Mercedes S550 M278 Bi-Turbo 4.7 V8 Failed Engine Teardown! Damage EVERYWHERE! Still Better Than N63.

last week we toured on what was likely the simplest v8 ever made a small block chevrolet so for this week i figured i'd go to the extreme opposite end of the spectrum and tear down a very complicated direct injected bi-turbo v8 this is a mercedes m278 it's a 4.6 liter dual overhead cam v8 makes about 430 horsepower this comes in several different mercedes vehicles but this particular engine is out of a 2013 s550 which is the big luxury car and i have no idea what's wrong with this i bought this because it looked kind of fun to take apart and when i say fun i mean challenging fun and challenging sometimes they're the same in this case maybe not so much but there's a lot of good parts on this engine they should part out well this is the very first one i've done so if i do things in the wrong order break something or do something wrong or call something by the wrong name that's because i simply don't know better i'd like to point out some interesting features of this engine this is the very first engine i've torn down that had a water to air intercooler in the valley here are the inlets to the intercooler from the turbo versus boost pressure goes into this intercooler it comes goes through the intercooler under the intake plenum and into the back of the plenum back here and into the intake manifold now this doesn't have port injection whatsoever it's not like a toyota where they have both it strictly has direct injection so it'll be interesting to see how much carbon there is in this intake manifold there are no plugs in this engine unfortunately so we can't take a look at those but we can try to turn it over because well i have no idea if it's locked up oh it spins oh that didn't sound good well it spins to a point and that was it let's let's go backwards that's what they tell you not to do all the time but what we got to lose okay so it only goes to a point there might be some damage in here yep we're gonna find some stuff before we take the turbos off i wanted to show you what mercedes has done they have the stainless steel piece that goes around all the nuts for the exhaust manifold and i suppose this is here to keep these nuts from backing off a lot of heat cycles vibrations might be able to back these off so they likely put these in to keep that from happening now as far as how they come off well i think i'm going to have to use old blue longer than i anticipated that's what she said well they sure don't make this easy never mind that was easy i lied i don't know how you're supposed to do this the right way but this is the way we're doing it i really wasn't too bad i'm sure that's not fun in the car or maybe not even possible at all did you just get off of there this is the oil feed now for the oil return it would help if i had the right size all right now it looks like we can just take the turbo off these are probably the only six-sided bolts or hardware at all on this engine everything else is external torques and torques [Music] it wasn't too bad the reason this side looks different is it has a down pipe still on it or the pre-down pipe whatever you want to call this the part that goes between the exhaust housing on the turbo and likely the cat pipe is still on here so we're going to get this out of the way so we can get to all the manifold bolts [Music] well there's one come back here ah this one's really stuck here but not too stuck before we get too far let's get the oil feed and oil return we also have to get the coolant feed and return off and just zip this off the pan it's out of the way now i'm trying to get it off the front looks like the water pump still gets enough wiggle room to get this thing off i don't want to tear it up too bad there we are ah that was easy not should be the last one all right let's talk about these turbos for a second so the turbos and manifold like most modern cars it's an integral exhaust housing and you can remove this band and pull the turbo off and replace just the turbo now one thing i did notice right off the bat is that mercedes put a little dab of epoxy right there on the wastegate so you can't adjust it why would they want you to not adjust it we gotta turn the screw and run more boost no not really it doesn't work like that anymore but uh the turbos are actually in really good shape there's no major shaft play they both spin very freely no impeller damage they both look about the same one's not coated in oil like something like go on one bank so no clues as to what happened to this engine yet but i think i can sell these so that's good next we're gonna get the intake manifold out of the way okay those stay there i guess [Music] see if i can pull on anything nope there's more but where i don't know oh blue so what is did i miss some bolts it couldn't have been that simple let's try no i'm going to break it don't want to do that okay so i really don't know why this thing won't come off i read on the internet that you just pull it off yeah just you just take the bolts out so we're just going to pry really hard and keep our fingers crossed that nothing breaks maybe not that hard so here's that water to air intercooler that sits in the valley it's actually really big but i have read some stories did some research and apparently when tuned or with time these gaskets can fail and you can have a boost leak that's no bueno but still a pretty cool design it's very compact well remember how i said they're not port injection i think that could have