OWNER ArauzMotoring

[gsxr]

Here is the ISPPI entry for the M119 (.97x) valve cover gaskets:

Thanks, Gerry! This shows ISPPI has partially correct information. And, it somewhat matches what RevParts shows. However, RevParts is missing both the required supplemental number, AND is missing the quantities. Details below.

I think ISPPI may eventually get this fixed as they receive feedback from unhappy customers. RevParts may not ever get this fixed, I've never seen RevParts display the supplemental required p/n's, nor quantities.


ISPPI has the left valve cover data correct... shows Qty 4 needed for the round gaskets:



But, it does NOT have correct data for the right gasket. It should roll to one #08 plus four #05, and they have this backwards.

 

[Jlaa]

I did some more digging on this.

Valve cover gasket kit 119-010-13-30 (left / driver side, M119.97x) consists of:

Main gasket 119-016-07-21​

Round gaskets 119-016-05-21 (Qty=4)​

Valve cover gasket kit 119-010-14-30 (right / passengerside, M119.97x) consists of:

Main gasket 119-016-08-21​

Round gaskets 119-016-05-21 (Qty=4)​

​

​

There are bad supercessions in the RevParts websites which are going to cause all sorts of headaches for people.

When you enter the the old left kit p/n, 119-010-13-30, Rev Parts supercedes to 119-016-07-21 (main gasket only, NO round gaskets)​

When you enter the the old right kit p/n, 119-010-14-30, Rev Parts supercedes to 119-016-05-21 (one round gasket only, NO main gasket at all)​

What a mess. I am curious if Xentry Parts or Paragon has the correct supercession data. Or ISPPI... @gerryvz, can you look this up and see if ISPPI has correct data?

On the bright side, the parts are not NLA! Just a hassle to order the correct numbers.




PS: The copper O-rings required for the valve cover bolts are p/n 007603-006106, total of 18 required. Get aftermarket O-rings which are a fraction of the cost of OE. And, order a few extra in case they are dropped or lost.

THANK YOU SIR!!!!

 

[ArauzMotoring]

You guys are awesome for all this detective work in helping get the right parts!!


One evening the car just sounded real awful and down on power and felt as if it were running on four cylinders.. I drove home after work and parked it…

I’m my search to make my 500E great again, I scoured the internets for a local Mercedes specialist with experience fixing up W124’s and M119 engines… Called a few places that seemed promising, but none that were fully on board and available. Low and behold I went on Facebook market place and typed in Mercedes mechanics and a few ads showed up, but one stood out- I messaged the guy, Brian and he was pretty responsive and knowledgeable about the M119.

Linked him to this thread so he can read over what I’ve done to this car, and we got the idea of tackling the issues methodically starting with fixing my cars mis-fire..



The picture with the circle is showing my rudimentary vent job on my Bosch distributor caps- it seemed to help the car but it still had the occasional mis fire and also would occasionally drive real nice…also I guess the spark plugs are showing wet plugs consistent what I felt.. I was afraid that by driving the car instead of stopping immediately that I could’ve washed the cylinders in gas so I mentioned that to Brian and his business partner Mike and they agreed to do a compression test on my car



Cylinder one and five look a little low but thankfully still within spec.

He ordered some new bremi distributor caps and rotors from rock auto for me, used the oem cam shaft seals I had sitting in my parts stash and made sure to used the Mercedes tool to properly seat the camshaft seals on both sides..



I mentioned how you guys recommend the slot modification, albeit with a proper attachment, and how it’s a good idea to gap the plugs to 1mm..



They installed the new valve cover gasket, the new rotors and distributor caps, as well as swapped the maf mesh screen for me!


The guys went for a drive and said it felt great- a while later i get the call saying how after they drove it stopped and drove again it still had a mis fire so off to inspect it again..

Brian mentioned how the bremi rotor didn’t seem to match up with the cap so well so he used my older rotor and also found a place to order oem mb rotors. They also tested the ignition coils on both sides and found the passenger side one wasn’t running with as much wattage as the other side and they had a new coil laying around that worked perfectly…


My old ignition coil with some corrosion^

Now we just wait for the new rotors and hopefully that should be the end of the mis fire for a long time to come… lol

 

[gsxr]

The picture with the circle is showing my rudimentary vent job on my Bosch distributor caps- it seemed to help the car but it still had the occasional mis fire and also would occasionally drive real nice…also I guess the spark plugs are showing wet plugs consistent what I felt.. I was afraid that by driving the car instead of stopping immediately that I could’ve washed the cylinders in gas so I mentioned that to Brian and his business partner Mike and they agreed to do a compression test on my car

The circle on the one cap shows a burn mark - that's a failed/defective cap. Never seen that before, but it did need replacement. The dark plugs confirmed you were driving on 4 cylinders for some time. This isn't a concern for the cylinder walls, but it DOES pose a serious risk to the catalysts... raw fuel going out the exhaust can overhear cats to the point of glowing red, starting a fire, and burning your car to the ground. Good thing you fixed this!

Cylinder one and five look a little low but thankfully still within spec.

Actually nope, you are out of spec for max deviation between cylinders. 1 and 5 are right at 10 bar, while the highest are 2 and 3 at 13 bar. That is 3 bar deviation, and the spec/limit is 1.5 bar. See FSM specs below.

HOWEVER! Don't worry about this. Drive the car hard - meaning, full throttle to redline whenever you have an excuse (freeway onramps, passing slower traffic, etc). After a couple thousand miles of this "Italian tune-up" treatment, there is a very good chance the compression numbers will improve (become more even across cylinders). There's a decent chance the issue is carbon buildup and/or sticky rings. Heat and load will free them up. Use full-synthetic oil. The hard driving does not hurt anything, it is GOOD for the engine.

