R63 AMG The Unicorn of my Destruction

mazdeuce wrote: The transmission is still on the back, but Mercedes (so says the internet) says specifically not to do that.

I've heard people say it's a bad idea before, but nobody's ever been able to explain to me why -- it's always just been something that somebody else told them.

I find it hard to believe that putting 200 or whatever lb-ft of torque through the crankshaft of an engine that makes more than double that from the factory is a big deal.

But yeah, if it's still got the tranny/etc attached then that's a bunch of stuff to remove just to get access to the other end of the crank.

In reply to mazdeuce:

Perhaps a 7xxx series alloy. Inert gas shielded welding so the magnesium part doesn't go FOOM. http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a133494.pdf

Edit: Someone else beat me to it. Posted while reading the previous page. Should be someone in your part of Texas that can weld magnesium alloys. Even if they have to put the piece in a box full of argon, helium or neon it'll cost less than buying the whole unit from MB.

Hi, came to Grassroots Motorsports for your thread, didn't know it existed before that... I'm a civil engineer by trade and die hard DIY guy, working on MBs is my hobby for the last 10 years. I did quite a few MB engine rebuilds, but nothing as new as the 6.2 amg, mainly M119s and M104s... After I skimmed your "grosh" thread for the last couple of hours (well yesterday, can't post for 24 hours when you are a newby ) I'd say I'm very impressed and the R63 fix will be piece of cake compared to the garage.. You'are really living my dream life, If only I had the time and money to stay home and work on the house, on the garage and on my two W201s... Also would like to have 4 kids but for now 2 is a handful Infact I could say I got motivated by your threads and I might go to the garage and change the whining diff on my 5.0 W201. Good luck with your garage and your R63 Greeting from Bulgaria

Whenever possible I always bolted my balancer to the crank similar to the way Woody showed, with a belt wrapped around something else. Sometimes you can also have some slots or holes in the balancer that you can find a way to put another bar in there as a counter to the torque wrench. Plenty of tools on the market to hold the balancer, just a question of how much it's worth to buy a tool that'll be used hopefully just once.

Doesn't always work to depend on engine compression unfortunately, as you're only going to have compression in a couple cylinders at a time. Put enough force in there and it's still going to rotate the crank. Taking the bolt off with an impact driver it may be fine, but don't depend on it if you're torquing back down.

Not the right method for Mazdeuce's application, but someone else might be able to use it. My lemons team did this in a pinch:

1. Remove a spark plug out of one cylinder
2. Find the bottom of it's compression stroke
3. Feed rope into the cylinder cavity through the spark plug hole.
4. Loosen the crank bolt using the piston's action of compressing the rope against the closed valves as resistance.

It took longer to remember which way the engine turns and ensure that the valves would all be closed at the right time than it did to complete the rest of the job.

I always just jamb a large pry bar into the flywheel teeth near the starter or other random casting area to hold an engine for crank bolt removal. Is there an inspection cover between the engine and trans?

In reply to DaveWalters:

Thanks for reading. I find I do higher quality work when I'm puttering rather than putting my head down and grinding it out it takes (way) longer, but I have fewer mistakes. Right now working at this pace is best for a lot of other things in my life.

In reply to Lambo_Rambo:

I agree that I am living the dream life. If the R63 wasn't broken I'd probably drag home something that was so I could putter and work on it. I'm doing exactly what I want with my life.
Keep playing with your 201's and enjoy the engineering. People are complaining a lot about MB here, but they did a lot of clever things that can be appreciated.

So do we have a running tally of the new forum members because of the "Unicorn of My Destruction"?

A group response to everyone who has suggested way to immobilize the engine.

Thank you.

I do appreciate all of the advice and I'm working the information away to use in the future. Every method suggested has it's place and I play with a lot of different cars that require different tools and techniques. I'll probably use every one eventually.

While changing the timing belt on my Volvo I applied the somewhat controversial tactic of intentionally hydrolocking the engine.

I rotated just clockwise of #1 TDC, then removed the #1 spark plug and filled that hole with water. Put the plug back in, loosened the crank bolt, then pulled the plug again and cranked it over with the starter to blow the water out.

This does of course require that you have heads on the engine, which you don't.

In reply to mazdeuce:

Count me as a new subscriber. I've done lots of projects, this is a good one. As for holding the crank, you may not need the exact factory tool, but you will need to securely and without give, hold the crank. Damper retention is critical. Also, lubricating the bolt is critical. I use ARP Ultratorque on all critical fasteners. I assemble BMW 6 cyl engines. I've seen many damaged crankshafts and blown engines due to improper damper bolt torque. On the BMW, the long 6 cyl crank is particularly prone to torsional vibration. If the bolt isn't properly stretched (torque alone is meaningless), the damper moves and slams the key fracturing the crank. The torsional vibration messes up the cam and oil pump chains, and causes the oil pump sprocket nut to back off. Keep up the good work.

The 'New Reader' tag might give me away, but this thread has been my first visit to this site, which looks to be a new addition to the things on the internet I check out.

I was amazed reading the start of this story, and your overall attitude with MB and your attitude to accept that you'd have to do it yourself and off you went. After reading the entire tale of the Grosh I can now see you are a lunatic and someone I would dearly love to have as a neighbor (no 911 being called here, thank you.) But really what I wanted to post was "Thank You". Your attitude and willingness to tackle tough projects has come to me at a time where I really needed the inspiration, and your spirit, I'm happy to say, has been infectious. I can now look at several messes in my life and realize the biggest challenge is just getting started on the clean up.

