So my engine made a loud clunking noise and stopped one day. I tried to start it and then was a shudder and then nothing. Anyways I thought straight away, headbolt failure. I tried turning it by hand, it seems jammed.

Headache, I know, but luckily I've actually got another smashed E63 which I purchased for parts for a third car (I sold) and that still had the engine and is running fine.

So I've removed the jammed engine (gearbox attached, just gonna use the other gearbox attached to the good engine) and I'm putting this one in.

What should I do while the engine is out? I mean preventative maintenance wise as accessibility is hard when it's in the car, it's a big engine shoehorned in a not so huge area. Hell you can't even get the manifolds out without lifting the engine.

So what do you guys think? Headbolts, gaskets, lifters.....

By the way regarding the headbolts, are the revised ones good enough or are ARP ones necessary for complete piece of mind? Also how much is a set from the dealership?

 

I have no idea but I'm just impressed you have another m156 laying around!

baller-4-life

 

How many miles did it have on it? You are going to swap engines completely and scrap that one due to a headbolt issue?

IDK about everyone else but a swapped engine on an AMG would decrease the value in my eyes, the whole one man one engine thing is a cool selling feature but from swap on if you ran the vin in private lounge it wouldn't match up.

 

Watch this guys vids , he has 10 part videos rebuilding m156 engine for stage 3 weistec supercharger , he put new camshafts , diamond pistons , and special connecting rods made in Italy ,you might find some info useful also shoot him a comment or question he will reply

 

I know his videos, he's very good. I don't however think I have the skills to rebuild an engine to be honest. Just gonna sell the other engine as a potential rebuild for anyone wanting to forge the internals and if the cylinder is scored or damaged, sleeve the thing or something.

hahaha I'm lucky I have the other car because now I'm ****ed, if I didn't I would be ROYALLY ****ed. I bought the other car to repair another car with. It's been smashed and is just for parts. The thing is, I looked at the other engine today and I'm seeing some oil residue on the block outside. I'm gonna drop it soon I'll post pics. I hope it's nothing bad. I'm gonna get my mechanic to look at it and give me an opinion.

I didn't have a choice but to drop the other one by the way, I can't just have the car sitting not running or worse, take it to the dealer so they can charge me an insane amount of money to tell me I have to repair it for an even more insane value. I'm just not that kind of person that throws money at a problem and makes it go away no matter how much it takes. Maybe if I'm rich one day I will but the dealership is ridiculous and besides, what happened is obvious.

The best outcome would be that the other engine isn't destroyed like I think and all I did was waste a little time but honestly, doing the swap hasn't really taken much of my time. I've hardly actually worked on it yet I've taken everything that needs to come off, off, and I understand what needs to happen when it goes back.

I however am not skilled enough to rebuild the engine itself, I'm not gonna fool myself and try. Maybe if I saw and helped someone do it I could learn but I honestly don't have the time right now to do these hobby time of things and it's not like someone is gonna teach me for free, so I'll be paying to learn and losing money from not working.

I might be selling the car after repairing it though. The M156 is just not reliable. I have my M157 which are much more reliable. The M156 is a glorious engine when it's working but with the lifters and the head bolts and the this and the that. The only issue I've seen with the M157 is that the highly modded 4matic ones bend rods, which is irrelevant to me. Also they burn some oil but that's ok. Much more solid motor.

 

 

I would love to build a spare M156 over the winter. Whether or not I can afford to do that is another story