silver ml500

Not sure who around the world is suffering this covid lock-downs, so sorry to you all here who are suffering it, but I am managing to push through.

I have removed both rocker covers on my V8 5.0L petrol engine in this ML500.

Gaskets, although done recently, only two years back in the service history, are both shot, and were beginning to seep and weep badly, so poor job who-ever did them, not too bothered as easy enough to replace. Also a disgusting amount of too much silicone sealant used on the little covers on top of the rocker covers. See it far too often with poor mechanics who load the stuff and it just oozes and squishes all inside an engine, and can soon ruin an engines oilways and pipes. Last three years of the vehicle, it has been taken to back street garage who it seems are bad cowboys as some very bad things I have discovered as i work through this vehicle to get it ready for another 10-20 years.

Decided to add some shine to the rocker covers.

The rocker covers are very intricate on the top, so it has taken me some time just to get 18 years of oxidization and crud etc, off the covers.

I am doing it my end, slowly but surely.

One is ready now for the wet-and-dry sanding by hand, which will be a couple of days and loads of hours, at various grades, just sanding and making them even all over once again.

I am using a little Dremel hand drill with various attachments, like scotch round pads, wire brushes, brass brushes etc, as so many little channels and grooves to get into. this has allowed me to remove the top oxidised layer and horrible looking crud all over them.

I could have sent them off to be shot-blasted, but since I am in serious lock-down, so a great way to pass the time this end. (I am house bound almost anyway, so the lock-down does not bother me as much as others, as been locked down since my accident).

My carers are also having to muck in to help. If not, then would not be able to do this on my own. I show them how and what to remove and they all like helping and using tools, so a win win for me.

These are in the early stages yet, so will post some pics when they are finished.

I will spray them when finished and polished with high temp. clear lacquer, as with-out this they will start to oxidize almost immediately.

I am having gusts of just over 53 MPH right now this end, so windy and wet outside, but my house walls are 2 feet thick and the house is over 300 years old, so it does not matter about the horrible weather up in the hills I am experiencing right now.
The locals call them mountains, I just call them hills.
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18 years of oxidization removed

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one down, one to go

left rocker cover now ready for sanding, then polishing. Will be using autosol to finish and spraying with high heat clear lacquer.

chassis

Looks great! I am a fan of a well kept engine bay.

silver ml500

I intend to take this ML500 back to showroom condition and beyond.
The chassis is the part no-one sees, but have done the front chassis legs when i swapped out the front shocks and brakes. so it is now 100% mint again, and better than factory standard.
I replace evey nut, bolt and washer as i go also on any vehicles I have, which people do not do, so looks bad to see rusty items on good painted panels etc.
Should start to photograph everything I do, but I thought with it being so old a model, the world would be full of others who have done it many times over.
It was also easy access to all the plugs, leads when the inner mud plastic infill panels were removed, instead of struggling under the bonnet and contorting your body to reach the back plugs.
Also replacing entire ignition coils, plugs, leads and also swapping out the old injectors. With such a low mile engine, worth doing as it is still 18 years old so some parts although working perfectly right now, will soon start to fail.
Will photograph the detailing as i go on the engine bay.

silver ml500

Hi all again.

Good luck tomorrow on who-ever you have voted for.

While outside in my garage at 3.00pm two of your USAF jets flew at ground level right over my house here in the UK, twice with-in about 6 minutes, then about 1 minute after your Air Force One flew overhead, about 20,000 feet above me. I do not think your Donald was on it, as he will be your side getting ready for the big day tomorrow, so it was just the Jumbo returning to the US, where-ever it had come from in the world.

Was able to actually see both pilots in the fighter jets, only one pilot in each, and managed to photograph them, but the Air Force One jumbo was too far up and I only had a wide-angle lens on. I also never had the camera at hand as was busy sanding and beginning to polish my Rocker covers.

I never clicked when I saw they were USAF markings on the jest, and not our own boys this end with the RAF markings.

So, it should be across the Atlantic very shortly, now 18.00pm this side of the pond. I am 7-8 hours ahead of you over there in the US.

I live high up and my house unfortunately is under the new UK flight path since the Lockerbie disaster, where they changed it to a less populated area in case of stupidity in the future.



Anyway, I was thinking of only spraying the rocker covers in high heat silver alloy paint as the rocker covers have bad pitting with-in the alloy after some 18 years of being outside in the elements.

