Hi All
Whilst the cylinder head is off I have taken the valves off to replace the stem seals, the valves and guides are good with hardly any movement. I have a few questions for the wiser ones about the seals please.
I have a mixture of the white plastic ones (inlet valves) and the black rubber ones (exhaust). Do I need to replace like for like, as the SL shop only offer a kit with 12 of the white plastic ones, not the exhaust type.
Also, they show an MB seal 1020530358 valve stem 9mm viton brown. I can't see this on my engine. I read on another forum that later 280SL's have grooved guides, I don't think mine has but to be honest it is quite hard to tell as there are wear marks. I have attached a pic of the outside, do either of these marks look like a seal groove? if so, where does it fit? This is the clearest pic I could get as the others are even less obvious.
Final question, how does the "lower seal" work? This is the part in the Haynes manual chapter 1 pic 32.2A. It looks like a sliding sealed 2 metal part that allows the spring to turn, but are there any serviceable parts? They are not listed in the SL shop parts store.
Many thanks in advance.
Colin
