R63 AMG The Unicorn of my Destruction

Nash wrote: In reply to JOsworth: Alright so did anyone else do some checking around in China's model lineup? They have a CLS wagon! It looks pretty slick, eerily similar stature to the cts wagon but with Mercedes Body lines. http://m.mercedes-benz.com.cn/content/china/mpc/mpc_china_website/zhng/home_mpc/passengercars/mobile/mbp/new_cars/model_overview/cls-class/x218.html

Well, that is not a China market only car like the R. That is known as the CLS Shooting Brake. Fitting that they call it a Shooting Brake despite it being a four door wagon and not a two door wagon like the historic shooting brakes. But what would you expect on a model line they call a coupe but has four doors...

This car is available in most Mercedes markets except North America. 'Cause us 'mericans despise wagons and love SUV's. We are lucky the E wagon still exists in our market.

Here is the German page: CLS Shooting Brake page

And a picture... since we all love pictures..

Since I am already off topic.... here is a neat but rather expensive wagon that we will get, according to sources.

Porsche Panamera Sport Turismo. While only seating 4, it is really cool looking in my opinion.

We're getting the E63 Wagon, the Panamera Wagon, and the Grand Cherokee Trailcat.
They are all different flavors of the idiotic big car thing, but it's not a bad time to be in the market for such things.

mazdeuce wrote: We're getting the E63 Wagon, the Panamera Wagon, and the Grand Cherokee Trailcat. They are all different flavors of the idiotic big car thing, but it's not a bad time to be in the market for such things.

Rumor has it the C8 RS6 Avant is coming here too, although that'll be a few years.

I want an updated version of the Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser.

In reply to Galane:

Well, in the early ninety's you could get this from Oldsmobile. But good luck finding one today..

In reply to JOsworth: And if you could find one, you could swap in all the goodness of the Impaler SS! I knew a couple of guys in the "Region of Doom" Impala club with 500+ HP and up. Chevy small-block goodness.

For similar animals, the Paul Newman Volvo 960 with a pumped 5.0: http://jalopnik.com/5540957/the-ford-powered-volvo-wagon-paul-newman-built

or the various SHO Taurus wagon conversions. Some detailed at http://wikisho.com/wiki/Is_there_a_SHO_station_wagon%3F There was an article in the SHOClub magazine, not online AFAIK, about someone who basically grafted a 96-'99 SHO with the little V8, whole front clip onto a similar (gen III) wagon from front doors back plus suspension transfer. It was, in old-guy speak, "sano"!

Many of us in the SHO club wished for a wagon version, but Ford only made a couple of prototypes. yada yada, Americans and wagons/hatchbacks, won't sell.

PT_SHO wrote: There was an article in the SHOClub magazine, not online AFAIK, about someone who basically grafted a 96-'99 SHO with the little V8, whole front clip onto a similar (gen III) wagon from front doors back plus suspension transfer. It was, in old-guy speak, "sano"! Many of us in the SHO club wished for a wagon version, but Ford only made a couple of prototypes. yada yada, Americans and wagons/hatchbacks, won't sell.

My Dad was in the SHO club, I used to always read the newsletters. He took my brother and I to a SHO meet in Atlanta. There was a car show, drag race, and road course race. He came in second in the drag race (brackets) There was also a drive up to the mountains and I almost shat myself on some of the turns. He had an '89 and a '95 SHO, both were pretty modified. I had a '92 in highschool and he gave me his '95 when I graduated. They were such fun cars with a powerband that would just put a smile on your face.

Anyway, to keep this reply somewhat thread relevant, there was a second gen and third gen SHO wagon conversion at the meet. They were both very well done and looked like they came that way from Ford.

R63 Thread turns "Hot Rod Wagons of the States".......

Nash wrote: R63 Thread turns "Hot Rod Wagons of the States".......

See what happens when Mazdeuce is either on vacation, busy, or waiting for parts... so many of us lurking around waiting for the next stroke of genius. Guilty as charged...

Oil pump chain guides on their way from Germany. High School track season ends this week. Mrs. Deuce making pitches to capital providers. Replacement battery stick for the Insight shoild be here by Monday. Hopefully getting a check from the guy who hit the truck by this weekend. Still need to grind out a half dozen stumps and order more gravel. The yard is growing like a jungle but other than that things are calming down. I did spend about 10 minutes cleaning parts yesterday, so there's that.

What's the plan with the cracked magnesium intake?

I'll need to get another one. Talked to some people and was advised against trying a repair. I'm leaning toward trying to find a used one.

I hear you on kid toting duties. Spent 2 hours in the rover today taking my son to his homeschool PE class.... it's nice to drive the rover around, but it's getting hot and people drive like idiots.

