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QUOTE=Merc Mania;7302269]


I agree about the lows encountered on the way, for sure. This was the view from the driver's seat not too long ago.[/QUOTE]

I would have cried a little lol let us know what happens with the shipping company. Absolutely rediculous africa or not.

 

Guided by MBWorld's archives on the subject, replacement of Fuse 5, the 125amp fuse located in the fuse box that is adjacent to the car battery, was all it took to restore normal operation of the replacement cooling fan that has been installed in this CLK550. With that matter resolved, attention was focused on the establishing just how pervasive the water contamination of the engine oil has been, and what needs to be done to address that.

After the first oil change, and in order to narrow down on the source of the clicking sound that is present when the engine runs at idle, the serpentine belt was removed, and the engine started up briefly, to see if the clicking sound ceased, which would indicate that the source of that ticking noise at idle was one or more pulleys with damaged or worn bearings. The ticking was still audible with the serpentine belt removed, confirming that the pulleys were NOT the source of the noise.

With no evidence of pulley bearings being the source of the ticking noise when the engine is started up and run at idle, I again delved into the MBWorld archives, and there learned that a suction pump would be required to completely empty out all the old, water-contaminated engine oil, even after the drain plug was opened to pour out most of the old oil, during an oil change.

In the archives, a CLK500 owner described first removing the oil sump drain-plug to empty the old engine oil in his car, and then using a suction pump to draw out oil via the dipstick pipe, to see just how much oil was normally left in the engine AFTER the drain plug had been opened. The results of that simple test yielded a surprising amount of dirty oil that simply could not be evacuated by gravity, via the drain plug.

On reading that account, and bearing in mind that I do not as yet own an oil sump suction pump, I realized that the initial oil change carried out on this car would not suffice as a means of removing ALL the water contamination from this engine, and that there would still be some water present in the engine after that first oil change. My speculation at this point is that the residual water contamination in the engine oil is the cause of the ticking sound emanating from the engine when it runs at slow idle, on account of the engine oil's still compromised viscosity.

Right away I purchased an oil extraction pump online, but since it will take a few weeks to reach me in the post, and with such a simple device surprisingly unavailable in the local market here, I decided as an interim measure to change the engine oil and filter a second time, even though I have no intention of driving the car until the correct ATF fluid for the transmission arrives in the post in the next couple of weeks.

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Sure enough, when the oil was drained through the sump the second time, there was water present in both the drained oil and in the oil filter. Spoke to a friend who is familiar with flood damaged cars, and he is adamant that ALL flooded cars , without exception, WILL require head gasket replacement, due to the irreversible destructive effect of water on the head gaskets.

Now, when the spark plugs were removed and the car turned over for the first time on arrival here, there was no trace of water being expelled from the spark plug holes, implying that all cylinders of the engine were bone dry, which in turn suggests that the car was NOT running when it was flooded.

If the water found in the sump had entered the engine via the oil dipstick opening, then no attempt was subsequently made to start the car after that flooding incident, I am not entirely convinced that the cylinder head gaskets of this engine have sustained significant water damage, as my buddy claims would be inevitable.

I carefully read through the MBWorld archives in search of a definitive policy statement on this subject of whether or not ALL flooded vehicles MUST have cylinder head gasket replacements carried out as a matter of routine, but thus far, I have not found any direct reference that answers this question.

Once more therefore, I would like to seek the opinion of the experts in this forum, as to whether the use of an oil extraction pump to completely empty all traces of water-contaminated oil would suffice, as a prelude to having the oil and filter changed a third time, or whether, as I am being advised, there is no avoiding a complete cylinder head gasket replacement.

By way of clarification, there is NO evidence of engine oil transfer into the radiator, which would have been a classic symptom of leaky head gaskets. I hope, with the details I have provided here, that it may be possible for opinions to be offered, on this troubling question of whether or not I ought to go the whole hog and replace the cylinder head gaskets of this car.

Once again I thank you kindly for the enormously helpful advice already offered as I bumble may way along trying to revive this flood damaged car, and I look forward to hearing any thoughts that can be shared about this head gasket quandary in which I now find myself.