He ordered some new bremi distributor caps and rotors from rock auto for me, used the oem cam shaft seals I had sitting in my parts stash and made sure to used the Mercedes tool to properly seat the camshaft seals on both sides..

I'm not a fan of Bremi (they were never OEM for any M119 ignition components) but those should be OK for now. The new slots help. New cam seals are a bonus. Were the oil cam seals visibly leaking oil, or was this a proactive replacement? It would have been obvious after removing the insulators.

Brian mentioned how the bremi rotor didn’t seem to match up with the cap so well so he used my older rotor and also found a place to order oem mb rotors.

Not sure what he means here... there is always an air gap between rotor and cap terminals, and you can't see inside anyway. However, the OE MB rotors (Doduco, with Star logo) are IMO the best quality rotors available (second choice is Bosch). New OE rotors are a good thing (just expensive).

They also tested the ignition coils on both sides and found the passenger side one wasn’t running with as much wattage as the other side and they had a new coil laying around that worked perfectly… My old ignition coil with some corrosion^

Interesting find on the coil terminal corrosion. Coils are a rare failure, but new ones don't hurt. Hopefully the new coils are Bosch.

Now we just wait for the new rotors and hopefully that should be the end of the mis fire for a long time to come… lol

Don't celebrate just yet. In your photos, I can see engine oil at the edge of the old caps. That is part of your problem. The source of this oil is almost always from the intake cam advance solenoid. If yours are original, they are almost certainly leaking between the halves of the shell. You either need to replace them with new (which requires using the new-style armature to match the new solenoid), OR disassemble the originals and re-seal them as shown in this thread. When you have the oil leaks 100% cured, along with slotted caps, and good ignition components... then the misfire should be gone for a long time to come. After driving a few hundred miles or longer, pull the caps and check for oil. The lower edge must be completely, totally, 100% dry. If it still looks like your photo below, that's bad.

 

[ArauzMotoring]

I had both camshaft solenoids replaced in April of this year- would they be leaking already?

Thanks a lot for your responses, Dave!

 

[gsxr]

I had both camshaft solenoids replaced in April of this year- would they be leaking already?

If they are brand new solenoids, not, they would NOT be leaking from the body of the solenoids. However, they could be leaking from the sealant used between the solenoid and the front head cover (unlikely, if done properly). It's easy to tell if they are still leaking, there should be zero oil around / underneath the solenoid area (see photo below). Any oil there means something is awry. Picture below shows the brand new solenoid installed on my car.

Keep an eye on the caps for any sign of oil. Hopefully they will be dry and this is a non-issue!

 

[ArauzMotoring]

I’m aware that these aren’t the correct ones for my car, but I wonder if they’ll fit well enough?

My current zoom tubes are looking very sad and I’d like to change that up, but I haven’t found any for sale recently..

 

[gsxr]

You don't want the ones shown above. Order the 117- part number plastic tubes, see this post for part number & details.

 

[ArauzMotoring]

I keep pondering about how glorious my car will feel when it has the Wavetrack lsd installed..

I am pretty sure I managed to find one oem subframe bushing based on my previous forum postings, but I keep wanting to make this car a little more sporty and direct as far as power delivery and being able to romp on it…

So today I was browsing around and found these units
Poly differential bushings
Poly subframe bushings

I know poly bushings make for more noise in the control arm joints, but what about the differential and subframe? Wonder how long these would be good for as well…

In other news, the guys installed the new rotors that they had ordered, and along with the new ignition coil and the distributor cap slot vent modifications, the mis fire seems to have gone away

Next up, I asked them to get my gauge cluster rheostat replaced, along with fixing the back lighting for the dashboard and center console..

I was hoping the rheostat replacement would fix the back lighting issue, but it didn’t.. The guys also kindly replaced my broken odometer gears which have been broken for about 3 gas tanks worth of driving but is now working again!

 

[ArauzMotoring]

You don't want the ones shown above. Order the 117- part number plastic tubes, see this post for part number & details.

I found one of the European Mercedes parts reman guys sell new insulation for the factory zoom tubes so I wrote to them to see if they can sell it to me!!

 

[gsxr]

I am pretty sure I managed to find one oem subframe bushing based on my previous forum postings, but I keep wanting to make this car a little more sporty and direct as far as power delivery and being able to romp on it…

So today I was browsing around and found these units
Poly differential bushings
Poly subframe bushings

I know poly bushings make for more noise in the control arm joints, but what about the differential and subframe? Wonder how long these would be good for as well…

I wouldn't use poly for any street application. Full stop. The stock bushings are not weak nor sloppy. Get the aftermarket reproductions of the late rear Sportline subframe bushings, there are several options available. And get whatever aftermarket fronts you can find with the tall tabs (the tall-tab OEM Boge have become very difficult to find these days as NOS, current supply is all aftermarket, not OEM Boge). For a TrackRat® that gets trailered to a road course, skip to full aluminum instead, maybe.

The OE differential bushing, in particular, cannot be a poly design as shown in the link above. The bushings are pressed in place in a specific location to align the differential to the driveshaft. You must measure the precise position of the old bushing BEFORE removal, and press the new OE bushing into the exact position as the old. The poly design won't allow this. See the FSM procedure. Make sure the shop doing the work knows this, or they WILL screw it up. And, the OE diff bushings are super stiff to begin with. I think these vendors make these products only to pacify people who insist that "poly is always better", when that is just not true.

Next up, I asked them to get my gauge cluster rheostat replaced, along with fixing the back lighting for the dashboard and center console..

I was hoping the rheostat replacement would fix the back lighting issue, but it didn’t..

You'll need to do more troubleshooting. IIRC there is a small module (looks like a relay) that controls the backlighting, which goes to a distribution junction near the driver footwell. Check out the ETM schematics.