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M117 450 Timing chain and valve stem seals

I just got my 450SLC back from having the timing chain, tensioner, camshaft oiler tubes and valve stem seals replaced. These are all jobs that any owner of a Mercedes V8 of this era will need to undertake at some point.

The primary driver behind this was the need to replace the valve stem seals. A couple of my sparkplugs, #1 in particular, would regularly foul up. I didn’t have a lot of visible smoke, but I did see the odd puff of smoke taking off after a period idling. This is a pretty common problem in these engines. Age, […]

April 6th, 2024 | Tags: , , | Category: Mercedes | Leave a comment

The 560SEC has stopped smoking

My 560SEC had a problem where it would emit a puff of smoke after idling. This was rather embarrassing taking off from the lights. It did give me the advantage of keeping people back who got too close. My assumption was that it was cause by old valve stem seals. As the seals get old, they get hard and allow a small amount of oil to seep through into the combustion chamber when the car is at idle.

When the car is idling, the throttle is mostly closed resulting in high vacuum. The high vacuum causes oil in the heads […]

March 3rd, 2019 | Tags: , , , | Category: Mercedes | 2 comments

560SEC Timing chain and valve stem seals

The Timing chain replacement is almost finished on the 560SEC. The new chain is installed, guides fitted and valve stem seals replaced. I stopped by the workshop to pick something up that I had left in the car and I was able to see it almost done.

The photo shows the new chain in place with all new guides. They are a much better colour than the old ones! My timing for this repair was good as one of the existing guides was broken. This car is now my third 560SEC, and the third one where I have sent […]

February 22nd, 2019 | Tags: , , | Category: Mercedes | 5 comments

560SEC Upcoming Projects

I’ve been preparing for the next round of improvement projects for the 560SEC. The most important is the Timing Chain and Valve Stem seals. I’m not going to do this job myself and am hoping to save a little labour cost by having both the stem seals and the chain done at the same time. I had previously checked the Timing chain and while it looked like it had been replaced before, the guides were getting quite old.

The parts below are all that is needed to perform this job. On the top row from the left the first are […]

December 15th, 2018 | Tags: , , , , , | Category: Mercedes | 2 comments