no the tensioner is not on. I want to make sure everything is good before I put the timing cover on. I put the tension on the chain with small pry bar with a reasonable amount of pressure on it


it just seems odd that its not a full timing chain tooth off
it looks like its off by one cam gear tooth but I never removed the intake cam gear only exhaust and they do line up to eachother when I rotate slightly more.


but its either the left or right head cam gears line up not both
the marks ae on the cam gears not pulse wheels


pretty much the left head is behind everything else by one cam gear tooth which makes no sense to me

 

when putting the timing chain cover back on it did not slide all they way back on had a gap of about 4mm
aligned dovel pins and it slid half way on I took it off few times and put it back on to see if anything is stopping it. but didn't find any issues.


it bolted down good when I torqued the bolts and rotated the crank few times with no problem...


anyone done this before and can confirm?

 

are you referring to the covers on the cylinder heads?

 

 

timing chain cover not timing gear covers

 

on a sidenote.


at first I thought no big deal engine is engine how bad can it be...


after trying to put it back together...
I will never own another Mercedes unless I'm forced to own one..


everything is designed to be a pain in the *** and to involve as much labor as possible to drain more money from the owner. and its not even that great of an engine considering the specs.. its very complicated but useless...


if you compare it to Honda or Toyota 3.5 v6 motors this feels like a guy trippin on acid designed this...
so many complicated parts for no reason yet it still barely lasts 100000 miles.where a Honda or Toyota can go for 200000 easily without major problems. and less power than Honda or Toyota motors


great car when it works. **** when it stops working.. like a hot girlfriend. nice to go out with. then she opens her mouth and you just drop her off at her parents house and leave. too much BS.

 

You sound mad but for the wrong reasons.... Front cover should go on with ease. If you have engine on a engine stand flip engine upside down and install front cover. Sometimes you have to use a rubber mallet to nudge cover on. With it upside down you don't have to worry about scaring the head gaskets as gravity is going to naturally rest front cover on block and cylinder heads.

Not really sure why you are comparing euro cars to jap cars. it's not the product that's the issue, its the consumer. Why you are expecting a mercedes to relate to a honda or toyota is beyond me but you can forget that. Just because you are unfamiliar with the product doesn't mean it's any better or worse then the next manufacture. Don't get me wrong, balance shaft and idler gear repairs are a pita and tedious but when done correctly more times then not the engine can and will go for another 200k. This isn't a honda or toyota, i know you don't want to read that but it's true. Hang in there bro, once it's running with no issues i'm sure you'll re consider.

 

I took it off and back on few times to check what the issue was. didn't see anything in the way.

I torque the bolts and it sealed up but I'm not sure what the issue was. could be the new coolant gaskets








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why wouldn't I compare Mercedes to Japanese cars. they are all cars. I'm not comparing a car to spaceship.


I know a lot of mechanics. I do electrical work mostly and some engine work and everything else with my own cars I strip and restore the whole car as a hobby usually 1 or two cars a year...
I like working on Japanese cars because they are designed better.(not all of them but most of them)
plus 10 or so years working as a car audio installer
heres a short way to describe it.


when people see a Honda or Toyota with 150K they call it a baby Honda.
when people see a Mercedes or audi or bmw or Subaru or Nissan or Volvo with 150K they call it high mileage.
when people see an American car with 100K they call it high mileage
except diesel trucks and tdi Mercedes... those are still baby cars at 150k
I can ask my dealership friends and mechanics they will all say same thing.




its common for a Honda Toyota to make it past 200k without major issues and minimum maintenance
its not common for a euro or Nissan/Subaru to make it past 200k without major issues needing major repairs


theres no arguing that with maintenance any car can make it past 500000 miles but at that time you have pretty much replaced everything or drove it like a grandma never revving past 4000 rpm


and I don't even want to talk about electrical problems of bmw and VW.
its what we call spaghetti wiring in car stereo world... Mercedes is a little better but still not very good.




