MB 1120 Coming to America! Purchase, Build and Now Travel!

[VerMonsterRV]

So the assembly has started. There was a small crack found in the head between a valve and injector hole. Have gotten info from 2 separate sources that this is fairly normal in these heads and not a problem. Though to be sure we are planning on installing the head with all new gaskets and then doing a pressure/smoke test before the oil pan goes back on.


The crank bearings and injector sleeves arrived today and then realized the "bearing set" only was the crank and not rod bearings. So another order is needed. The UPS guy must be getting used to this.
And here are a few random shots of the destruction






We have been very lucky to find this shop and our mechanic. I appreciate careful and methodical work and he is very good at that. Every part is being carefully cleaned and inspected, holes chased and lube used. If anyone every needs a MB truck worked on in this area (Seattle) I can highly recommend these guys. Now a caveat, they are great mechanics but need help with the specs of the engine and parts . Kind of expect this in the USA so I am ok with that.

 

[VerMonsterRV]

And the head is back in place and the coolant system passed the pressure/smoke test! With any luck we will be able to fire the engine up tomorrow and drive out of here feeling much better about the condition of the engine.

 

[VerMonsterRV]

All is back together and we are back on the road! This is Jeremy putting the finishing touches on all of his hard work. I told him he could smile but I am pretty sure he was very pleased on how well it all went. He has worked on older Volvo's and Macks and say there are a lot of similarities. Heck, even said he is pretty sure they used some of the same parts. Had a bit of a miss though, I thought I had an oil filter but ended up didn't. I usually mail order them as I know where to get the Mann brand. After a bunch of calls I ended up finding a Baldwin equivalent about 14 miles away. I hopped on the motorbike and went picked a couple up. Out of curiosity I asked what they usually stocked these for. He looked it up on the computer and came back with "Mercedes" and gave me my original part number. Kind of shocked they had them, but not complaining!


So time will tell if we are all set, got to get a few miles on it to see but I am pretty sure he nailed our problem. I think the majority of the issue was the injector cups. Just a little o-ring that keeps coolant where it belongs. My recommendation for anyone with older engines with this style of cups is to replace them (parts are cheap as chips if you pre-order them from Europe, you can get all aftermarket). The job is not too difficult/expensive if caught early. Ours was way more involved/expensive because I did not know. And lastly, if you have one of these trucks and have the service manual/EPC (which we all should) the Tec Equipment guys are great. Between Jeremy and another mechanic that has 30+ years they can get the job done. Pretty sure they could do an entire rebuild if needed.

On the topic of parts, I have used a company call SpareTo out of I think Latvia. They use DHL Express for parts so they generally arrive within a week. They have access to a lot of aftermarket parts (which a lot of them were OEM to begin with, Behr, Mahle etc). If I could have planned some of this stuff ahead better I could have saved a few hundred bucks.

So off to have a bit of fun today with a smooth running engine! Thanks to all of you who helped with your knowledge. Groups like this are litteraly a fountain of knowledge.https://www.tecequipment.com/seattle/?utm_source=gmb&utm_medium=website&utm_campaign=website

 

[VerMonsterRV]

Well we are not smiling this morning, just did a check and we are still going thru coolant and it is getting in the oil. About the only thing left I can think of is a bad oil cooler but ours is the external plate one and not sure how that one could leak. The pic is the oil cooler plate. Really getting a bit tired of this.

 

[Madoxen]

Urrrrrggggg. I feel your frustratiom :-(, you are 100% sure the head is not warped from a previouse life ?
It would probably be wise to pull the cooler if you can and see what it is doing .
If u want u can pm me your chassis number and i can ask some local mb me hs for their suggestions. Really do hope this gets resolved soon for you.

 

[VerMonsterRV]

Urrrrrggggg. I feel your frustratiom :-(, you are 100% sure the head is not warped from a previouse life ?
It would probably be wise to pull the cooler if you can and see what it is doing .
If u want u can pm me your chassis number and i can ask some local mb me hs for their suggestions. Really do hope this gets resolved soon for you.

