We will be reacquainting ourselves with some of them when we are borrowing a friend's home in St. Marcel d'Ardeche for 10 days or so in early September.

[Cees Klumper]

Hi Cees are you living in France ?
Thanks for your support I guess I’ll need them 👍👍👍

Hi - we currently live in Long Beach but we have a second home in the Haut Marne, in a village called Guyonvelle (52400) where the Pagoda stays. We want to spend a few months here every year, but were unable to last year of course. We're too far from you I'm afraid for me to just 'stop by' and see how I can help. But we did vacation near the Mont Ventoux in  friend's house for several years.

[Figoulu]

Never know. Once you crossed the ocean the harder is done. You will always be welcomed 👍👍👍

I browsed back and forth the forum but couldn’t find a member that told the full story of an engine overhaul.

Wether 230 or 280 any link and or the correct section of the forum where I can efficiently search.

Thanks by advance 👍👍

[cfm65@me.com]

Hi Figoulu,
Welcome to this group and congratulations with you SL.
Regards
Chris
Cape Town

[Figoulu]

Hi Figoulu,
Welcome to this group and congratulations with you SL.
Regards
Chris
Cape Town

Thanks 

[teahead]

Compression tests revealed bad cylinders?

Maybe just the head needs to be redone.

[Figoulu]

Compression tests revealed bad cylinders?

Maybe just the head needs to be redone.

As of now 2 seem a bit weak even though it’s not obvious and… i tuned the rocker arms afterwards to reveal a wrong timing…
I guess now i need to resynchronize the engine, and measure them again…