The Cabriolet gets it’s new engine and after a few minutes cranking ,bursts back into life!.
220 SE Cabrio 1St engine start
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Category Archives: Mercedes Oldtimer Service
Mercedes Benz 220SE Restoration
A short movie showing the engine removal .
220SE Restoration .
This is an early 220SE which has been sent in from overseas for a complete make over. .All of the bright trim is being removed followed by a strip back to bare metal .
Unfortunately some repairs in the past were not very well done and will need to be made right to remove rust which is just starting under the body filler.
Here, the front mudguards have been welded to the sill/rocker sections. These are unibody car and they flex a lot which cracks any joins which should not be welded up.
Not a very clear picture but this is the Drivers side.
This the rear end of the Sill section at the drivers side rear door. The seams have been filled,again this must be rectified.
Passenger is side is the same with much work required to fix. As can be seen in both pictures, both jacking points are missing … 😦
This the Seam at the top of the rear quarter which again has been badly filled and is cracking with rust showing through the paint .
The bottoms of the doors are showing signs of rust where the door rubbers seat , this will have to cleaned out and treated to prevent further rust.
Inside the door groove there is a little rust which has just been caught in turn.
In the past the doors have been sprayed inside with bituminous under coat, which unfortunately never works .This will be removed and a proper rust sealer applied.
This is the drivers side 1/4 light frame which unfortunately is rusted away so the hunt begins for a new or better one.
Mercedes Benz 280SE 3.5 ute
25/06/16 Well…. here is a problem that no one foresaw , the drivers side chassis rail is rusted clear through ….and wait ,there is more.:-(
Front ends of Sill boxes are rusted out
Passenger side rusted out , all will have to repaired .
Front cross member behind bumper has been replaced at sometime in the past but never welded to secure it in place ….Not a good idea as it is just floating there.
New exhausts installed to replace the rusted out originals which had lasted since 1972!.
Drive shaft has new flex disc and trans has new shift rod bushes.
Mercedes 220SE Cabrio engine Rebuild assembly
New Pistons installed ,side covers and sump fitted ,note: the deck has been machined to ensure it’s flat and true.
Head is reassembled with all new Valves. The valve heads were pitted from corrosion and machining them would have made the valve head margins too thin.
Cylinder head, water pump, and distributor drive fitted .Timing chain was replaced with a superior Iwis Chain,the one in the pic was just used to help install the new chain.
Accessories added and nearly ready to install in the car.
Mercedes Benz 280SE 3.5 ute Engine swap.
The new engine and trans are installed with a new oil pan ,rear and front crank seals. New injectors with new intake manifold gaskets,timing chain and rails should see a nice reliable tow car for the owner 🙂 .New fuel hoses and clamps will connect the fuel system together .
Mercedes Benz 280SE 3.5 ute Engine swap .
Unfortunately the engine in the Moss green ute was damaged by who ever it was that did the soda blasting ( i hate that stuff….) .It looks as though the car was covered in the bicarb and then driven around their yard with the air cleaner off… or the air cleaner was clogged so they took it off and then proceeded to drive the car. Any how, the soda got into the engine and has ruined the rings and pistons . A combination which has destroyed any hope of compression and no compression equals no start. I stripped the m116 3.5 engine down and my worst fears were realised with massive bore wear 
As usual the head studs were frozen in the heads and it was days work to remove the heads .The valve seats are pitted because of the biCarb soda .
After pricing the gaskets and rings etc the parts cost came close to $6000 so after consulting the owner it was decided to fit a good 2nd hand engine . After a days hunting a M117 450SL engine was found and this is a Djet engine also so the engine bay will resemble a standard 280SE 3.5 .
This has now been stripped and new seals fitted , the alloy parts have been wet blasted .The timing chain, sliding rails etc will be replaced and the injection system overhauled . The sump has been swapped from the SL short version to the 280SE 3.5 larger version .Water pump was replaced as it wasn’t known how long the engine was on the shelf.
The engine bay was pretty filthy so all of the dirt of 40 years was steam cleaned out in preparation for repair of the paint before the new engine goes in.
220SE cabriolet Mercedes
An update n the cabrio’s engine job. After some time a set of new pistons has been made to suit the new bore size (1mm oversize) which was necessary to repair the pitting caused by water getting into the engine at some time in the past.
Crank shaft has been linished ,balanced and cleaned .Connecting Rods have checked for straightness,big and small end bore true and new small end bushes fitted and honed to size.
New pistons and rings with new bearing shells fitted .
New side plate and block bungs are fitted ,with the crank and pistons installed after checking clearances and fitting new crank seals.
Distributor and pump drive installed with sump .New timing chain and slide rails are also in place.
The oil pump was measured and was within specs.
300SE Lang Rust repair continued
Paint stripping.
We are now at the stage where the old paint has to be removed and new paint applied since all of the rust has been repaired . The sheet metal is in very good condition under the paint which is nearly all original and never been repainted .
300 SE Lang W112 Rust repair progress
rear panel rust repair .
The rear panel on this car has had a few hits over the last 51 years and suffered from some pretty bad repair work. To straighten the dents and remove the rust ,caused by leaking tail light gasket i made a patch and cut out the rust with a hole saw.
With access through the hole , I could poke a dolly in and shrink out all the small dents .Last step was to repair the hole where the lights fit .It was pretty tough getting the dings out because the metal had been ground pretty hard in the past when someone has tried to fix the panel in the past.
benzkraft 