Sulaco

no, I'm sour that the m156 isn't as cheap to fix or reliable. I would jump from my s211 into an s212 in a heartbeat if that were true. I prefer n/a cars to boosted. The 156 sounds better, as well.

I also still have my 55 swapped C43 mainly because the 204 C63 is an expensive time bomb by comparison. I would LOVE to pick up one of those too. But you can't escape the fact that you can buy a neglected, abused, high miles C43/C55 and the engine will be fine 99% if the time. But a similar condition C63 will be a very risky bet. One popped up for sale earlier in the year for 7k with 200k miles and I was so tempted to snag it but I just couldn't muster the guts. I've personally bought 2 C43's in similar condition and both had their issues but the motors have zero issues outside leaky valve covers.

ArmoE55

Using that flawed logic, you could say ANY motor from ANY make can be made reliable.

Yuille36

Lord knows I have put a ton of money into the E63 over the years, to include engine work. So, you're absolutely right any engine can be made more reliable, it just depends how much money you are willing to throw at the issue.

HLG600

Except I wouldn't say that. The only "flawed logic" here is yours for attempting to twist a specific comment about a specific platform into a broad generalization that has zero relevance to this discussion.

The two main failure points tracing back to early M156s (head bolts and lifters) are components that AMG improved upon for the M159 and then applied to M156s from that point forward.

Apply those improved components to early M156s like many do and voila, those failure points are eliminated.

Later-year M156s, like all M156s, are also still affected by fuel injectors, corroding intake manifolds and cam adjusters.

ArmoE55

Haha, yea, OK, sure. Tell that to all the early production M156 car owners that went through all that headache to improve their motors (we aren't talking about a minor update, we are talking heavy motor work here) and I'm willing to bet all my vehicles they'd disagree with you about any M156 being reliable after all those changes. Give me a break with those BS comments...

Drifter2090

​​​​​​I mean I did all that work on my 2007 m156 which already had 139k miles, and definitely feel the car is still very reliable and can go many more miles still.

Don't really understand all the hate for this engine, I had to do rod bearings and many other expensive preventative fixes on my BMW M3's which are much more involved and costly than the work on the m156. Even still, I love both the S65 and the M156.

HLG600

Which owners are you referring to? If you had any current experience with the platform, you'd be aware of the numerous early examples out there today with 150-200K+ miles on them...some even with the original head bolts.

My M156 car is an '09, so Year 3 of production. No failure, thankfully, nor any symptoms, but I replaced those components as a preventive measure. No headaches either, just knowing what I was getting into and taking some steps to keep my experience enjoyable.

You're also missing the point. No one is claiming that the early M156 engines came from the factory as reliable as the later ones. However, the fact of the matter is that one can clearly make an early M156 engine as reliable as one later in the production run. Head bolts and lifters are indeed nothing small, but nothing that crazy either.

ArmoE55

Im just messing with you, it’s not that serious.

cheers!

bobgodd

FWIW, I think the M113K has it's own issues, but I think it gets underreported because a lot of owners simply don't do the maintenance, or sell the cars before they become too problematic. That being said, the issues are mostly non-destructive so I'd guess a lot of M113K car owners simply keep driving and are none the wiser.

The harmonic balancer is a big one that's starting to show up a lot these days as the cars continue to age. The supercharger pully portion of the balancer is becoming delaminated and best case just falls off and takes the belt with it, worse case blows through the radiator and other things in that direction.

nd-photo.nl

@bobgodd Amen! I just had the balancer replaced after I detected a wobble which I didnt feel comfortable about. In the end the wobble was normal (when stationary with low revs), as the new pulley also showed that behaviour.

More info (and pics) in my picture heavy build thread: https://mbworld.org/forums/c219/8443...ml#post8641143

Yuille36

I know for a fact that this C63 owner harmonic balancer came apart, eating into the engine cover. But he had other issues as well, and that is why Eddie had the heads off, and the upper and lower oil pan off as well.