helped look at the amount of carbon on the top of those valves it's like that in every cylinder really a lot of carbon somehow this side is worse i mean yuck that's a ton of carbon the next thing we're going to do is try to pull the injectors out i have no idea how hard these are to come out they might just boop right out or they might be a thorn in the buttock we'll see wow bmw take notes got one that's a little stuck here ah there we are that was way too easy now for the cam plate and cam sensors aluminum bolts and they even leave you these ledges to pry on nothing to it someone's been in here with some sandpaper that is not okay you don't need sandpaper to clean these surfaces i promise now for the high pressure fuel pump and housing i don't know if i can pull it off in one piece but yeah i'm going to try [Music] like so and it's out and there's the cam lobes that drive the pump it looks like this one had two pumps one here and one here and for whatever reason they took one and left one now i think i've talked about the fact that mercedes uses the valve cover bolts as cam cap bolts so when you take these off that's why there's so many bolts on here so it evenly distributes pressure where it needs to so when i take these off there will be limited bolts left to hold the cams in [Music] the inside of this head actually looks pretty good the journals on the cam there's some some grooves in there that i can feel with my fingernail and more pronounced there and there but it's not terrible definitely seems like it's been run low yeah definitely has some signs of oil starvation let's go look at the valve cover so the valve cover also has a chain guide built into it which is pretty cool i think yeah there's some more grooves and scoring on the journals but it's not it's not terrible before we can get this cam plate off we have to remove the oil filter housing so we're going to do that first looks pretty clean inside now the other cam plate now the other plate with the now for the other side same story on this side looks like somebody attacked it with some some 80 grit it's not the way now let's get this vacuum pump out of the way now we're going to get this crankcase ventilation piece off the valve cover actually no i think that comes off all at one time i was wrong pretty similar oh wait a second check out that cam lobe that is rough that one's rough all of these are worn significantly every single cam lobe on this cam has major wear the journals aren't too bad the lobes are trash this cam is junk some flakes of metal not good contrast the intake cam it actually looks alright like the other three did at this point i need to get the cams out so i can get the heads off i mean i can probably pull the heads with the cams in them but there's only a few bolts in each cam holding them in i might as well pull the cams plus i want to check out the followers and see if those are in good shape and these are kind of a deal to get the chain off it's like a mercedes thing so i'm just going to start zipping bolts off until things fall or fly off um safety squints maybe no no we're gonna we're gonna do things the right way i've learned my lesson okay no i really haven't but i'm on camera don't hurt me hold that that wasn't bad okay that was a little more a little more of an oomph can i get the chain off enough that's all i need it just has to come off enough the answer is maybe so i can take the guides out which i'm going to have to do anyway there's a pin right there and a pin right here go get my slide hammer and we'll get those out so these pins are threaded so you thread a 6 by 1.0 bolt into them and then you thread your slide hammer on and then give it a little [Laughter] and then come right out oh this one's going to be tough and that looks like it is [Music] yeah this might not be so hot i might break this guy think positively it's gonna be fine yes that did not go in straight cross threaded the hell out of that i just want to get the chain off of the sprockets here ah yes so i was able to get the chain off of this cam here and then i can get it off of this hopefully i'll be able to pull the cams up and slide them out around the chain and that'll give me access to these outer head bolts here so we're going to get these a couple cam keepers out of the way so we can get the cams out [Music] all right let's see if my theory works all right oh yeah just wanted to see the condition of these followers everything looks to be okay i think the rollers spin pretty easily no signs of issues not on this side all right see if i can do the same thing over here might need to turn the crank over we're going to try that actually what's the worst that could happen don't answer that this is still under copious amounts of tension oh we're close though i'm gonna keep going we'll get her look at that that's what i wanted now i should be able to take these keepers off and slide the cams out so i really expected these rollers to be a little tough to spin but they're not they do have some wear on them and there's lots of metal debris coating them they're really not bad they don't look nearly as good as the intake cam which was in much better condition why would there be wear on the cam on the exhaust cam not on the journal which would lead me to think that would be oil pressure related if it was here why would it be here it's a defective cam maybe here are the cams out of that engine this is the right bank or passenger side in north america a little bit of wear on the journals like we saw earlier then let's get to the