Have struggled for about 4 hours today and have ground and sanded out all the pitting and have got the one cover ready for polishing.

Do not worry about the lines that are all over it, this will be gone as soon as I start to polish it.

Remember flash directed straight on will show any little mark, imperfection etc.

You will see the other rocker cover, which I still have to do.
Made a start on it, but you can see the years of crude and pitting and oxidization all over the cover.

USAF jet flying right past me. They both did a two times over the UK flyover, which is normal, as they are up front, just checking via onboard equipment, no nutters have acquired any weapons to take a pot shot.

I only had my wide-angle lens on, so sorry about the hazy image, but i could see and wave to both the jets, each only with one pilot up front. so this tells you how high up in the Uk mountains I am.

The start of removing all the pitting with-in the alloy

Slowly but surely, the one side is well on its way to becoming a nice shiny cover.

Just getting closer to let you all see the difference so far. I expect about 20-30 hours per side to do this as no industrial machines to use or help me.

Left side, before I have totally stripped it via hand tools. I have no polishing lathe, so all polishing will be done by hand, hour upon hour, until I get them finished

silver ml500

The long slow process of polishing these rocker covers and breather covers on top of the rocker covers.
Doing it by hand this end.
I have also spent most of today just sanding and cutting back the years of pitting and oxidation on the other cover., so also now ready to be polished.

I still have the top two breather covers to cut back of 18 years of grime, then polish these also.
About 5-10% completed so far on the polishing by hand of the first rocker cover.
using good ole Autosol paste in a tin for metal polishing.


The start of hand polishing. Most people will use buffer wheels for quickness, but old school by hand is fine my end.
The above image, you can see the start of a mirror finish reflection, but the reflection gets hazy towards the bottom of the image. So have some time in polishing to make it shine more and more.


Just using items to show the start of a mirror finish beginning to show.

Still got a long way to go, but over many hours, it will take on a shine all over. Going to seal it with VHT clear lacquer.

Maybe a slow process this way, but done it this wy all my life, so will still do it this way.

I will post some more images soon, as now one cover is almost finished since i took these images, I have spent another part of the day hand polishing the cover in the images above. Now about 70% polished, getting there.
I am using VHT clear coat lacquer, in a spray can, to seal the shine in and stop it oxidizing through weathering. VHT I am using will with-stand 400 degrees centigrade on temp.
Aerosol can states up to 450 degress centigrade, but not going to expect this too much. These covers will not ever get near the max. recommended temperature, so no problem doing this

.

silver ml500

I have had to re-do the entire first cover I started above as I was not happy with the amount of pitting still showing when I began to polish it.
Re-sanded over the bad bits i did not like to see.
So, wrecked the hours of work I put in to start polishing the cover over the last two days now, but welcome to engine casing detailing.
I finished off on 8000 grade paper so will be easier to polish out the sandpaper marks.
Using flash directed at it from a camera is like putting it under a large microscope, so shows marks so much more.
When I finish them, I will do a full blown studio set-up using light boxes to show them off in here.
At present, just clicking and using onboard flash, just to show the eventaul processes of me getting down to polishing.


You will see the stages all in one in the image above.
before the start of actual grinding and polishing I have started.

The crankcase engine breather cover is actually not touched yet, but also is not marked, pitted or damaged the same as the rocker covers themselves as they do not suffer the same hot and cold and exposure to moisture and water, dirt etc,.
They are hidden under the beautification panel that sits right across the engine.
So this only needs degreased and straight to polishing.

Where the coils sit, exposed to the sides of the engine bay, even though they are high up, still allows the elements and again moisture to attack underneath the coils. No need to grind out the marks deep in the castings, as these will always be covered by the coils themselves. There is a happy medium you have to reach, as you cannot get them perfect as very old now. You would have to buy new rocker covers and polish them for 100% perfection.
Anyone who lives in a moderate climate suffers the same forces of the elements on metal.Moisture is the greatest one for attacking metal.

silver ml500

Here at last is one finished Rocker cover.
Other side will be the same when completed.
Thanks for looking in who-ever passed by.

01-Finished Rocker cover-front

02-side

03-rear

silver ml500

I last finished this post with the above pics, but unfortunately I am still not able to show you them finished and on the engine.
I got a localish powder-coating company (2 young lads), to lacquer them for me, but they messed up so badly, I have had to get them to strip off the entire lacquer they did as they did the insides of the covers also and filled all the oil-ways and where all gaskets go and oil seals inside the top covers.
I could not even get the rubber gasket that seals the cover to the top of the cyclinder head to fit in as the channel was filled with lacquer.

