Progress on engine rebuild

[ja17]

Hello Group,
I will use this string to update everyone on Cees Klumper's engine rebuild at my place in Blacklick, Ohio. As many of you remember Cees came to Ohio a week early before the tech Session and has stayed afterward to rebuild a 280-SL engine for his W113. If time permits I will post pictures and try to keep everyone up-to date. Time is critical since he must return to The Neherlands on Thursday! At this point the engine is completely disassembled . Almost all the new parts have arrived and The engine block, head crankshaft and a connecting rod have been machined.

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Joe Alexander
Blacklick, Ohio

[Peter van Es]

Joe, Cees,

I do like the progress reports, and I appreciate Cees is building up lots of new skills -- which may ultimately benefit all of us in Europe -- but do you have to look so serious in all these pictures? Even in the last set, where you added one you guys claimed to be "smiling", it looked like both of you just lost your last dollar in a bet, or just returned from a root-canal dentists visit.

It's meant to be a fun hobby, right ? So  

Check out http://bali.esweb.nl for photographs of classic car events and my 1970 280 SL

[ja17]

Hello Group,
These pictures were taken Tuesday evening. The freshly machined crankshaft is ready for installation. In the next picture, Cees carefully torques the crankshaft with it's new main and rod bearings. All the main and rod bearing clearences were checked with micrometers and plasti-guage before final assembly. We worked till 3:00 am, since case is returning to The Netherlands on Thursday morning. Stay tuned for the completion.

Joe Alexander
Blacklick, Ohio

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[Peter van Es]

That crankshaft looks like a work of art! And the committment you guys show by working till 3 AM.

I cannot wait until the video comes out !

Peter

Check out http://bali.esweb.nl for photographs of classic car events and my 1970 280 SL

[ja17]

Hello Group,
Lots to do on the last evening. Since I do have another full time job the work is being done in the evenings. Cees has been cleaning and preparing parts in the days along with helping in the evening.

Joe Alexander
Blacklick, Ohio

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The engine block with new  oversize rod and main bearings fitted to the now installed, ground to facory specs crankshaft. The engine cylinders were bored-out to 2nd oversize to remove all wear.

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The new pistons, rings, oil pump, timing chain, and many more parts have been fitted to the engine assembly.

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The reconditioned cylinder head with all new valves, valve guides,  and valve seals has been installed.

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Cees doing the finals on the engine (1:00 am)!

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Finished! 2:00 am again! The engine complete with injection pump, will be on its way back to Europe in a few days. Cees will have to drive 350 miles to Chicago tonight to catch his flight to The Netherlands the next day!

[Cees Klumper]

Just made it back to Amsterdam. Just some more bits of information which typically interests Pagoda owners:

- the engine Joe and I rebuilt is a factory replacement block with a late-style crankshaft and an early-style 280 head. There is no number on the block

- the engine was configured as a standard / stick shift engine, but conversion to automatic (which my car is) is a fairly simple affair

- the parts (Mahle pistons and rings, main and rod bearings, all new intake and exhaust valves/guides/seals, new oil pump, gasket sets, two timing chain sprockets, timing chain, chain tensioner, and some other assorted bits and pieces) cost approx. $1,800 excluding shipping (from S&S Imports in Texas, Will Samples, who got everything off really fast)

- the machine shop work (grinding and polishing the crank, fitting the new valve guides, lapping the new valves to the seats, fitting two new valve seats, cleaning the block and the head, reconditioning two connecting rods and boring and honing the cylinders) came to approx. $700

I.e. the total cost of the parts and work that has to be "outsourced" for this typical total rebuild came to $2,500. Metric Motors charges around $5,000 for this package, so the cost of the labor on a typical full rebuild will be another $2,500 which makes sense, given the amount of time involved (50-60 hours easily). Plus the cost of removal & installation.

Doing this work yourself will thus save you a lot of money and will add a considerable amount of satisfaction to boot. Of course, you have to know what you are doing or you may waste up to the same $2,500 in parts and machine shop work ... even some pros make mistakes from time to time that negates all the work just done. Joe and I will be producing a video and accompanying book that will document everything step-by-step that SHOULD enable the skilled DIY-er who is willing to dig in and be very careful, to do this job him- or herself. You will need some special tools (micrometers, ring compressor, an engine stand and hoist, a cleaning set-up etc etc).

The cost of shipping this engine (as well as another short block which I had bought) from Columbus, Ohio to Amsterdam, The Netherlands should come to around $350. Once the engine makes its way over here, I will swap it out with my current engine, a 280SE block, and will start rebuilding that one as my first solo-project...

In a current price catalog for factory Mercedes engine parts, a factory-new long block (however without the FI pump and other accessories, and only stick shift listing as still available) lists for a little under $20,000 ....

Cees

white 1969 280 SL

[hands_aus]

Hey Cees and Joe,
Congratulations! Job well done!
Cess I don't think I will ever rebuild my engine myself because I don't have the space BUT I would sure love to give it a go, especially with expert guidance like Joes'.
regards

Bob(Brisbane,Australia)

[pkiefert]

what kind of paint did you use on block and did you put a clear coat/protectant on the external aluminum parts?  did you bead blast to clean?

[Douglas]

I learned something new today. You can upload a photo, then write its URL into your meesage:



Douglas Kim
New York, NY
#018260

[Cees Klumper]

Joe can comment better on the semi-gloss black paint he applied to the block wednesday morning - it is a professional coating, two-component I believe and is much more durable and resistant than paints normally available.

