E63 - Blown Engine
 

Can't believe my nephew's 2008 E63 with approximately 85K has a blown engine. Camshaft broke and valves were hitting the piston. Sure broke my heart and faith in AMG designed motors.

Without knowing the history of the car, it's hard to put all the blame on the engine or AMG..

What this fool said.

don't really forsee that happening with a hydraulic lifter type engine without warning. can't cry wolf without seeing the wolf. hydraulic lifters usually show signs of failure before failure. camshafts don't just snap during normal operations unless engine was serviced incorrectly. or aftermarket camshaft uses that had a sub par metal treatment process.

but i could be wrong...where's the pics? did he over rev the engine?

brand new account, 1 post history, a ten year old extreme high performance car in the hands of his 'nephew'

yeah, totally legit. i'm sure his nephew is a harvard doctorate student who drives it 4 miles a day to class and never revs over 2k RPM and changes the oil twice per week, all service intervals honored at the local dealer

Broken camshaft?? I don't think so.

The M156 engine isn't known for breaking camshafts. So I find this post very confusing.

maybe he has a E350 with AMG package :nix:

I would think a cam cap would break if the cams were replaced and not tightened down slowly to distribute pressure across the bump stick. The cams are hollow and if a tappet stuck you might be able to break one but who really knows until you open it up and inspect it.

Actually, I witnessed a few "Master" techs at the dealerships over the years break the camshafts on M156 engines by doing this.. an electric ratchet is not an engine assembly tool.. :smash:

that can happen for any camshaft driven engine. this is why you must follow proper bolt tightening order.

The engine was well maintained. That 6.2 engine by AMG is worthless. Stick with the 5.4. If the 6.2 was that great, they would have continued it. It is known to have cam problems and head bolt problems. You can check out Weistec - they made a number of parts to render the engine functional for high performance. What this tells me is AMG is good at engine mods but not at building engines. If you want a designed engine, go to Brabus or Kleemann.

I appreciate your sarcasm but it seems you can't deal with reality. It is what it is - well maintained AMG with a blown motor. I've owned a number of AMGs and they are great cars. But I would stay away from the 6.2 liter unless it is a 12-banger.

What I was trying to say, is that the M156 engine isn't know for breaking camshaft, not that you can't break one.

M156 best naturally aspired V8 on the planet still today. Obviously omitting its slight design faults in that statement.

though I won't argue with OP that the m113 was a better motor :)

With that logic, people would still be driving steam engines, I am sure people back then thought it was one of greatest things.

i don't necessarily agree with that...this was AMG's first "mass produced" consumer engine that was not in a super car. super cars and race built engines aren't expected to have extended miles put on them so the design flaws we have encountered may not have been something they're accompanied to. by design the M156 itself is an amazing engine.

then we move onto the M157 engine... i believe there is concern of crank issues or rod past 800hp? the M156 doesn't have those issues and have been proven time and time again to take the abuse of 800hp unopened. excluding headbolt, lifters, and adjuster concerns. in regards to lifters and adjusters in general it almost feels like those are a concern due to gunk causing sticking. when i replaced my lifters they had zero issues at 117-121k miles. camshaft adjusters on the other hand...at times do have a loud tick it would seem. upon my next oil change i plan to run an engine flush to thoroughly clean what maybe sticky.

Funny how its like a political or religious argument when it comes to some things to do with cars. Reminds me of my high school days arguing that Chevrolet is better than a ford or ?
Instead of insulting the guy in his first post. You could look into the articles and study's done to show german auto engines are not ranked the highest for durability. All mechanical things can break.
And since now even places like MB are not doing all the work and making all the parts in house. And rather than poo on someone for bad mouthing a possible ill designed or ill manufactured item, I'd look to see where the failed part or parts where made at. Were they made at MB in germany? Where they made at MB in brazil? Where they made at MB in china? That will help determine the problem.
Most act like the guy was just out to bad mouth a beloved item.

At the end of the day, it is very unfortunate that the OP's nephew had an engine failure. I wouldn't wish that catastrophe on anyone or any car make. The M156 engine like any engine can have a major failure. What we have little info on in this case is in regards to regular maintenance (oil and filter services - OP says well maintained...), oil type, if the headbolts had been done, if the tappets had been updated, etc... Think of the Porsche 996 and early 997 engines with the dreaded IMS bearing issue - a potential time bomb that could happen with little to no notice. Vast majority of these engines didn't suffer catastrophic failure, but it was a known weakness that could strike any one of the cars with those engines installed and the solution (revised IMS bearing) could be as expensive as head bolts/tappets/gaskets job for the M156.

What we do know is that the M156 engines do have headbolt failure issues and do have tappet issues. Doesn't happen to every engine, but these are well known issues that have affected some engines. The 09 E63 I am buying has had that work done, so I feel comfortable buying the car, just I would buying a 2005 Porsche 997 if the IMS bearing had been replaced proactively.

OP is not happy that his nephew's E63 had an engine failure. That is not an indictment on the M156, but he feels justified in expressing this. Most of us strongly disagree. Is what it is. Move on.

There are a few M156's that have been supercharged and have bent conrods. There is an engine rebuilder on youtube (tasos moschatos), he opens many of these engines for routine upgrades, and finds that the conrods are bent in most supercharged M156's

These engines are like everything else is manufacturing and engineering, trade offs. In manufacturing the main trade off is quality versus cost, and is why the dealer finds ways to back out of some warranty work. And sorry to disappoint the use of aluminum is a trade off it lacks strength but it saves weight and is cheap to manufacture. There are lots of other trade offs in these engines that I see, and a reason for some of the problems that they seem to have. There are many corners cut as well in the design of some components.

Alusil lasts a whole lot longer than a steel liner and it is not a cheaper manufacturing process. It has much better wear characteristics than steel/iron lined engines. The problem with the NA 63 engine is caused by bad head bolts and cam wear lobe wear. Not defending that engine because they are very prone to failure whereas most MB engines are pretty solid.