It was a job beyond there technical know-how and experience, and I have been stuck in lock-down ever since at this end and am still waiting to go back and pick them up, and start the polishing all over again.
This time i will spray them myself.

To me, a 72 mile round trip is just a short drive away. The garage owner is on self isolation, so will not be opened now till next week after the Xmas and new year holiday.
So two months wasted, waiting on these to be back on the vehicle.

Plus I am in - degrees centigrade this end and snow for a few weeks now, so this also stops me doing anything else as the Merc is outside in this weather and I cannot freeze my carers to death in this weather.

Today is the first for a few weeks of above freezing, so snow and ice will soon melt now, as long as no more cold spells come towards me.

silver ml500

Still off the road after a major mess-up by some young lads not knowing what they were doing.
I picked up my engine rocker covers only to discover they melted off the lacquer, but also melted the magnesium-alloy covers also.
Hydrochloric acid used in their dipping tank was too strong a mix, so they actually dissolved the covers and rendered them useless.

I managed to source a second-hand set, but some 10 years+ outside has them very pitted/oxidised.
Given to a different powder-coating company to bead blast them before i start to polish them.
This time i will spray the polish myself as I have discovered any business is out to make money by volume, NOT care and attention to detail on one single item.
This is now two separate companies I have discovered are not up to the standard as set by the industry, as these companies have no standards, only their own, which is NOT how you run any business of high quality items being turned out against a standard industry expectance of minimum quality.

Just a shame this is like this, as now too many powder-coating companies in the UK are turning out complete crap and rubbish, passed off as high-end.
I do not say this lightly unfortunately.
But when I cannot trust a company to do certain things, then something is very wrong in the business.

Here is the images of my now wrecked and ruined rocker covers.

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ChrisVannoy

Dang sorry to see your struggle with it they were definitely beautiful before the mishap
infinite blessings amigo
hopeyou have a good week

silver ml500

The time and cost is not a nice thing to have to swallow on this, but these things can and do happen.
I prey the new covers, well, knew to me, are okay to be polished, and were not hiding any problems under the state of them.
I will not know now intil next week at least.
I did the last lot all by hand, but this time i am getting them shot-blasted to get them stripped and cleaned, instead of doing these by hand, just to get the covers scrubbed before i start to hand polish them.

These are the second-hand covers, but remember they will soon clean up.


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Odd Piggy

This is a terrible experience after so much work. I had a near miss on cleaning the valve covers on my 2003 E Class. Before doing anything that would have destroyed them, I was informed that the valve covers for the M112/M113 engines are not aluminum (aluminium) They are magnesium.
You are having the new covers shot blasted for clean up. Shot blasting is very aggressive. May I suggest soda blasting? Soda blasting is recommended for softer surfaces and causes much less erosion. It is particularly good for threaded assemblies and sealing surfaces.
Good luck.

ChrisVannoy

I’m a fan of vapor blasting

Odd Piggy

Professional engine builders have used vapor successfully. A shop equipped to do it is required.

silver ml500

The owner of the powder-coating company was happy he can bead blast them no problem.
I said shell blasting, but he was confident he can get them like new and he knows they are magnesium, not alloy, as i made sure I pointed this out to him, so not as hard a metal compound. (I am now at the mercy of this second company)

Too late to do anything now anyway, as they are 99% surely done.
I was told end of the week, Thursday, so will be ready on Friday, which is now.
So what-ever I go to collect and pay for is what I end up with.

Odd Piggy

Please post pics of the result.

ChrisVannoy

if they look jacked dont pay for them

I’ll grab you a set from our local
Pick and pull for you amigo

infinite blessings

silver ml500

Old Piggy, I will certainly post pics of the finished results.

I also phoned the powder-coating company today, and they are still not ready.
Both the powder-coating companies up here are using containers in the yard, which freeze in winter, so cannot be used as airlines freeze etc.
This results in there work load piling up and creates a back-log. So my original one week till ready, has become 3 weeks in total now, as this is the second week. (For a company to be this busy, I am not going to force there hand, as this will cause grief and result in possible damage to my covers)

I was able to have a good conversation with the actual owner of the company and I asked him if he has any other form of blasting available, like soda or shell, but no was the simple answer.
he does have glass beads, which I tried explaining the science side, as in these can pulverise steel, so can be shot through magnesium.
He promises me he will turn the pressure down to a safe level that he reckons will be fine.
I also said do not go gun-ho and make them spotless and shiny, I can do this part myself.