The block was hot-tanked by the machine shop and as a result mostly the original primer was left on. The larger aluminum parts (valve cover and bottom block cover) were cold tanked by the machine shop but this was not very effective. Perhaps if they had had more time to let these sit the result would have been better. So what I did was to take them into the parts washer and with a lot of patient scrubbing using kerosene + steel and copper bristle brushes, and a terry-cloth towel and my bare fingers for the hard-to-get-to nooks and crannies, I diligently cleaned off the built-up grease and some surface corrosion here and there. Same for the various aluminum parts in the pictures (oil filter assembly, fuel filter assembly, fuel injection pump etc). Some of this cleaning was finished off by spraying with Valvoline brake parts cleaner spray.
As for a coating on the aluminum parts, apparently there are no coatings available that don't somehow wear off over time on the surfaces that get hot, e.g. the valve cover. The factory did not apply coating to these, so I won't either. They came out looking fine and as a matter of fact, I am not really interested in keeping things so shiny; I don't ever want to hesitate to drive the car for example in the rain. As long as things are pretty clean underhood, so working on the engine is not such a dirty job, I am content.

The cleaning of the various nuts and bolts was mostly done with the parts washer/kerosene. Some of these needed further cleaning of surface rust, e.g. some of the head bolts, by running against a steel brush wire wheel. This also cleaned up the injector housings quite nicely. I have to get these tested properly once the engine is back in Amsterdam, but they sure look nice now. Same goes for the FI pump itself, I will first see how the engine runs with it, then probably get it tested by a shop with the proper Bosch test bench.

white 1969 280 SL

[ja17]

The original condition of the engine before tear-down!
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Cees spent many hours scrubbing the parts with just plain K-1 kerosene. After everything was cleaned, "brakekleen" was used to remove traces of oil and kerosene residue before painting. The original factory (red) primer was left undisturbed. A commercial self-etching wash primer was applied then a couple coats of PPG commercial two stage urethane black enamel. The paint is very tough and is impervious to extended exposure to gasolene, oil etc. The gloss can be adjusted by adding flattener to the paint. In this case it is a little glossier than original, but will be easy to keep clean.

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The final product.
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Joe Alexander
Blacklick, Ohio

[Cees Klumper]

Yesterday I received a letter from the ports in Rotterdam, that my engine has arrived there!
On Monday I will be calling to make arrangements for pickup, hopefully on Wednesday. Then I will start planning for the installation of the engine in the car. I will post photos of the whole process of course. The last item to replace on the engine will be the camshaft, before installation of the engine I will be putting in a Euro (= hotter) 280 SL cam rather than the stock US cam. Difference should be around 10 HP. They are readily available here for less than $400 from Niemoller in Germany.

[Cees Klumper]

Here is the engine, now back in my garage in Amsterdam:

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and here is the rest of that same garage:

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I was tempted this morning to start the process of taking the old engine out, so I can start swapping the various parts like alternator, starter, etc etc but I think this will take some careful planning first.

Cees Klumper in Amsterdam
'69 white 280 SL automatic

[n/a]

Cees and Joe
What a great illustrated story - please keep it up until the engine is in the car and running. Cees - put me down for a copy of the video .



George Simpson
Cognac, France
1969 MGC GT for social rallies
1969 Mini Moke for collecting the baguettes
Wanabee 280SL owner

[merrill]

Cees, joe,
is it possible to get a copy of the engine rebuild video 3 years later?

[Cees Klumper]

Hello Merrill - the video is actually about 10 individual tapes. These need to be edited, spliced together etc. Peter van Es has prepared a WIKI format website that we need to launch for "The Manual" volunteers; when we do, I will start with writing the engine rebuild chapter, and will go over the tapes then. I suppose I can see what's involved in making copies of the tapes already now, but it would be a lot of material (probably close to 9 hours) to sit through.

Cees ("Case") Klumper in Amsterdam
'69 white 280 SL automatic

[merrill]

cees,
thanks, if needed I will cover any related expenses.  
I am leaning toward rebuilding the motor of my 230 sl myself.
Sure would like to save the extra cost of paying someone else.

matt

[merrill]

joe, cees,
I just received the total restore video, it seemed to do a pretty good job with the motor rebuild.  The total restore video did miss rebuilding the head. I am sure there are other gaps as well.

just thought I'd let you both know
matt

[RBurg]

Cees:  What can you share with us about the euro cam - how much differance doest it make? Did you do any head work?

Ron - Minnesota
71 280SL Tobacco "O GIGI"
97 E420 Silver Mist

[Tom Colitt]

Hi Cees

I'm curious about the engine shipping and final cost? Did a freight forwarder handle the engine all the way from Blacklicj to Rotterdam?

Thanks,

Tom Colitt

[Cees Klumper]

Ron - the Euro cam ads I believe something like 10 HP but only at very high RPM's: from 5,000 up and it's not until 5,700 RPM's before you get the full effect. Not an area of engine activity most of us feel comfortable about going into. I have yet to install mine, along with a new timing chain.

Tom - on the advice of Michael Salemi, I used a company called Seajet to ship the 2 engines (my rebuilt one, plus a rebuilt short block I picked up in the original purchase of the engine-to-be-rebuilt) from Ohio to Rotterdam. I could not believe how cheap it was: door-to-door from Joe's garage to my garage was only something like $400. I could also not believe the amount of money I was charged by customs as import duty: $1,700!

Cees ("Case") Klumper in Amsterdam
'69 white 280 SL automatic