Took apart my valve covers to take a peak at the cams. Left bank looks pretty good in profile and lack of pitting. Right side cams look good, some pitting on one of the lobes on cylinder 6. None of the tappets show any wear for as much as I could see. Cams have no play from previously shown in Tasos videos.

this image is from the only lobe I saw pitting. Looks like the profile is still good.


Driver side bank - cylinder 6 intake cam


Drivers side bank - cylinder 6 intake cam lobe

Does this look like normal wear for 63k miles? Oil is always Mobil 1 0w-40 every 5k miles.

not normal wear for 63k miles if there are no issues with buckets/lifters...you may have an oiling issue in that area to see that much wear. how does the #6 bucket look? are the buckets original?

#6 bucket looked fine. Of course it was hard
to really get the full picture because the engine was under compression so I couldn’t unload the tappets. From the best that I could see all looked ok.

I know the lifters have been revised, did the cams ever get revised?

as far as I know the cams never were revised; cam adjusters, bucket lifters, and HB's yes.

thanks for the info - in an effort to try to prevent further damage I am taking the preventative end and have on order four cams, and 32 sls (non black series) tappets. Also have timing tool in route. I plan on attacking this job this weekend.

I’ve seen many videos, from Tasos and also from accentoncars, can anyone share the relevant documents carrying out torque values for the cam holders, bridges and maybe even the timing wis? I would deeply appreciate this.

from what I’ve seen it is pretty straight forward.

-crank at 40deg (dead on)
-never rotate counter clockwise
-set cams to correct timing position (via rear bar from timing kit)
-lock them via front brace
-set cam adjuster positions via front plate
-torque down cam bolt

New cam bolts and diamond washers. Does this look like a good summary? Of course I am missing certain details, but anyone willing to share some feedback I would deeply be thankful.

So, I’ll just reply to my own post lol - went ahead and replaced both intake and exhaust cams on both banks. Also replaced the lifters from the SLS (non black series). They’re quite different tbh, not just in the coating, but the internal chamber.

All went pretty routine, the m156 seems to be an easy engine to work on. The methodology to set timing on this car has been made very easy.

Car now has no ticking noises whatsoever. The only thing you ever hear (aside from exhaust and engine noise) are the injectors.

very nice, bet it feels good getting it done, and done by yourself

Sure was rewarding. Really, I am glad I had the chance to work on such an engine.

I will be removing cam covers every 20k miles just to inspect. Oddly enough, the camshaft adjusters have no play in them. Apparently this is not common at 64k miles.

Did you remove the 5 bolts from each Cam Adjuster to see if there was any wearing of the locking plate from the pin? If not, just eyeballing them won’t tell you anything. But if it’s running well now with no strange clicking noises, then you should be OK! Good on ya for busting the move yourself!