In reply to mazdeuce:

You need to call John Noble at COOL FLOW in Houston, near 290 and 610. 713-688-7525. He does specialized industrial welding in addition to automotive air condition by appointment. He fixed my son's '07 DODGE MAGNUM SRT air recently. Very smart guy. If he does not do it, he will know a good person who does.

In reply to Mazdeuce.. don't leave us unsupervised for to long....see what happens..

Is the intake manifold unique to the R63 or is it a common AMG intake? Have you signed up for the Star Tech site yet? It is both a service manual resource (for a fee) but also has a free section that allows you to search for parts. It is linked to your VIN, so you know exactly what part number your car used for any given component. I found it to be a very useful site when we had our R350 and I was it's primary mechanic. Let me know if you want me to dig up the exact site links for you.

The very last thing I couldn't decide on was replacing the guides for the oil pump chain. The chain has to come off to replace the timing chain and putting 90k mile 10 year old plastic internal bits back on didn't seem like a good idea. I drank coffee, swam in the ocean, hung out with the family and thoughts out it. By the time I got home had decided to replace them. Unfortunately no one in the U.S. had them in stock so they had to come from Germany. They just arrived.
Now I can finish cleaning the surfaces and start reassembly. Unfortunately for the R63, the new battery stick for the Insight came so I need to put that back together first. Hopefully that works out, because one complete running Honda Insight is worth almost as much as an intake manifold.

This thread is better when Mazdeuce posts updates!

mazdeuce wrote: The very last thing I couldn't decide on was replacing the guides for the oil pump chain. The chain has to come off to replace the timing chain and putting 90k mile 10 year old plastic internal bits back on didn't seem like a good idea. I drank coffee, swam in the ocean, hung out with the family and thoughts out it. By the time I got home had decided to replace them. Unfortunately no one in the U.S. had them in stock so they had to come from Germany. They just arrived. Now I can finish cleaning the surfaces and start reassembly. Unfortunately for the R63, the new battery stick for the Insight came so I need to put that back together first. Hopefully that works out, because one complete running Honda Insight is worth almost as much as an intake manifold.

I called John Noble at COOL FLOW in Houston. He does not do mag welding. He called his friend and no go for him, either. Noble suggested a good wheel repair shop. A big shop in Spring said they do not weld and said JB WELD COLD WELD on a scuffed up area and ground after might work. Rollo Wheels on Richmond says maybe. They want a pic of the part and defect to know. Repost and I will send to them.

In reply to ronniejay:

Thanks for doing that leg work, it lines up with what I heard from a few other people. It's probably not impossible, but nobody wants to do it on a part that's only $2400 to replace. If it was vintage Ferrari money, it would be different.
I'll grab a picture of the part this afternoon.

I need to start work on this. I have all the parts (I think) to get the engine built up to the intake. I just need to dedicate the time. The calendar this week is fairly sane, so I'm going to try and get back into the habit of working on this every day.
I pulled the oil pump chain, took off the timing chain and cleaned the front and top of the block.
Put the new chains and guides on. I took a lot of the motor apart to get to these stupid things, they better last. Of course right after I got all motivated and was writing this post deucekid#4's teacher called and asked if I wanted to chaperone a field trip tomorrow, which I do, obviously, but I'm still going to find an hour tomorrow.

You might have some luck with Ye Olde Wheel Shop in Elkridge MD. They are go-to guys for refinishing and repairing Dymag magnesium wheels. Maybe they can help you.

The business name seems to be Ye Old now, without the "e", hope they are still the same bunch, I need to send some Dymags to them myself.

The offending piece of magnesium.

I know you are doing this under the duress of not ever wanting to pull then engine again, but if I had to do this and $2500 was not in the budget, here is what I would do.

I am assuming that there is material enough to do this, so might be wrong off the bat, but I would find someone with a mill and cut the broke part down to solid.

Then I would have the same shop lathe up (hey, YOU have a lathe!) a male to female stud adapter that fit into whatever slot the mill made when removing the damaged part.

even if doing a proper welded repair, I might follow a similar path with the adapter made out of magnesium and then welded for max strenght.

Remind me again of the consequences of this attachment point failing?

JOsworth wrote: But what would you expect on a model line they call a coupe but has four doors...

In the US, at least, according to official standards, the difference between coupe and sedan has nothing to do with doors, but everything to do with rear seat room.

Memory says that anything under 33 cubic feet of room in the rear seat is a coupe, anything more is a sedan.

So yes, you can have four door coupes, and two door sedans.

(Also, anything with a flat loading floor all the way to the tailgate opening is legally a truck. So my Volkswagen Quantum is a truck. Does this mean I have to wear denim overalls as formal attire and ask Aunt Mom for my sister's hand in marriage?)

In reply to Knurled: And don't fergit that piece o'straw to clean yur toofesses