My mom has been driving an R500 since it was new in 2006. She has like 185k on it now. Air suspension died once, transmission controller died once, but nothing major mechanical has failed (at least not to the magnitude of head bolts).
The 500 has plenty of power, and drives fantastic. Handles remarkably well for a 5500lb van-in-disguise.
Could be the lighting but 2,3 & 7 look whitish/steam-cleaned to me.
As I mentioned in my first post, now would be a great time to do some boroscope diagnostics with a cooling system pressure tester, cylinder leak down tester and a boroscope. Mostly I just want you to buy a Harbor Freight boroscope and try it out for cylinder scoping - so I don't have to... :)
If you can get the boroscope thru the plug hole, it would be really cool to visualize the coolant seeping into the cylinder with the cooling system pressurized up to 15-20 psi or so... Sure would confirm where the problem is - although I know that you're going to pull the motor in any case.
And after you install the NASCAR spec ARP head studs, it should be all ready for that aftermarket Blower kit - although I can't imagine what aftermarket AMG German? parts must cost... It would be above my pay grade, but I can live vicariously thru you :)
It'll be easier to boroscope the motor on the ground. 
In all seriousness, what I see on the plugs tells me the motor has to come out, so it's coming out.
Me thinks all those cams and chain drive are gonna make that motor weigh a ton - better upgrade to the $49.99 China Freight engine stand... the $39.99 Base model stand might not be enough...
Once on the stand, you should take a pic with the Harbor Freight logo showing - then send it to AMG Customer Care - and tell them you're going to post it on Instagram and Facebook if they don't cut you a killer deal on the parts and blower kit.
I'm pretty sure Mercedes is past caring about this car and won't start caring again until it's valuable enough to be shown on a lawn, not parked on one like it is now.
mazdeuce wrote: I'm pretty sure Mercedes is past caring about this car and won't start caring again until it's valuable enough to do AWD burnouts on their lawn, not parked on one like it is now.
mazdeuce wrote: I'm pretty sure Mercedes is past caring about this car and won't start caring again until it's valuable enough to be shown on a lawn, not parked on one like it is now.
And if it's that valuable then they're sure that anyone who owns one is wealthy enough to pay full retail markup on any parts & labor required. :)
The pucks that let me use the lift properly with the R63 came. Now I can safely lift it in the air.
Except the rally car reveals a new layer of broken every time I get something fixed, so it probably has the lift for another week at least. Well, Thanksgiving week off for a family trip and a week of work after that. Dammit.
The R63 is a wonder of modern engineering. So much so that it has a battery to back up the battery so just in case the battery goes dead it can still put itself in park. This means that if your battery has died (which mine has) it's not enough to just hook up a battery and put it in neutral, you have to keep that battery hooked up to keep it in neutral. Thanks Mercedes.
This was all so I can use the hand winch to drag the van inside.
Engage hovervan and get to work.
thread is at the top
Shop computer post
Hovervan
This morning I told Mrs. Deuce that I just wanted to get the R63 in the Grosh and get the computer set up so I could slowly start to pick at it during the week. You can see I did get it in, and then I set up the computer.
Then I figured that I could take just a few minutes to pull the wheel liners and other plastics from the bottom. It's a lot of plastic. I need to figure out where to put this.
When I was under there I noticed that it wouldn't take much time at all to pull the exhaust and heat shielding and driveshaft, so I did.
I was pretty much done for the day so I read the next few steps on the service manual and it didn't sound like it was thaaaaaat much work to pull the radiator. It was. But I did it anyway. Along with the oil cooler and the front bumper cover and all the rest. I'm optimistic that I can figure out how to set the compressor off to the side with the lines still on and not have to recharge the AC, so the condenser is still in place.
Still a lot of wires and lines to disconnect. Power steering cooler is attached to the condenser so I need to sort that out too. Fuel system is still attached. Air lines for the shocks still plugged in. Lots to do.
Glad to see progress starting!!
Excellent!!!
That's the best- when you fall into a nice groove of things being removed without any hangups, and then suddenly it's 5 hours later and you have a half-car and parts scattered as far as the eye can see. It's like Anti-ADD.
It's also equally frustrating when you spend 6 hours in the garage in vain trying to remove a seized bolt, but I guess it all averages out.
Nice to see this heap in pieces. Forgive me if it's been answered already, but you're pulling the entire engine and not trying to rebuild the head while still in the car, right?
All I want for Christmas is expensive broken head bolt gore
Yes, the whole engine/transmission/subframe is coming out in one piece. It's doubtful heads will come off before we leave for the holidays. Crossing my fingers for the valve covers so we can see which bolt let go.
Yeoman's work, Mazdeuce, glad to see you're tearing into it.
I was just wondering where you were with this. It is great to see some progress.
No much visually different but all of the topside stuff aside from the AC is free. I still need to pull the compressor and see if I can keep it all sealed. It is nice to be able to disconnect two connectors and have the entire engine wiring apart.
The cooling system on this is absurd. Radiator, condenser, power steering cooler, transmission cooler, oil cooler, and a water to oil heat exchanger to get the oil up to temperature quickly enough. Every fluid in the car circulates up front, some more than once. Things are a bit of a mess. I'm trying to catch all the drips and bag the connections, but I think I need to just put the tools away and clean tonight. I should go get some casters and wood as well. Once the suspension is apart it's time to drop it all out.
Best of luck, hope the whole process goes this smooth....
I feel like there should be a word that describes the feeling you get when you take something apart and get to know it for the first time.
When you travel and meet new people with different cultures and realize that we're all very similar, it's humanizing.
Cars that you don't know, especially complicated ones, are.......not scary exactly, not intimidating, but they have a certain dark mystery about them. And then you take them apart and work with them and fix them and they become simpler. It's really very satisfying.
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