other side this is the driver's side or left hand side the intake cam is pretty decent as i bang it on this table but it's not worn but the this cam this cam is coming apart it's like maybe they borrowed the metal from chrysler for their hemi cams of course i'm kidding but every single lobe is shaved down and not a little like this is pretty significant not quite as bad as that flat tap it small block we did last week but i haven't seen this before now it's time to prepare the heads to come off we're gonna pull these ancillary head bolt here and then we'll get to the head bolts that surround the combustion chambers time to get the head bolts loose let's see if i can do this without [Music] that's tight it's really tight wow these are really really really tight but it's okay i only have to do this for 10 of them on each side i wonder what the torque spec is on this besides as tight as possible holy cow break it sure felt like it that doesn't feel right i think that broke yep i just broke a head bolt well they didn't make them so tight that would never happen so i've got one broken head bolt which is great see if we can continue on our path of destruction here unbelievable how tight these are i have never had head bolts like this all right i think there's just two left unless i missed one which is possible [Music] all right now we can try to get these out all except for one [Music] oh yeah that's the broken one all right i'm just gonna pull this head off it's just gonna come right off right i mean i heard it i heard it make those noises i just need a little little tap there oh this is one of those head gaskets that's going to slice and dice my fingers i know it don't do that [Applause] not so bad at first glance i don't see anything majorly wrong besides oh i don't know a broken head bolt but these all seem like they're connected in the right way there's no marks from valves i don't think there's any contact there i don't see anything major yet i've done some really dumb things in my life but i've never broken a head bolt ever ever now i've heard that mercedes have this problem but not on this engine i never would have suspected that this was going to happen the head looks okay i'll need to run it through the washer to make sure it's not cracked again i don't know what happened to this engine there's no damage to any of the valves that i can see now we're gonna do the other side and i think i think i'm gonna rotate this i don't really trust this engine stand i know it's on my list to replace it yeah we're just gonna do it at this angle it'll be all right it'll be fine [Music] good god for the record i don't have a whole lot of strength over anyone else i mean i just have regular tools and a regular breaker bar but somehow i still broke a head bolt and these are all really tight [Music] holy cow [Music] yes that is a workout that didn't feel good same story over here i don't see anything terrible oh oh ho oh well well i didn't think mercedes used adjustable rods but here we are i think we i think we know what happened here and i also think i just screwed myself because now i can't turn the engine over it's fine just forget i did that this head looks pretty decent and it doesn't look like that piston did any damage to the combustion chamber just a little bit right there and that's why i pushed on that piston specifically because i saw a little bit of carbon cleaned area on the crown of that piston and that coincides with the combustion chamber but i think the head's going to be okay now we're going to pull some of this overzealous malarkey off the front of the engine water pump get this oil cooler off and then we'll get the timing cover off oh i get it so you rotate the pump to where the hole lines up with the bolts you want to take out perfect germans think of everything i think i got all the bolts out do i really i don't know let's pry on it oh it sure doesn't act oh i missed a whole bunch of bolts oh it came right off look at that unit looks like an original pump this is strange it's got like these pieces pressed in here i've never seen anything like it i wonder why i'm sure someone knows now we're gonna get the crank pulley off hopefully yes [Applause] it does have a woodruff key so this should just come right off oh that was so easy [Music] i suppose it's time to get this cooler out of the way i'm sure this won't make a mess it's blue i'm not surprised oh that can't be it there's got to be a bunch more oh one two that one's gone oh is there a hider there sure is sneaky snakey there's actually two back here i'm gonna gently tap on this timing cover with this hammer that one of my fans and his son made thank you andy i appreciate it a lot and it appears i probably missed a few bolts oil pump could be built in here and the pickup will keep it in place so we're going to stop there we're going to flip it upside down make a big mess i'm sure we'll get the pan out of the way then we can pull the timing cover all right here goes something wow this is actually really light it's pretty clear that this has been a part before there's probably a tenth of the amount of bolts that are supposed to be so there's still like 300 left but we're gonna get these out let's get the pan off that's it what the i think i'm supposed to pull this first it feels like i'm bending something oh oh that's that's bad oh you know what it's this broken oil return that's what's doing it if you notice earlier in the video one side slid out and this side just fell off because it was broken look at that i didn't need that see