I just thought I'd share my experience with the job. The procedure was pretty straight forward and I believe most people with moderate wrenching experience can pull this off.

-Remove intake assembly
-Unbolt ignition packs
-Remove wires from packs
-Swing packs out of the way
-Decided to leave the wires on the plugs
-Remove all bolts from valve covers
---PULL OFF HOSES CAREFULLY
-Passenger side cover comes right out
-Driver side I had to disconnect fuel connection
---some gas will run out so I reconnected the line while I cleaned my covers
-Took everything inside and degreased all parts
---the small vent housings needed a little "help" to come off
-Used a high temp gasket maker to reseal the vent housings
---kept covers at room temperature indoors while everything set
-Returned to car and placed new gaskets on the covers
-Installation is reverse of removal
-Letting the car sit over night to allow full cure of gasket maker

For reference I have 35,xxx miles and it's driven almost everyday

I hope this post helps a little for those who want to tackle the job themselves and I have attached some pictures for reference. I can answer some questions if any....



Next up is transmission mount

A lot of people don't do the breathers, nice. Could you post some pictures?

Tip- Replace the left and right breather hoses or "crankcase breather hoses" that come out of the breather covers. They are about $9 per discounted. If the covers are leaking then the hoses need replacement, or do it at 50k miles on the M113 engine or M113K engine, they harden and get gunked up. Instant tune up!

I wonder if you could replace those hoses easily even if you didn't have to replace the VCG?

Sorry I forgot the pictures, they are up now. The hoses were actually in really good condition, still very malleable, clean inside and not leaking. Replacing those hoses seems pretty easy and don't think removing the valve covers is necessary.

You can replace the hoses without removing the covers. I forgot about the fuel line. Gas can get into the engine with the cover off and then you would have to change the oil. Reconnecting it was a good idea. Glad it all went well.

FYI, only put a 2mm bead of sealant on the breather cover. Use the Mercedes branded one.

Why? Gas will evaporate from oils as soon as engine warms up. We used to add gas to the oil fill cap prior to shutting the car off to make it easier to start the engine when it is really cold outside.

do you have a link to the high temp gasket maker or picture etc.

Just use a high-temp black RTV - something like this:

https://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p/...searchTerm=rtv

EVERYBODY, DO NOT DO THIS!

This guy doesn't know what he's talking about. You have to use the Mercedes branded gasket sealer. Only Mercedes has it. It comes in a small white tube. I'm sorry, I don't have a picture of it.

You have to buy it directly from Mercedes. Just go in and talk with them in the parts department or call.

I've used that Permatex quick cure black RTV on several M112/M113 breather cover jobs with no issues at all. There's nothing special about MBZ's sealant. It's just good ol' black RTV made by Loctite. If you want to stick to the MBZ brand, then by all means, use it, and wait 24 hours for it to cure.

I did use the MBZ sealant when I did the oil pan on the CLK550. I was ordering other parts and figured I'd follow the WIS guidelines on that job so as to only do it once. I also used the MBZ/Loctite softener and prep cleaner as indicated. BTW, the oil pan leak was because the MBZ dealer who did the "balance shaft" repair either didn't properly clean it and prep the surface, or didn't wait long enough for it to cure and it leaked since then. Oh, and a few weeks ago, I sealed the oil pan on an old Ford Windstar with that Permatex stuff. I was a bit hesitant to use the fast-cure stuff, but I was doing the job out of town at my oldest daughter's house and didn't have the luxury of waiting to refill and test it. It worked like a charm.

Can you tell me the torque setting for the bolts?

Hey Rudeney , I have a 2003 sl55 rough shape 80K on it I have a battery drain , I will do the fuse pull test as soon as I replace the gaskets hopefuly this weekend.
Any advice on the battery drain?

Torque for the head cover bolts is 9Nm, coil packs is 8Nm.

You should probably start a new thread (or reply to an existing one) regarding battery drain.

Ok I started the job took everything apart , breathers cover leaking really badly as well as valve cover.
What do I use to clean the grease inside and out of the covers,( brake cleaner,) ?
Also on the edges of the actual heads where the valve covers sit, there is some baked on oil how do I remove, I tried
gas and a rag still some remaining. Dont want to use wire brush and risk scratching
so I am waiting here for answer before continuing.
Please advise asap.

I used engine degreaser to get the bulk of the sludge off of the covers and breathers. Microfiber clothes do a great job of absorbing oil. Then I used a quick-flashing electrical parts cleaner to clean the kerosene residue left from the degreaser. You can CAREFULLY use a razor blade to clean the surfaces. Keep the blade as parallel as you can to the surface to prevent scratching. Don't worry about discolored areas - just rough or high spots.

Be careful with the small torx bolts/screws for the breather covers, they have a tendancy to shear, ask me how I know. Make sure you clean out the old RTV from the screw holes when you're cleaning up the covers. If you do snap any, the part number is N00 000 000 4436, apparently this is an updated design.

I cant see anything wrong in using Permatex sealant since they make a lot of very good different kind of sealants.

But i would only use original Mercedes valve cover gaskets since they are the "press" on valve covers type

But i have heard of problems when using non original gaskets both on Mercedes and BMW meaning that the non original valve covers haskets are not up to the job and you will soon have a leak again

Aftermarket head, breather cover and tranny gaskets are made of, in these cases, inferior materials to the MB genuine part. They decrepitate more quickly and leak sooner sometimes immediately after installation.

The aftermarket head cover gaskets are simply too thin. I did the repair on a C240 using Victor Reinz gaskets and they leaked a week later. I researched and found this was common with them, so I swapped to genuine MBZ gaskets. I wish I had taken a photo, but the MBZ gaskets were a good 1.5x thicker than the Reinz. And only $20 more expensive.

The breather cover gaskets (and oil pan gaskets, and head cover gaskets on the M272/M273 engines) are RTV. You can use genuine MBZ, or any good high-temp black RTV. In fact, I hear many shops use the "quick curing" black RTV with no issues.

I generally use a genuine MBZ transmission pan gasket, but since the 722.9 needs to be changed every 40K, so the gasket only needs to last that long, You can save a few bucks going aftermarket, but the genuine MBZ part is not expensive. Also, i have found it fits better, making it easier to stay in place when reinstalling the pan.