Thanks for the offer and I might take you up on that. We checked the head when it was on the bench and it was flat. We also checked the top of the block. All was good. No sign of any leaks at the head gasket actually. I just went to the local auto-parts store and used their tool loan offer to get a coolant pressure check. I did put it on and the coolant system was not holding pressure. Tomorrow I will warm the engine a bit, pull the valve cover and pressurize the coolant system.

I have been getting some technical MB engine help from a retired MB mechanic in Germany. Great guy to share his know how with me. He feels that the oil cooler is ok, as the oil system is always at higher pressure than the coolant system. If we were getting oil into the coolant then we would check that. But we are getting coolant into the oil, so it has to be coming from a place with no pressure. So under the valve cover. The mechanic went all thru that but I feel they missed 2 points. I had wanted the head to be magnafluxed and pressure checked. They magnafluxed it but did not do a pressure check. Then we did not do a coolant pressure check once it was all back together. I really should have asked for that. There are the injector sleeves with o-rings, but we replaced those and torqued to spec. The other thing we did not touch are some flush hex socket plugs in the top of the head. I think they are where the coolant flows. I am going to look very closely at those.

 

[wfv56]

Man I hope the loss is one of the easy spots. With the head passing inspection and head gasket intact a crack in the engine block is worrisome. Hoping for the best!!

 

[Wazak]

I'd still be tempted to pull the oil cooler and pressure test it for the price of a few gaskets and o'rings and a couple of hours Labour.

 

[Sitec]

I'd still be tempted to pull the oil cooler and pressure test it for the price of a few gaskets and o'rings and a couple of hours Labour.

I tend to agree... Just remember, when you turn the engine off, the coolant remains under pressure for quite a few hours after you have stopped... It then sits in the bottom of the sump as the oil floats on water, until you turn the key the next day. Once the engine is running that water then gets mixed into the oil. The other thing I'd be doing is dropping the sump off, and then pressure testing the coolant system... With the sump off, it might show you where water is dripping from....

 

[VerMonsterRV]

I tend to agree... Just remember, when you turn the engine off, the coolant remains under pressure for quite a few hours after you have stopped... It then sits in the bottom of the sump as the oil floats on water, until you turn the key the next day. Once the engine is running that water then gets mixed into the oil. The other thing I'd be doing is dropping the sump off, and then pressure testing the coolant system... With the sump off, it might show you where water is dripping from....

I agree about the coolant remains under pressure but I am pretty sure it disappears as we drive. I have had to stop and refill. One of the differences I see with RV life vs sailing is where to DIY work. Sailing was easy, you pulled into a boatyard and depending on the yard you could do what you needed to do. Still haven't figured out how to do this with the truck as most RV parks don't allow you to work on your truck.

 

[Joe917]

Why don't you ask the Expo Portal. If you give your location and ask I am sure someone here can give you space to work.

 

[Joe917]

If you are losing liters of coolant into the oil you have to stop running the engine. Bearing failures will be next. You may have to float the truck to a location to deal with it.

 

[VerMonsterRV]

If you are losing liters of coolant into the oil you have to stop running the engine. Bearing failures will be next. You may have to float the truck to a location to deal with it.

Yes, we are parked now. The bearings were just replaced a few days ago. All part of the $6k engine repair that was supposed to fix our coolant issue. I am opening the valve cover this morning with the coolant system under pressure. If I do not see anything the oil pan comes off.

 

[luthj]

For repairs, you might see if there are any farm stays, or similar. Often they are more friendly to maintenance, and don't mind a paying customer doing a bit of work. You can also post up a request to the forums. Several times I have done so and gotten a place to park up and doing some work.

Its a long shot, but if you can find a quiet enough location, you could drain the cooling system and pressurize it with 20psi of air. Then listen for a leak. A HVAC leak detector which detects the high frequency sound of a leak would make this much easier, and often can detect leaks behind equipment panels.

 

[VerMonsterRV]

I removed the valve cover and pressurized the coolant system. Coolant was seriously leaking out of the center hex plug in the head. Drained some coolant, removed the plug, which was pretty loose, thread sealed and torqued. Re-pressurized and sprayed contact cleaner on all these plugs. Another one was fizzing very slightly. Working on getting that one out to re-seal as it is very tight. I know I have said this before but I think this was the problem. Once back together I will drain and refill the oil. Drive for 50 miles and repeat till squeaky clean.