 

I do not believe that water contamination of the oil destroys head gaskets. For one, the coolant passes through the head gasket going to and from the head, so there's water going through it all the time. Secondly, a properly torqued head will not allow water or oil to get in between the gasket and the head or engine block. Suspect it is an urban myth, like never storing car batteries on concrete floors.

 

I agree that just having just water in there will not damage your head gaskets. A couple things - first, know that your car has a two-piece oil pan. The "lower" pan where the drain bolt is is simple to remove. It's not very big and easy to access. If I suspected water in there, I'd pull that over buying a pump. Then you just need a gasket. Second, since you are talking about specialty tools, your tranny fills from below through the drain plug, not from above, so you need some sort of pump and an adapter to screw into the drain plug hole. Second, it's not just a "add 9 quarts" situation. You measure the level buy getting the fliud to a specified temperature - 113 F - using either MBs STAR system or a hand held infrared thermometer pointed at the pan. I use the latter.

 

Ditto to everything Yidney said. removing the lower oil pan is very easy, just be careful with the black RTV sealant. You have to make sure you clean the old RTV off thoroughly. There is a chemical solvent you can use for that, and you can scrape it with plastic - not metal. Also, there is a prep spray to use before resealing with RTV. Of course there MBZ part numbers for all those chemicals (the cleaner, the prep and the RTV) but there are also suitable aftermarket products you can use.

Regarding the transmission fluid, just do a filter and fluid change. There are several threads on the forum on how to do this on the 722.9. It probably seems more complicated than it is. You don't need an expensive pump to inject fluid - you can use a cheap hand pump, but the proper part that threads into the pan plug for filling is necessary. And, as Yidney said, you can us an IR thermometer to check the proper temp. One caveat is that 113F is not a "normal" temp for the transmission. It's an intermediate temp between "cold" and "regular operating temp" so you have a brief window as it passes through 113F.

 

This is great news. I was hoping that a cylinder head gasket replacement would not be necessary, so it is reassuring to see that the opinion expressed by the mechanic who has been looking over this car does conform with the view shared by three separate CLK experts in this forum, whose years of experience I hold in high regard.

My associate who felt that cylinder head replacement was mandatory is neither a mechanic nor a CLK owner, so I was skeptical about his knee-jerk insistence that a cylinder head gasket replacement would be necessary. While I await the arrival of the oil extraction pump in the post, I may well have the oil sump removed so as to drain the last of the water, as described by Rodney, taking care to scrape the old RTV sealant with a plastic, rather than metal instrument.

Much thanks again sirs, for this reassurance about the state of this car's engine. All things considered, I'd say this vehicle escaped with comparatively little damage as a result of getting flooded in Texas, so, barring any unexpected problems that may arise down the road, it is starting to look as though my gamble of buying the car, sight unseen, may well pay off after all, now that the last of the bugs are the process of being resolved.

 

I'm still having a little trouble figuring out how the engine got full of water if it was not running, but the interior is dry. The only entry points into the engine I can think of are the oil dip stick tube or the MAF housing, both of which are way higher than your carpet. Rodney, am I missing a lower entry point?

 

Water in the oil is either coming from the cooling system or the environment. If it's coolant, it could be a bad head gasket, but that's very rare on these engines. A more likely source of coolant entering the oil system would be through the oil cooler - either the cooler unit itself or its gasket. If it's environmental, and the engine is properly sealed (head covers and pan seals are good, drain plug is in place, etc.), then it's coming in from the filler, the dip tube, or the filter opening, the oil centrifuge or cam plugs, all of which are much higher than the dash, so the inside should have been flooded as well.

 

You can also try just jacking up each corner of the car to get more oil out. So you jack one corner open the the oil drain plug, when it stops dripping lower the car and jack the next corner do this on all the corners of the car it should help get the oil out, but since you also have a pump coming it might be pointless.

 

Since the car was reported as flood damaged, I'm going with water over coolant. I'm starting to think this car was hydrolocked, and your engine noise may be bad news.

