Did you buy this car from someone in Va.? Is it the black one monkeey boy was selling?

 

You might want to check the plug wires too. If the plugs were changed and the wires were yanked off by the wire and not the boot pry method then there could be wire damage. Grab a mulitmeter and check them. Also check any vacuum lines and look inside the throttle body for oil saturation.

 

they rented it to me... too bad it had a dead battery and didnt turn on LOL.

 

no, PA.

 

Ok, so I pulled the plugs from cyl 2. Yuck. Oil and no gap for the plugs to spark. See attached pic. I cleaned the plugs and put them back in and the car ran perfectly... For about 20 miles home. I started the car up again and the issue came back. Guess I should be changing out all 16 plugs to fix this once and for all. Best place to order them? No one stocks these plugs locally except the stealership at $22 a piece.

 

did you scan the car again?was it the same cyl and when the car ran like crap did the plugs have oil on them again?

 

i have not scanned the car... it misfired cyl 2 like 8 times consistently when i did scan it.

i have not checked the plugs yet to see if they are dirty again.

 

You need to scope that cylinder. Pull a set of plugs from another cylinder just for comparison.

 

I pulled one plug from cyl 5 a few days back and it seemed fine... What should I be looking for in the cylinder?

 

Those plugs are oil fouled. So, where is all this oil coming from? Most likely senario is that you broke the ring lands. You also said the gap was closed. If they were closed up, then something must have hit them. You will most likely see a chipped piston with the scope. I know that seems harsh, but that is the truth on what you are presenting so far.

 

this is looking more and more like a failed cylinder and engine rebuild isnt it? Not even 30 days within owning the car...

 

The gap was not closed. There was no gap due to the oil fouling the plug. Once I cleaned the plugs, the gap was back in the plug.

 

I wish you luck with your car dude.

 

Bottom line dont drive it anymore. Get 2nd cylinder scoped, looks like a piston ring / ring land is toast.

Not end the world but it's an opportunity to put in forged pistons all round... While she is open may as well.

Sorry for your misfortune it's a real bummer, but from what you say it's repairable.

 

Yup, it's repairable. The plugs in my bad cylinders looked almost identical with heavy oil deposits on them. The only unfortunate part about it is that it takes time to fix. I was hoping to have mine up and running within 2-3 months...8 months later it was finally running.

I've got forged pistons in mine now and it's been running strong. I've now got 1400 miles on the rebuild. The only downfall I can think of is that they clack like crazy when they are cold. Not the noise you'd typically want to hear coming from a Benz.

Time to yank the engine and get 'er dun!

 

So sorry Rob! Was really hoping for an easy fix.

Not said to you, but to future searchers of this thread, PLEASE get compression tests done before buying a used E55!

 

+1

I always say get a PPI no matter what, CPO or not. Even if the car is under warranty because time is money, too. Get a compression and leak down test done, full PPI.

 

8 months? I can't afford to be without a car that long. My tech thinks the valve seals are shot and we just need to rebuild the head.

 

That's what I thought too. I replaced my valve seals first and then ended up pulling the engine. That much oil on the spark plugs would only happen if the valve seals were missing. I've rebuilt a lot of engines in my day and valve seals never seem to be the culprit to oil consumption issues.

Have your tech scope the cylinder bore to see if there is any scoring on the walls. It is easy to get into one of the plug holes with one. A picture is worth a thousand words. I've got one now...but sure wish I had one before I went through the needless exercise of replacing my valve seals with the engine in the car.

It took that long for me because pistons aren't stocked parts for anyone. They are cut to order which means they need to squeeze 1 set in between their "real" customers that are ordering thousands. I also had the misfortune of ordering my set during the time race season was ramping up.

If I had to do it all over again, I would have resleeved the block with IRON sleeves and punched it out to 6 liters. Screw that fancy Alusil crap. It's nice in concept, but the tried and true method has the benefit of simplicity on its side.

Keep us posted!

 

anyone have a suggested shop in New England that would be the best place to take my car?
my tech doesnt have the time to work on a big project like this.

 

Who was the previous owner? Was it a dealer purchase?

 

Interesting question. The sale went through a dealer but I paid the owner directly.

PA has no used car lemon law either...

 

Lemon law only pertains to new cars and you have to be the first owner. The reason I was asking is you may have some recourse through the selling dealer. Please tell me the owner was not a young hairy little Indian guy! If it was and your car is black, I am pretty sure that was the little monkeey boy that got banned here and was selling cars he said were his but were not. Did you sign any paper work saying as-is?

 

Sucks to see you have to deal with this after having it for less than 30 days. From what i remember, he got the car for $32k on ebay. Owner owned a lambo and few other nice cars and decided to sell the E55. Wonder if the owner knew about this issue and decided to sell the car.


Maybe you can go to the dealer and get some goodwill to fix the issue?

 

I agree, I would go to the dealer and see if they can help out somehow.

Who knows, they are Satan, but sometimes you may catch Satan having a good day.