hesperus

ok, here's one for you engineering sherlock holmes on here...

my car is a W210 E55, but they told me on the 210 forums that there's tons of knowledgeable guys on here, so i hope y'all will forgive me for asking my question here.

sequence of events:

1. last drove my car ('98 W210 E55, all stock) about 4 days ago. car ran PERFECT then;
2. parked her at home, under car cover; weather has been nice & sunny here;
3. tried to start the engine, but it would only crank for about 1/2 sec and then stop, felt like the battery was very weak;
4. on about my 3rd or 4th try to start it, there's a loud BOOM that set off the neighbors' cars' alarms, and some white smoke coming from under the hood

pics tell the rest of the story.

no water or oil spilling out anywhere (other than what you can see in the pics).

again, the engine was NOT running when it went boom (and it literally was a "boom"), it was being cranked.

any ideas? some kind of freak hydrolock? i'm guessing my engine is FUBAR.

this happened about 2 hours ago, and its dark out now, so won't get to investigate further until tomorrow.

whipplem104

It is an intake backfire. This should only require a new intake and what ever is
wrong that caused the backfire. Normally a airmass sensor or bad fuel or leaky injector. Good luck.

hesperus

thanks for the quick reply! that's a bit of good news right there!

would the backfire be consistent with the "hard cranking" i noticed?

thanks again!

emoving

Probally a bad tune! JK OP!

speedybenz

You will need to pull your spark plugs and check compression in each cylinder. If is was a leaking injector it could have put enough fuel into the engine to hydro-lock it slightly. That would cause the hard cranking.

But if you check each cylinder and they all come up the same then I would think you are allright. If you have one cylinder with very low compression you may have bent a rod or broken the piston.

Jeff

Yacht Master

+1 on the backfire, Provided your compression test goes well, I would scan for codes, replace intake manifold, then replace the crank position sensor.

hesperus

thanks a million for the inputs guys!

i take it this has happened before? though it can't be too common! i've seen lots of holed blocks, from overrevs, detonation, hydrolock, but never something like this...

so it sounds like... BEST case, i need to replace my intake, MAF and whatever else was damaged up there?

and WORST case, i may need a piston and/or conrod replaced, plus the associated work?

ok, WORST case is my engine is gone, but that's probably remote at this point? or is that wishful thinking?

mekantor

Have you pulled the spark plugs yet?

wizos6

I love this guy!

KLR CLS

Intake backfire +3. I had nitrous backfire in a 5.0 fox mustang back in the day. Blow my airbox into a milion pieces. Also expanded the plenum of my GT40 intake, which subsequently made more power. Like others said, check plugs, ignition coils, injectors, then replace IM and asociated sensors. should live to fight another day.

hesperus

well then this day isn't ending as crappy as i thought then!

will have the car towed to the shop tomorrow or thurs, and then we'll see what there is to see!

thanks a million! you guys are great!

hesperus

haven't had a chance to visit the car at the garage today, but they called and said the compression test went fine. so looks like i dodged a major bullet.

will post pics later this week when i actually see the car.

now i just need a surplus manifold. have a couple offers, so am weighing options...

thanks!

AUS-E55

you did see this one for sale right here on Mbworld.org

https://mbworld.org/forums/engine-pe...0-e55-amg.html

hesperus

ok, car's all fine now... well, been using it the past week, and all seems to be fine.

all that needed replacing was the intake manifold and plugs. everything else was A-Ok. got the intake off someone on here too! many thanks!

guess i dodged a bullet for sure...

thanks for all the help guys!

SaMaS

glad everything worked out fine ! enjoy your baby !

KLR CLS

Great stuff. Glad she's back together for you..

pearlpower

Did you find out what the cause was to begin with? I would be very anxious driving around in a car that went BOOM without finding the original problem.

amgalex

I agree, this can happen again. You need to figure out what caused it in the first place..
Did you check your injectors?

Fabio D

1+ This problem s caused by a fuel injector stuck oppened try to check yours in a fuel injection diagnostic bank

Fabio Daniel

telpsicorei

Scary, but im glad everything worked out nicely.

PS, this is probably the least of your worries, but your breather cover on the passenger side cylinders has gone bad. Mine was all oily like that as well, and i thought it was a leaky injector for some stupid reason... Simple fix, permatex ultra grey and 1.5 hours.

210fan

I have seen this once before at my dealer. We suspect the owner of the car over filled the gas tank. We found the charcoal canister full of fuel. It could also be the diafragm in the fuel filter press regulator. Does any of seem like it could apply to you? The car has never had any more problems with this again. Hope I have helped.

SleepersRock

What and where is the charcoal canister?

210fan

In the right rear fender well. Between the tire and the trunk under the finder liner. Also check the fuel filter pressure regulator. In the left rear in front of the tire, under a plastic panel. Remove the smallest hose on the center of the filter. If fuel comes out of the line or the filter the diafragm is busted.