 

Yidney, the primary reason that I remain convinced that this car was not running when the water contamination occurred, is that all cylinders were absolutely free from even the tiniest trace of moisture, when the spark plugs were initially removed, and the engine turned over a few times with the starter. Had there been any water in the cylinders, there would surely have been some evidence of that water being expelled through the opened spark plug ports during that initial test. Rodney's view that the water entered the engine of the vehicle while it was parked, perhaps via the oil dipstick opening, might be the scenario that occurred, given the absence of water damage to the interior of the car.

I am mystified about the fact that there is none of the tell-tale smell or appearance of water damage that would have been evident in the carpeting of this car, if it had indeed been flooded for even a brief time, prior to being sent off for sale. To hedge my bets, I decided to go ahead and order the cylinder head gaskets, since they don't cost that much more than do those I bought for my older cars in the past, and given that mechanic's fees are extremely low out here, in comparison to the king's ransom commanded by mechanics in Western Europe and the USA.

With regards to the ticking sound from the engine, I have noticed to my relief that there was a pronounced reduction in the volume of that sound, after each of the two successive oil changes carried out thus far, and that is what led me to speculate that the engine has not suffered lasting damage, and is only in need of a more thorough removal of all remaining traces of water in the oil sump, to restore the engine oil's specified viscosity. If, after the oil sump has been totally cleared of water, there continues to be evidence of water in the sump and oil filter subsequent to the third oil change, then it will be safe to assume that the cylinder head gaskets are in fact damaged and in need of replacement as a matter of urgency.

I will write back here as the detective work progresses, and hopefully, before long, I will be ready to embark on the first road test of this fine steed.

 

I hope you are right, I don't think it's Rodney's view it entered through the dip stick. We were just speculating about possible entry points in a non-running car. I think we are both of the view that entry through the dip stick in this case is very unlikely if the car was stationary because your interior is not flooded. That would be like a flood ruining a third-floor apartment but the building basement remaining dry.

 

And I think you are wasting your money on head gaskets. You are about to do a big project based on one comment from a mechanic who does not seem to know what he is talking about, and all of us here are telling you that is very unlikely to be the issue. If if you have no oil in your coolant expansion tank then it pretty much is not the issue.

 

As for no evidence of water above the pistons, I'm not so sure if would place much reliance on that particular piece of evidence. But I've not ever investigated a hydro-locked engine so I'm just spitballing here. But two things - 1) It happens very fast, and the piston or pistons that got hydro-locked would continue to moved, so would have expelled most of the water out the valves a second later, and 2) piston rings are split - so the cylinder is not sealed like a glass jar with the lid on. I would expect over the period of month yours sat that water would bleed past the piston rings into the crankcase.

 

My guarded optimism is based primarily on my observation that the engine ticking sound has noticeably subsided, after this second oil change. I have no experience at all with hydro-locked engines, so it may turn out that I am dead wrong in my assumption that the reduced engine noise indicates that the worst is over. If the worst-case scenario does play out, and the engine turns out to be a write-off, my desire to see this car's problems resolved is such that I will eventually acquire a replacement engine from the junkyard, though I do understand that such a transplant will entail a fair amount of programming to make the new engine work in this car.

Fortunately there is no urgency to this project, because I do have my older Mercs to use until such time as this one gets a clean bill of health. Regardless of how it turns out in the long term, I still owe a debt of gratitude to yourself and other MBWorld forum regulars, whose technical advice has enabled me to resolve several faults that would otherwise have taken significantly longer to figure out. Truth be told, a CLK550 with the lowered suspension is not the ideal car for any Third World country with rutted roads, yet such is my obsession with this particular make and model, that practicality took a back seat in my decision to click on the buy button, almost on an impulse.

 

I suspect the ticking is from the hydraulic valve lifters. They may have rusted a bit and definitely must have drained over time. The fact that the ticking is subsiding supports this view.

 

A head gasket job an an M273 engine is a MAJOR undertaking. It might as well be an engine-out job (If you don't pull it out, you'll wish you had).

I agree with Anker's idea on the lifters. Water in the oil could cause some oxidation on top end parts.

I am still very perplexed at how oil got into the engine. With no signs of water in the cabin, no signs of water in the combustion chambers, I am just at a loss at how water could enter the crankcase unless it was purposely pour in there.

