R63 AMG The Unicorn of my Destruction

Man, getting caught up on your threads kinda makes me feel bad for ever getting behind. I could have mentioned those felpro snap ups right away, but glad someone else did at some point.

Reading the last 10 pages or so has made me sort of look forward to documenting and posting my upcoming 911 disassembly. Mostly preventative but also mostly in the spirit of not being afraid to buy a great car with labor-intensive 'issues' looming over it. It's all just nuts and bolts. No lift in my thread, though.

759NRNG wrote: excellent job ........Memorial day the 'Corn' leaves the grosh?

If everything goes perfectly, right about then. I don't have a ton of free time between now and when I leave for One Lap next week. That would give me two solid weeks of potential work time before then. Fingers crossed.

In reply to Vigo:

I look forward to your 911 disassembly. I'm hoping I have a free lift in the fall to catch up on maintenece on mine. There's always a backlog.

The saga of the intake manifold, as it is told so far:
I handed the intake off to Ronnie a little over a week ago. We both drove through a rain storm heavy enough that water was coming back out the storm sewers and onto the road. That was interesting in the Insight. Ronnie drove around to no less than four shops to have them look at it. The first guy who wanted to take a stab at it did this: Complete with burn through to the back. And then said it wouldn't work. Ron sent me the pictures and my wife immediately told me to order a new intake. Ron thought one of the other guys could still get it done, and if he had faith, so did I.
The new welder got some good metal on there and then asked for the fuel rail so he could be sure it was perfect. Ron and I met again and I handed off the fuel rail.
The next picture made me smile. This is a triumphant welder who is proud of his work, and he should be. The finished weld from the front: And the back where he no only fixed the other welders mistake, he reinforced the whole area. And for anyone who's interested, this is the shop. Call them, whatever it is, they can probably do it. And if you're in the Houston area and need to find a place that does ???? anything, send ronniejay a message. As much as it looks like he's enjoying retirement (he's about the most chill person I've ever met) his talents are currently being wasted. He can get stuff done.
I could paint over the fix, but I'm not going to. This is going to be on the front of the intake. You're going to be able to see it. It's part of the story and I'd hate to cover it up.

In reply to mazdeuce: Awesome sauce! Good welders are worth their weight in gold, and this proves it!

Turn that front injector 90 degrees or you'll never get the plug on it.

In reply to mazdeuce: thx for the kind words-glad to help. You forgot to give due credit to 2500_Cummins_Ram, in Idaho, who googled and found www.jdwheelsrepair.com - the "welder/machinist" who happened to be 2 miles from me.

That repair is like a medal obtained in a serious campaign....wear it proudly!!!!

That is now my favorite part of your minivan.

People with skills who take pride in their work are kinda my heroes. I like the look on the guys face. He KNOWS.

Thanks for the mention ronniejay, appreciate it, but you did all the hard work, so thank you for taking my little bit of research and taking it much further. I've enjoyed reading this thread over the last few months, so just happy I could add something to it and help save mazdadeuce a nice little pile of cash, so he can use it to do other things for us to read about.

2500_Cummins_Ram wrote: I've enjoyed reading this thread over the last few months, so just happy I could add something to it and help save mazdadeuce a nice little pile of cash, so he can use it to do other things for us to read about.

Ask him about Fergus the Station Wagon.

mazdeuce wrote: The main battery died flat while waiting to get pushed into the Grosh. It will be getting a new fresh one. I still need to figure out if I can get to it with the van on the lift. I don't think I can. I leave for One Lap a week from today and the intake welder had emergency wisdom tooth surgery which has delayed it's completion. I'd love to have the engine in place before I go but we'll see. Still waiting on idiotically expensive rubber circles.

I can give you some first hand pointers, since I did both batteries in our R350.. Service manuals will state that you can pull the main battery by going in from the rear passenger space and tilting the front passenger seat forward. While possible, a major PIA. Do yourself a favor, and pull the front passenger seat out. This will make accessing the battery much easier. When I did mine I didn't get any of the SRS warning messages that other owners claimed by disconnecting the seat. Maybe it was because I also didn't use a battery tender to maintain a 12v power supply. Anyway, I didn't have to reset anything after replacement. Also, I hope in it's previous life it has had a battery change. If not, you will need to locate the score marks and cut the carpet. Why they didn't build in a trap door system is beyond me. Another pointer, If you don't know the history of the aux battery, replace that while you are in there. It is inexpensive and a very important component. It is under the front passenger foot well. While pulling the main battery panel you can also pull the front panel. Also, since the battery is located inside the car be sure to source an AGM battery and not a standard lead acid one. They spec one for safety sake, you don't want the chance of a splash or leak in the event of an accident. Hope it helps.

Wait... You have to cut the carpet to remove the battery?!

^^^^ Srsly? WTH, Daimler?

A hatch Ha!?! engineering excellence thru box cutter technology.

In reply to 759NRNG:

A small team of motivated individuals disassembled the World Trade Center with box cutters.

In reply to AngryCorvair: you are correct sir yes, but they haven't WON yet....nor will they !!!!!

JET FUELS CAN'T MELT STEEL BEAMS!

In reply to Crackers: I seriously roll my eyes at this. Every. Time.

Sorry for hijacking this thread.

Me bringing a thread back on topic feels weird, but here we are.
Waiting for kid#1 to get up so we can go do some driving practice. Decided to start to work scraping the sealant out of the grooves in the top of the intake manifold. I have a bunch of stuff to get ready around the house before One Lap so assembling the intake manifold might be as far as I get this week.

Switchplate?

In reply to EastCoastMojo: It's well documented here. They make fantastic gasket scrapers...

I do miss the occasional post, please pardon my ignorance