thammel

See the attached photo I took of this strange item in the engine bay of my 2017 GLE350. Stranded metal rope with dangling ends. What the heck???

chassis

Engine lifting feature. Some engines use stamped steel brackets bolted to the block or cylinder head. The braided rope is the "ring" into which a hook is inserted to lift the engine.

Looking at some documentation it seems the other lifting feature is a special tool that is bolted to the rear of the engine. Likely the bulkheads need to be removed to access the rear lifting feature. I checked and I wasn't able to see it with intake manifold and bulkheads in place.