RedGray

Also, a few more notes:

1) No where, do they say when the 4 front bolts on the lower cam housing should get tighten down.
Yes, That is on the lower cam house with precision ground bearings for the cams, and flatness/straightness is very important. Imho, that's a stupid omission.
Similar to MB leaving out the warning: Do not reuse head bolts!
Hmm...

Imho, MB listing only a single torque and not stages for the lower cam housing is also high up on the bad mistakes/omission list.
Hey, maybe back then, MB still used slide rules and wood pencils to do their designs. Guess they never heard of FEA?
Sigh..............

So, for the lower cam housing, I suggest 4 stages of tightening:
i) 3 Nm
ii) 5 Nm
iii) 10 Nnm
iv) 90 Degree turn

For the front 4 bolts, I did those after the main bolts, and I did an X-pattern. I did the final torque (14 Nm) after I did the final torque for the main housing bolts.
So, for steps i to iii above, I did the front bolts in an X-pattern after the main bolts, and at the same torque.
For iv, I tightened to the 14 Nm spec.


Btw, doing the above is hard without a precision low-range torque wrench.
If someone doesn't have one, I'd then I'd suggest:
i) Finger tight
ii) 5 Nm
iii) 10 Nnm
iv) 90 Degree turn



2) Imho, the MB repair info sucks in many places. Sorry, there's no excuse not to have torque patterns for just about every surface/part.
Another example - the water pump that has two different size bolts holding it down - with two different torques. But, MB just says "use a crisscross pattern".
Sigh.....





3) You really must/should use new head bolts. If you noticed when you did the 2 torque angle tightening, those bolts lengthen more than they compress the head, gasket, and/or block.

Those are TTY Torque To Yield bolts. From the MB repair info, it seems like they lengthen from 165mm to 167.5 mm.

The head bolts are as obvious as they can be a Torque-to-Yield bolt. Heck, is any manufacture so stupid as to not use a TTY bolt on an aluminum head and block?
I don't know of any.

Fwiw, you should never ever ever ever reuse a Torque-to-Yield bolt.
http://www.enginebuildermag.com/2001...rque-to-angle/
I didn't, and I never have.
That's also one of the parts I got directly from the Dealer.


Also, you must have a good low-range torque wrench.

Digital low-range torque wrench:
Btw, it'll show the peak torque in real-time on the display as you're tightening the bolt, along with an easy to discern change in audible beeping and tone. Very Nice! Btw, other than the AC-Delco, getting a good digital torque wrench under $300 is unheard of!
The AC-Delco trades off torque range for reliability and accuracy. Imho, without Amazon, and the mostly honest reviews, that torque wrench would've likely been a product failure. Why pay more for less than half the range verses the other lower cost digital torque wrenches?
On Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004VYUQI2
ACDelco ARM601-3 3/8-inch Digital Torque Wrench (2-37 ft-lbs)
And yes, I added the 1/2" version to my Christmas list. Imho, I can never have too many Torque Wrenches. Imho, it'll be great when I do tire swaps. Imho, putting the setting back to zero and then setting it every time is a hassle. And, I don't want a big klutzy beam type torque wrench when I'm swapping tires. Yea, I'm spoiled with my tools.





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PelicanParts.com

Just a note about dealer parts, all of our Genuine parts that have this logo listed next to them:



come straight from the dealer (are a dealer/genuine MB part) and come with the associated MB/dealer warranty. i.e. buying these parts with this logo next to them is the same thing as buying parts directly from the dealer.