My M156 Engine Mods - Future Proofing

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developer

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Volvo V90 D5 AWD
My engine now has:

32 off SLS valve tappets
4 off modified cam adjusters
20 off modified head bolts (male head)

Just saying :thumb:.
 
developer said:
My engine now has: 32 off SLS valve tappets 4 off modified cam adjusters 20 off modified head bolts (male head) Just saying :thumb:.
how much that costs? If you don't minded me to ask?
 
was Florian Brader using knock off parts when he built hand-crafted, your engine?
 
how much that costs? If you don't minded me to ask?

Not at all.

£6176.26 all in.

Warranty paid for the cam adjusters and buckets

I paid £1236.60 for the head bolt aspect of the job.

Whilst the replacement of them wasn't cheap, once the cams were out you were looking at the bolts - I couldn't not do it.
 
Not bad at all !!! All that replacement parts are the same used in m159?
 
Not bad at all !!! All that replacement parts are the same used in m159?

The buckets are.

I can't be sure about the cam adjusters and the head bolts, though both are modified parts fitted to later engines.
 
Not at all.

£6176.26 all in.

Warranty paid for the cam adjusters and buckets

I paid £1236.60 for the head bolt aspect of the job.

Whilst the replacement of them wasn't cheap, once the cams were out you were looking at the bolts - I couldn't not do it.


What was up with it John, was it getting a little noisy?
 
What was up with it John, was it getting a little noisy?

There was a 1 second rattle on cold start - I send a video to Weistec USA and they confirmed cam adjusters or buckets - really helpful guys - very prompt.

I approached MB Central with the video, as the car's under warranty, and they couldn't determine which was the cause, so they asked Warranty to sanction the changing of both (all). They didn't want to change the cam adjusters only to reassemble it and find it was the buckets (or vice versa).

At that time, I made the decision to have the head bolts replaced, because they were right there, calling to me :cool:.

I should add that when I spoke to Acid/Sarim about it, a few weeks earlier, they told me what it was and what the fix was - spot on :thumb:.
 
Awesome stuff john
Mines down for the same, well more or less
SLS valve buckets, but going for the Weistec ARP studs
Get fitted next week
 
Sounds like a lot of work, but well worth it and good you got the majority sorted on warranty and sounds like to a better spec:thumb:
 
Awesome stuff john
Mines down for the same, well more or less
SLS valve buckets, but going for the Weistec ARP studs
Get fitted next week

Well worth it Lee, especially as yours has that light speed feature under the bonnet :D.
 
Well worth it Lee, especially as yours has that light speed feature under the bonnet :D.

Just a shame mine is not being done under warranty ha ha. However it will be in good hands......MSL
 
Not at all.

£6176.26 all in.

Warranty paid for the cam adjusters and buckets

I paid £1236.60 for the head bolt aspect of the job.

Whilst the replacement of them wasn't cheap, once the cams were out you were looking at the bolts - I couldn't not do it.

Out of interest, how did they go about replacing the head bolts?

£1236.60 seems like a lot of money - was this for new head gaskets and other associated bits too?

What's the mileage on your car?

Always loved the sound of the newer V8s but it would make me nervous looking at £10-20k+ '63 engined cars with fragile/expensive mechanicals like this without a warranty!

When you consider the M113 has been around from the late 90s and fitted to loads of cars - W202/208/203/209/171/210/211/219 etc and used in the SLR in various different states of tune (some as high or higher than the '63) I can't recall many mechanical issues like this :confused:
 
Hello Will,

The car has done 70K.

I had the heads removed, meaning the job was c£400 parts and c£600 labour (plus VAT).

Interestingly, when discussing the adjuster/bucket job with the MB service manager he said he'd leave the bolts alone as they hadn't failed. He went on to say they'd never done a head bolt failure job.

It's just that once the cams were removed, you were looking at the bolts - it made sense to have them changed.

Also, come sale time, I have documented proof of the upgrades, which, if I were a buyer (and probably an enthusiast), I'd be particularly interested in.
 
Nice work John! :thumb:

Especially getting most of it done under warranty

I'll be behind you Lee in the queue for that works at MSL, have you had any more thoughts on forging at the same time? Did you say you got your valve buckets direct From MB too Lee?

I'll be down MSL tomorrow so I'll be annoying him for the works before the engine stresses of Vmax mate, guess you were thinking of the same things getting it booked in for next week.
 
Nice one John, glad you got it sorted in the end as I know that the tapping noise was worrying you.

Hopefully that's it now, no more problems. :)
 
Nice work John! :thumb:

Especially getting most of it done under warranty

I'll be behind you Lee in the queue for that works at MSL, have you had any more thoughts on forging at the same time? Did you say you got your valve buckets direct From MB too Lee?

I'll be down MSL tomorrow so I'll be annoying him for the works before the engine stresses of Vmax mate, guess you were thinking of the same things getting it booked in for next week.

I thought about the forged internals but maybe on the next round of mods,
I bought the valve buckets direct from MB Sunderland, going to nip in today and order the camshaft adjusters.
The studs are ARP and they were from Weistec.

sunderland MB have never heard of a head bolt failure. However Newcastle had a ML 63 in for that job......albeit it's the 1st one they had done.

I wouldn't have touched it if the warranty was still valid ( pretty sure I have voided that) but seeing how much I have invested in the car so far it makes sense to go for some "preventative" work.
 
Same here mate, alot of money gone into the cars and as you say it's still going in! LOL :D:D

Do me a favour Lee let me know the price of the cam adjusters mate when you find out.

I'll harrass Acid for an install date and the Weistec studs then get the other bits and bobs from MB :thumb:
 
Hello Will,

The car has done 70K.

I had the heads removed, meaning the job was c£400 parts and c£600 labour (plus VAT).

Interestingly, when discussing the adjuster/bucket job with the MB service manager he said he'd leave the bolts alone as they hadn't failed. He went on to say they'd never done a head bolt failure job.

It's just that once the cams were removed, you were looking at the bolts - it made sense to have them changed.

Also, come sale time, I have documented proof of the upgrades, which, if I were a buyer (and probably an enthusiast), I'd be particularly interested in.

So what's the general issue with these M156 heads - do the bolts stretch/work loose and cause head gaskets to leak or something else?

I don't blame you for nipping it in the bud :) Just a little surprised that after years of no issues with the M113 there seems to be quite a lot of weaknesses (mechanically speaking!) in the M156.

100% agree with you though, that having MB paperwork to show that these issues have been addressed with your car properly would be worth it's weight in gold come resale time.

Perhaps not as expensive, but I guess like having a new SBC pump fitted on a 211 '55. One known headache avoided :thumb:
 

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