 

It's possible the car was driven into deep water and sucked it in through the air intake. Remember no one knows what really happened to this car. The owner could have driven into what seemed shallow water hit the water with the nose first, panicked and reversed hence no water in the cabin but could have possible submerged most of the front end.

 

Why do you assume it would need any programming at all. If your just changing the engine and not any of the computers it should just be a simple as old engine out new engine in same goes for the transmission. You also mentioned a ticking not a knocking sound indicating more likely then not something is up with the lifters, I would start by taking the valve covers off and inspecting should be pretty simple.

 

But Merc Mania said there was no signs of water in the combustion chamber. If waster was sucked through the intake, it would have done major damage due to "hydrolock".

 

Good point. I guess it also matters how much water went in and how quickly the car was turned off and where it went in. Im also puzzled as how it got in there but it obviously did somehow, this might a mystery to great to resolve without the original owners story. These cars are also pretty tight who knows how high the water really got and how much would make it into the cabin, for all we know the car was completley submerged and simply dried of completely by the time it made it to Africa. Its not like anyone has ever tested driving one into a lake haha

 

May I suggest that the OP takes an audio/video recording of the sound so that we're better informed to advise him.

Maybe he can post the VIN number as well so that we Google Search it and maybe find some info regarding the car's flooding

 

Xsever the serial number of this car is WDB TJ7 2HX 9F 263207. I did run a search on it, and was surprised at the sheer volume of information about the car's history, including the name and address of the previous owner, which I did not save in my records, since obviously the previous owner would not take kindly to some stranger writing from darkest Africa to ask questions about a car that is long gone.

Regarding the engine ticking sound, it does stand to reason that it could be the oil lifters simply taking time to quieten down, after perhaps a couple of years during which the engine was never started up, as the car languished in auction yard lots. With my 500SE, fitted with a M117 V8 engine, I do notice a few seconds of a remarkably similar ticking sound whenever the vehicle hasn't been driven for a few days. The ticking sound goes quiet with the engine running at idle over the couple of minutes it takes for the engine oil to adequately circulate, in similar fashion to the manner in which the ticking sound in the engine of this CLK550 starts off quite pronounced, before becoming muted, and then barely audible, after the engine has run for a few minutes. Even with the replacement cooling fan fully operational, I have not taken up the mechanic's advice to run the engine for an extended period of time, though I will certainly do so as soon as I have extracted the last of the water in the sump, when the suction pump I have ordered online finally arrives here.

Alexx001, my presumption that an engine swap may entail some scanner programming arises from my understanding of an observation made much earlier in this thread by Rodney, to the effect that an engine swap in this car may entail programming with a scanner, making the procedure far more involved than is the case with earlier Mercedes V8 engines such as the M117 V8, and the M119 V8, both of which have been swapped in and out of my cars with no programming required, given that those older and simpler Mercs pre-date the OBD2 protocol that has been standard in all cars since 1996. If it turns out that programming would not be an issue with a M273 V8 engine swap, then that is one thing less to worry about, if my final resort winds up being a complete engine swap. I will record a video to capture the engine sound of this CLK550, and if the sound quality is decent, I'll post the youtube link here in the next couple of days.

Even without a requirement for any scanner programming, the labor cost of an engine swap, as billed in a Southern Californian mechanic's workshop for example, would probably add up to more than the car is worth. Fortunately for me, this is not the case with local African mechanics, who have replaced engines in my cars for less than the equivalent of $100 in labor charges. With the M117 and M119 engines, normal practice here is to leave the engine and transmission connected together, and remove them both as a single unit, though I don't know for sure if the tight confines of the engine bay in this CLK550 would permit the removal of the engine and transmission in one go.

 

I just cant imagine the car being able to identify the exact transmission or engine i.lm a car. Engines and transmissions are completly mechanical the only electics would be the transmission module and engine module which you wouldnt need to swap since yours are fine. The only possible issue i could think of is that if somehow the engine ecu is coded with the transmission module but i highly doubt it. Again im not an expert on the matter but i would really be shocked if any coding was requires to replace a like for like transmission or engine in any car.