Chris Vannoy, i will bear this in mind, thanks.

silver ml500

From this first picture, both rocker banks poilished ready for lacquer, to the second picture of the lacquer coat done wrong by a company, stripped off by same company, to ruined with acid so strong, it dissolved the magnesium covers.


Both rocker banks polished, ready for Lacquer

Now rendered useless by an acid bath actaully eating/dissolving the magnesium.

silver ml500

Sometimes things in life happen and we have to move on from it.
Everyone watching and looking at me as i went through the process of polishing my Rocjer Covers, and then at the last and final stage, have them ruined and trashed.
I then bought another set, second-hand, but after getting them eventually light water blasted, it turns out under all the oxidation and grime, the weather, over 10 years standing outside, has rendered them almost unfit for purpose.
So a double whammy to suffer.
I have had to cut my loses and move on.
I have had to use chemical metal and over 14 coats of filler/primer, paint and lacquer to get them presentable to go on my vehicle.
To sand/cut out the pitting and oxidation would have been right through the covers, so is not possible.

I now am hunting once again for a second-hand set, and will one day attampt this detailing once more.
Sorry all who followed the thread, as i was hoping to show an engine looking like something else when you opened the bonnet/hood.

Second-hand set i had to paint, as too far gone to polish

Original cover, after it was wrongly stripped by an inexperienced owner of a powder-coating company

The acid bath used has chemically dissolved the actual Magnesium alloy

Actual chunks of the Magnesium casing are gone

This is the second-hand set I bought, and after 15 coats later, you can still see how severe the pitting is underneath

I just went with high heat silver and high heat lacquer, as I need the vehicle back on the road.

The left pair are the second-hand ones i bought, but too far gone, so had to paint them instead. The right hand pair are the now ruined and destroyed originals.

These will now have to go on to get me back on the road, what a come down, to what i actaully took off the vehicle.

Yes, I am truely heart-broken and angry as to what has happened in all this, simply because i entrusted a job beyond the ability of someone in the trade.

I know fine the person that did this knows fine what they did, and will never forget it as long as they live, and i also know the person will always look back and be more careful for the rest of his working days on what he is still learning about the trade.
He is only 25 years old, so I let it go with him as this sort of thing could take him and his small company down to be honest.
This is why i suffered the entire loss and cost on this.

Odd Piggy

Disappointing.
What you have is functional and presentable, but definitely not "show quality."
Mercedes Benz dealers and various parts houses here in the US list these as still available. There is quite a premium for them though, about $750 US for the pair. If you want to go the expense, I would expect that they are available somewhere in the UK or EU so you would not have to pay to ship them back across the Atlantic.

silver ml500

Thanks Piggy,
No-one across the pond sells them, ONLY the US dealers/suppliers, as been down this road for a long time already looking across the entire EU and UK.
Merc, dealers will get them, but at merc. Dealer theft of money of course. Over £2,000 sterling the pair.
No-one in the US will ship to the UK now.
I would have to get someone over there to buy them and ship them for me.
I also have 20% vat and import duty on top of your US price now.

I will keep looking around for another second-hand pair, as i know these engines are plentiful in scrap yards now globally.
I have other bits to do on the merc, so will get these done, and hopefully by then, I will have tracked down another set second-hand.

Last option is new, but would rather try to find another set second-hand first.

Odd Piggy

For what it's worth, a seller on US eBay says he will ship to the UK.

chassis

Money usually solves things like this. If you want the new parts from the US, ring the dealer on the phone explain the situation and ask if he will ship them via UPS or FedEx. The process is simple.

Or use the ebay seller. It's expensive, but not impossible.

silver ml500

Thank-you so much for all your work that end.
I am in your debt.
I am in talks right now with the seller on your side of the pond.
Once he confirms they are not seriously pitted, which judging by his images, they look to be in very good useable condition.
These are a 10th of the price of new for me over here, so even if I bought 3 sets, I am still dollars in on money saved.

I do not get US ebay, until I can get a direct US link to something, then US eBay will show me what else sellers have in the US.
I now have three seperate sellers listing them for sale.

Obviously i have to wait till shipped, then polished up before i can once again show the world how I have detailed my engine, simply because I can, and no other reason really.

So a big thumbs up on this Piggy.