I can say that b series Honda is the greatest engine since sliced bread. but its not. its my favorite motor to work on because I enjoy the sound of a stock type-r motor which I can keep at 8500rpm every single day for years with no problems( which I do) but I know there are many other motors out there which are engineered great.
once you work on these cars for years its obviously becomes easier to work on since you remember how to do it.
I base my comparison on me buying a car and working on it for the first time.
which I did on many cars and this by far is the worst designed sht I ever came across. except the ford diesel truck where you have to pull a motor to replace the oil dip stick o ring in the oil pan... a 3000 dollar job to replace a 5 dollar part. that tops my list so far.
I also own an RL and not very proud of Honda since they continuously f-ed up in the j series transmission and did pretty much same thing that Mercedes did with the balance shaft failure.
but that 3.5 liter motor makes more power and torque and gas mileage with a very basic design SOHC with no complicated intake design no 1000 dollar insanely complex timing gears etc.
same with Toyota
when you take those motors apart. it doesn't feel like you are working on an alien space ship everything goes back together. and comes apart without being purposely blocked off...


examples?
to take off the last transmission bolt. its blocked by purposely routed transmission line.
to remove the radiator. its purposely blocked by the metal plate on the front
to remove the balance shaft counterweight you have to pull the motor
to replace the oil pump you have to remove the whole bottom assembly instead of just oil pan
and to remove that you have to remove the 4matic box on the side and the shaft
to replace the guide rails which are usually required for balance shaft you have to remove the heads...
its like a fn domino. to replace one failed part you pretty much have to do a complete engine rebuild because everything is blocked off. you cant just take one part off without taking the whole engine apart. and you know it..


I do have some nice things to say about it tho.
all the 1000000000 little parts and brackets that hold other brackets that hold the dust shield. came off really easy.
and the parts that are designed to come off came off very easy
I didn't have any broken bolts or stripped bolts.


so it either amazing or wtf. theres no inbetween experience with this motor.


which leads me to conclusion that its designed with specific roadblocks not because they need to be there but because MB wants them there

 

It's an interesting conclusion but the other possibility is that Honda or Toyota has been selling a lot more engines and may even spend more money on engine design than MB but because they sell a lot more, the costs can be spread out over more engines. The factors you're describing is typical in engineering, the first few are way more complex because they don't know how to really build them, as you build more and get more experienced, they become simpler. It costs more to design a simple engine than a complex one.

 

I can appreciate the frustration ... much like i've had with Toyota 22-RE head gasket failures, bad journals in mid-nineties Lexus V8s, sub-par head bolts in straight six Toyota Supra, nearly a decade of bad head gaskets in Toyota V6s, rusty cross members in Nissan Maxima that drop the engine practically out the bottom. The myriad of crappy 10mm bolts that Asian cars seem to made of that break constantly. Familiarity doesn't make any of these problems fun to repair.

Then there is the valve guides, bad headers, gooey sticky interior bits - all in the most beautiful F355. Or the IMS issue that plagued 996 and early 05 997s.

Is the ****ty gear a bummer in the W211? - absolutely it is. And you definitely deserve recognition for diving in and DIY'g the repair, learning as you went. Look... all the best Marques have their pain points - Asian, Euro and Domestic. The famous balance shaft is glamorized as much as the IMS bearing in Porsches - yet the failure rates remain a mystery. I'd bet single digit.

The last 15 years have seen great cars from all Makes and all of them haven't been perfect - but, arguably, Mercedes Benz make up the short list of the best. All W211's included.

 

RAVER i can agree with you to a certain extent. J-series built engines are very stout (j37 in particular). As long as you mate it with the lsd you are good from my understanding. B series are nice and super reliable as well. Where we have disconnect is the quality of product. Theres a reason you lift a merk up and compare underbody components bolts/metal parts ect and see a difference, ones a rust bucket and the other has mild rust if any at all. Yes mercedes is complex, reason being they don't want the average shade tree mechanic working on them, not saying you are a shade tree mech but you get what i'm saying. Mercedes has like 500000 patents. Anything you see in a honda chevy ford or bmw was done first by mercedes. Parktronic and heated seat in 1998, like really? Very over engineered and complex but for reasons. Customer's that spend 75k on a vehicle want the highly sophisticated gadgets and bells and whistles, me personally can do without all of it. As for engine designs, they are complex to the average mechanic that comes from jap or american cars. But once you've been around the product for a while you start to appreciate the fact you need special tools, wis documents and star wiring to do repairs. The average C tech can pull a h,f,b,d series honda engine or a small block 350 or even a 7.3 powerchoke, but if you ask a C tech to set timing on a M272 and replace some cam gears and pulse wheels they'll be like wtf? In theory if you are a do it yourselfer, WIS and star wiring should be your best friends!!!!

+1 on the 211. I may be biased because i own one in mint condition however i see less 06-09 211's in the shop than any other model. I can hardly ever find anything wrong with them worth noting and they just don't have all those early 2000's production issues.

and you said new coolant gaskets? What are you referring to? Sometimes those front covers can be a pain in the D!ck but patience and ease will be your best friend if that is the case.