Hello,
I have a charming Pagoda 230SL from 1966 for 6 years in the north of Paris.
I am on sl113.org since the purchase of my w113 and I learned a lot, thanks you all.
The car worked well all these years and I (we) spent a lot of time to restore it.
As it was my first old car I did everything upside down, the first thing I did was the upholstery ! to tell you my level of incompetence. However, it allowed me to interest 'Madame' and it is already very positive.
In a few years, everything has been redone or almost, the hoses (water, brake, gasoline), front and rear axe, brakes, bottom, wheel arches, a complete painting ...
All ... except the engine
And as everything comes to those who wait, I lost the operation of the first cylinder before Christmas
The engine was completely dismantled in November and the total rebuilding of the engine began.
Some steps are on the images ... (cylinder boring, head grinding, head warped !)
The engine block has been ground and the cylinders bored in first repair quote (82.5 mm)
I bought 6 pistons from a specialist (because MB could only sell me low compression pistons).
The cylinder head was rectified this week with a lot of material removed. I think it was warped.
After grinding the cylinder head, I'm still within the manufacturer's tolerances (84.1mm at the lowest and 84.6mm at the thickest) but the head thus bored is no longer flat on top. The 4 bearings are at different heights compared to the new surfaced head. The center of the head is thicker than the edges which have been more machined, as can be seen in the picture (the center is still black and the edges are clean).
I have two questions I would like to ask the 'old' and 'experienced' members of the forum:
1)
For the head, the guy working on the engine offers me to measure the thickness of the head where the 4 bearings are fixed. Then he will dismount the bearings and machine the 3 highest on their flat surface to find the 4 bearings at the same level. It will align the camshaft with the cylinder head side engine block.
Opinions ?
2)
I bought a head gasket at MB and I read on different forums that there could be leaks after reassembly even if we apply the 3 levels of tightening to rebuild the engine, plus a 4th tightening after driving a few hundred kilometers. The set of bolts are new of course.
I also read that it was absolutely necessary to add a sealant in addition on the gasket.
Do you have any experiences on the subject?
I thank you in advance for your constructive remarks and feedback to help me in this important step of the repair of the engine,
Regards,
Olivier