In the "lemons out of lemonade" theme, it occurs to me that since you have the lift, and parts list, and are sourcing the special tools, you could set yourself up as the dealer alternative for R63s that suffer the same fate 
In reply to mazdeuce:
In the "lemons out of lemonade" theme, it occurs to me that since you have the lift, and parts list, and are sourcing the special tools, you could set yourself up as the dealer alternative for R63s that suffer the same fate
In reply to mazdeuce:
mazdeuce wrote:hvoxi wrote: How are you feeling before the project begins, would you do it all over the same at this point? Thanks for sharing all the projects, & good luck with another. Time to start making notches in the new lift, or maybe just tally marksI'm feeling pretty good. The lift is in. I need to fix one leaking hose that's making a mess. I'm going to fire up the service manual on the computer tonight and see what I can see. I have to get the new rally car back on the road and decent before I pull the van in. I need to limit overlapping projects for my own sanity. Would I do it again? If you told me that the car would pop a head bolt 12k miles after buying it I would have gladly walked away. It's a great car, but that much time and money could be spent more constructively for sure.
Maybe would have signed on for the extended warranty. LOL
I'm pretty sure the warranty they offered me was one year 10k miles. The head bolt popped 12k miles in. That would have reeeeeealy bothered me.
They would have offered a re-up on the insurance before the old policy expired.
You would have declined because "What can go wrong" it's been good for 10K.
And then you'd be right where you are at now, so no regrets.......
You can put the coin you saved on the original policy towards the repair.
Or worse yet you did re-up and teh insurance co would say that is a known problem and you should have replaced the bolts before they failed, DENIED!
Fired up the service CD on the old Windows computer in the garage and it's quite frankly amazing. 44 steps to engine on the ground. I'm ready to start taking things apart.
Carefully.
If I had the time to do it and the money to not be completely stressed out about the outcome...I would enjoy this project immensely. I hope you do as well.
There is always the chance that I'm making $35k yard art. That's stressful. But not moving forward on it is stressing me out more. There are very easy to understand well laid out steps.
1. Take off the front wheels.
2. Remove the fender liners.
3. Remove.......
I don't have to do it all at once, but being able to accomplish a couple steps a day will feel like I'm actually doing something.
In reply to mazdeuce:
If all else fails, having the worlds first LSX-swapped R63 wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. 
petegossett wrote: In reply to mazdeuce: If all else fails, having the worlds first LSX-swapped R63 wouldn't be the worst thing in the world.
I have everything I've ever wanted in life except one thing. I want to build one good car. Something interesting and well done. It occurs to me that if the motor is all mucked up inside this might be my chance. The hardest part of course would be all of the other electronics in the car. The motor swap would be relatively simple in comparison.
Fair warning, the battery on the R63 died for some reason. I put it on the charger overnight, and the motor won't turn over. Not a 'slow crank situation, more like a 'stuck solid' situation. If something is that hosed now, it always was, but it's still not giving me the warm fuzzies.
Uh oh... good luck. 
At least there is no reason for me to spend $3500 on parts right now. It becomes a laid back disassemble and evaluate.
Maybe start saving for a Weistec supercharged build?
If the motor is bad I'm glad I didn't pay the dealer to tear into it. Another right move.
My first WAG is after sitting for awhile, coolant slowly leaked past the blown head gasket and filled one of the cylinders. Hopefully you can get itopen and cleaned out before any permanent damage is done.
Ian F wrote: My first WAG is after sitting for awhile, coolant slowly leaked past the blown head gasket and filled one of the cylinders. Hopefully you can get itopen and cleaned out before any permanent damage is done.
My guess as well
I had kind of thought that the coolant level had dropped low enough not to get into the heads but now that I look at it, the heads are about half the height of the engine. 
I'll get to pulling the intake and plugs.
Lets stay positive here people. Its just a dead battery.
I'm not worried even if it IS stuck. I think 'seized' is too strong a word since what's probably going on in there is just some surface rust in a cylinder or maybe just a hydrolock. I don't use 'seized' until the bottom end has tried to weld the bearings onto the crank and rods.
Pulled the upper panel, air boxes and intake tubes. Everything is properly bagged, labeled and zip tied to the piece it was holding on.
Anyone who says there isn't room in the engine bay of an R63 has never tried to do work in the light sucking confines of a 911. I'm not saying I'm going to build a vacation home in there, but it's not THAT bad.
Let'd play ID the bad cylinder!
And there is nothing to indicate that things are hydrolocked. So, back to a shot battery?
More to come!
Great to see progress being made!!! 
When a modern Benz, or any mordern-ish German car, has a weak battery it often won't turn over even with a jump. I bet that thing has at least 30 control modules. And they all need to see 12v and boot up before the engine cranks. You need a new battery or a STOUT jump pack to get one to crank over let alone start.
I bet it's just a weak battery.
Am I the only one that thnks those plugs are pretty black (except for #7)
Woo hoo, work has begun!
NOHOME wrote: Am I the only one that thnks those plugs are pretty black (except for #7)
1 and 8 are kind of oily. 3 and 7 and to a lesser extent 2 look like they had coolant in the cylinders. I'm very interested to see what the inside of the motor looks like. It didn't burn any oil in the last 12k miles, so who knows.
I have a saved search for Mercedes wagons and a local R500 keeps popping up that's haunting me. Looks well kept and has 120k miles for just under $10k. Hmmmm
The 500 may be the best motor they came with. I know the 350 and the diesel both had significant problems. I have a friend with a 500 and his has been trouble free aside from the air struts needing to be replaced. They're a wear item like regular shocks, just more expensive. It should drive 95% like the R63.
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