I am going to replace the timing chain and guides on my c63, is the front oil pan removable with the engine in the car?

 

Hi just wondering why are you replacing the chain and guides, I just thought they would last the life of the engine.
I am sure someone could provide a set of instructions from Mercedes what is required access wise.

 

So there is no room between the subframe and engine to do it, so something has to move to get enough room, you only really need an inch. Either engine goes up or subframe would need to go down.

The official procedure is to disconnect a few things and lift the engine a bit, not super easy but much better than removing the engine.

Rob

 

Probably worth removing the entire engine from the car.

You could use this as an opportunity to also reseal the pans since they're prone to potential leaks but you can probably avoid that unless you really have to and dont feel like being an overachiever.

 

The timing chain guide broke on me, misfire on 5, 7, 8

just checked those cylinders and looks like the valves made contact with the piston on 7 so rip

 

can anyone help confirm what this is? From what I can see it doesn't seem to be a dent but raised


sorry for bad photos but it's the best I could get

 

The photos look like normal carbon in the valve pockets of the piston with no indication of contact with the valve otherwise the carbon would be missing and have shining indication on the piston crown.

If it was me I would have a compression or leak down check on the engine to verify if in fact the misfire is mechanically related to the engine or is some other electrical problem.

Unfortunate with your timing chain guide problem, but I don't see at this stage how the timing chain guide is related to 5,7&8 cylinders.

I have boro-scoped various E30 M3 engines and have photos with black carbon flaking and not flat with the piston crown and not caused any concern or problem.

If your engine is high milage or some other related timing chain issue that might cause part of the guide to brake but the 5,7&8 cylinders wont.

 

Probably failed due to age/milage as i'm at 125k miles. Do you not think the guide and misfire is related?

These are the codes it threw

P0637 Misfiring of cylinder 5: Damages TWC(P0305)
P0649 Misfiring of cylinder 6: Damages TWC(P0306)
P0661 Misfiring of cylinder 8: Damages TWC(P0308)
P1204 Alternating adjustment of exhaust camshaft of left cylinder bank in direction Advanced or Retarded.(P0019)
P1212 Alternating adjustment of intake camshaft of left cylinder bank in direction Advanced or Retarded.(P0018)

I did have a rattle on startup that i thought was the adjusters so i ordered the 63 plates and was about to replace them before this happened

 

Can we start over and ask how you know the timing chain guides are done? To me it looks like your car adjusters are done and maybe you need injectors, how did you determine the chain guides need work?

 

I originally thought the adjusters were bad as well with the rattle on start up but now i think it was from the chain

 

Ya that is a problem, seems it might have skipped a tooth then on the left bank with all the misfires and timing codes, which isn't enough to cause contact so you may have dodged a bullet.

You should be able to do it in the car once you get the cooling pack out of the way and lift the engine to get the front pan off.

I agree with others not seeing any indication of contact with the piston just some carbon build up that with the bad timing and misfires may just be more noticeable with the misfires loosing it up a bit or cleaning it off a bit.

 

That is a big relief though my engine was toast

after checking other cylinders I noticed this in cylinder 5, it is right in the center of where the spark plug would be sitting, I checked the spark plug gaps and all are inconsistent, Could this be from it misfiring or should I worry about this?

 

I'd pull the engine out, yank the heads and pan to inspect everything properly on a stand . You're going to have bits of guide all over the place.

Seems you got lucky once. Odds of being lucky twice are greatly diminished.

 

I think this is the best advice you will get as it is short work once the engine is out to go through it and know you are good for the next 100k.

 

I will drop the engine in the next few days and pull the heads off. Better safe than sorry ill update once i get the engine dropped