If you're ever in the Charlotte area, the beer is on me. If your wife is ever in the Charlotte area, the engagement ring is on me. (seriously, don't let her out of your sight)

In reply to jckmisha:

Building a building is a series of very simple tasks. Cutting a board. Driving a nail. That's 95% of it.
Fixing a car is also a series of simple tasks. Take out a bolt. Put the bolt back in. That's 95% of the physical work in fixing most things on a car.
Life itself is a series of very simple tasks. Each task is easy. Take out the trash. Go to work. Floss. Hug your wife and tell her you love her.
Building and wrenching and living are all big hard things when taken as a whole, but simple and enjoyable when done in small pieces.
You have kids so you must be familiar with the phrase "Daddy I can't..." I always ask my kids "you can't, or you don't know how?" because I can fix one of those. It's amazing how easy we come to that kind of attitude as parents.
I'm glad you found GRM and the threads and you enjoy them. Stick around and don't be afraid to say "I don't know how to...." to these guys.

In reply to bowtieBMW:

Big thanks for the tip on ARP ultratorque. I had a question about lubricating fasteners tucked in the back of my head waiting for reassembly and you answered it before it could come out. Duly noted and I'll pick some up and follow the directions.

mck1117 wrote: While changing the timing belt on my Volvo I applied the somewhat controversial tactic of intentionally hydrolocking the engine.

I'm quoting you because I have literally never contemplated something like this and it seems like the sort of thing you keep in your back pocket for post apocalyptic zombie fleeing wrenching. Awesome.

In reply to JOsworth:

Climbed into the engine bay and looked for the air inlet box for the HVAC. It's this thing. The box itself is held in place by two little clips at the back that you can just see. MB built this to be easily serviceable. Nice!
Take it out and you can see the inlet for air at the very top and the outlet for water at the bottom.
And the outlet exits here in the wheel well (behind the liner when it's in place) and mine doesn't have any little rubber flaps. Maybe it was already removed?
Anyway, I'll add cleaning the box to my list of things to do. Having this fill with water would be bad. Thanks for the tip.

I seem to have missed the need for removing the crank pulley? Down with cleaning the intake manifold, but have you progressed from the 'boltsngaskets' mantra to include pulling the pan?

At 94k miles the timing guides should really be changed. The idea is that I shouldn't need to go back inside the motor for another 100k if I get the proper stuff done now. I'll show everyone when I put it back together, but the chain case is actually under the front of the heads. You 'can' pull it without taking the heads off (they say) but the word on the street is that it's very difficult to get it to seal Doing it that way. This and the lifters are the only 'while I'm in here' things. Two small things. About $1000 in parts. I'll do a full inspection of the timing guides vs. the new ones when I get them all together. A bunch of parts shipped today, so things are getting closer.

I got my oil analysis back today on my 63.

0% antifreeze. All wear metals look good. Mobil1 0-40 holding up well at 5200 mile change interval. I feel better for now.

I'd strongly consider rolling with it. I think at this point you're more likely to have a lifter/cam failure than a headbolt failure and hopefully you could catch that with analysis too.

mazdeuce wrote: In reply to JOsworth: Climbed into the engine bay and looked for the air inlet box for the HVAC. The box itself is held in place by two little clips at the back that you can just see. MB built this to be easily serviceable. Nice! Take it out and you can see the inlet for air at the very top and the outlet for water at the bottom. And the outlet exits here in the wheel well (behind the liner when it's in place) and mine doesn't have any little rubber flaps. Maybe it was already removed? Anyway, I'll add cleaning the box to my list of things to do. Having this fill with water would be bad. Thanks for the tip.

Yup... you found it. The round hole has a ring that the rubber check valve snaps into. Yes, either the dealer or previous owner removed it... good thing. All it took was a little dirt to clog it and you can see how bad that would be.

I am glad I was able to provide some hint or help.... and thank you for being so inspiring.

I will now fearlessly tackle some small jobs that are needed on my "Unicorn". It wasn't one when new, but hardly any of them are left. I got it by accident/unfortunate events way back in 1994. It is a 1985 Dodge 600ES Turbo Convertible.. think the Dodge version of the boxy LeBaron K-Car convertible. It is near mint with only 41k miles. Thing is, I have always been scared to take a wrench to it because I didn't want to damage anything. Have done some basic service to it, but nothing major... it needs to have the digital cluster looked at, the waste gate on the turbo has always been stuck, and I need to get the original wheels refinished. I am now truly inspired... may even start my own "build" thread... LOL

Here she is in all her K-Car ness.. Oh yea, these pictures were taken while we still had the R..

Mazdeuce, I'm really enjoying reading your thread. Can't wait to see you start putting this thing back together and getting it on the road. Really looking forward to reading about the rest of this.

Regarding the balancer bolt, if your planning on checking the bottom end, an easy way to get the balancer bolt out is to remove a section of the oil pan and use a piece of wood to brace the crank. Used that method a few times. Keeps from buggering up the balancer and having to buy special tools. Then while your in there, pop a rod and main cap off to see if the bearings are wearing properly.

JOsworth, thats a beautiful convertible you have. I'd like to see a few more pics of it.

I came across the auction on bring a trailer for the R63 and someone mentioned this thread. I had to join this site to tell you what an amazing story about your car! Your wit, humor and knowledge has made this a pleasure to read. All I can say is wow! I am also reading the grosh thread too. WOW. I'm in DFW, if you are ever up here would love to buy you a beer or coffee. Drive the R, no doubt in my mind you will get it better than new.