that's what did it and this will just go boop just like so this is probably not the ideal pan to paint for gold but bearings you might find some of that lots of chunky stuff sparkles it's a whole rainbow and then there's some looks like part of a bearing and that's plastic i think feels like plastic and what is that that's why is that orange i wonder what happened here and as you can see the pickup screen is just it's just got tons of junk in there some of that's orange let me know if you know what that is i have no idea what's orange that would be inside of an engine that's pretty ugly it's very ugly in there now let's get the windage tray out of the way and then we get the oil pump when did tray slash pickup oh that's not normal where's the rest of it somewhere someone has a rod cap because i don't see it in here i actually think we can pull the timing cover the oil pump is not built into this front timing cover so we'll push that in there let's give it some taps with this hammer i don't want to break the other one [Music] so where's the bolt that i missed i bet it's behind this gasket there and there yep okay now let's try it oh so much better with the bolts out that was really simple so it looks like this just comes off that's pretty simple if history has taught us anything is that working on unfamiliar german vehicles can be dangerous so safety glasses whoa [Music] cool okay oh that doesn't that doesn't even have to come off i'm gonna need this this can get out of the way what comes off first what am i doing wrong here oh i think i gotta get the oil pump out of the way first let's do that okay that didn't do anything for me what why did i do that wait a minute i see what happens here it comes off as a unit it's brilliant kind of well i think it's pretty clear what happened here it's uh really bad i can't get the bearing out of the top of the rod and because of the crank position i can't push this back in we'll change that in a minute but the rest of this looks perfect i wonder why this one why did this one have a problem maybe there was a clogged oil passage the rest of these look okay but we haven't pulled the caps off so we don't really know now what kind of guy would i be if i didn't take the oil pump apart i don't know what side i should take apart first let's try this side first what does this do i don't know looks like a oil pressure regulator maybe is that what that does maybe the oil pump drives it i could probably run that part number i did want to do that whoa cool look at these veins they all popped out of here that's neat stay it actually looks pretty good i don't see any major wear there is actually some damage right there on that housing another groove right there don't mind these falling out it's fine it doesn't do that while it dries so that's fine and then there's some some of the same wear on the inside here on the housing i think this comes out of here there's like a spring holding this in here that seems dangerous let me get a screwdriver this will be fine what's the worst that could happen ah that wasn't so bad yeah that's cool that it's kind of a serviceable piece but if you're this far why would you just replace it with a new one what do these do oh these are like keep this in place there you can see some of the wear on that housing and then coinciding wear on that housing turn this around see some damage right there i've got the crank bolt back in it so i can hopefully turn this engine over it doesn't really move too much there we are so we've got some rods and pistons to take out i suppose we'll start with the easiest one first oh boy that's ugly now we can turn this over and we'll go front to back just like so that worked perfect that wasn't very tight that was loose why are they loose someone in here before me think so so there's one bearing fused to the crankshaft and i want to get it off so we're gonna that's smoke did i just let some smoke out of this thing i don't know about this folks wow look how destroyed that journal is i mean the oil hole is completely plugged well almost completely plugged that's just amazing what's weird is there are no other journals like that this is the only one so what is strange here is that the bearings don't look that bad i mean these are a little rough starting to flake obviously this is terrible spun this bearing and you can see the discolored rod this got hot and the bolt was still in this rod and it was not it doesn't look like it's bent it does look like something hit it so i don't know what happened to the cap obviously someone pulled the pan off if it was missing a lot of bolts and that's likely where the cap wound up but but what happened first here i mean it spawned a bearing and it could have been from a clogged oil passage why did it not tear up any of the other bearings these all look fine the pistons on the other hand these are not all fine this is probably the best one this is what most of them look like look at that skirt it's trashed on one side look at that there's a really bad one coming up here i forgot which one it was i think it was was it this one yeah look at that super deep grooves it's awful that too that material went somewhere could have led to this now the crank oh i'll have to come back to that oh well that's bad there's that main journal it's pretty scored up i think this crank is done i don't think it's worth turning look how rough these bores are wow it's impressive did not expect any of this and somehow the inside of this engine is relatively uneffective i mean obviously the boar's trash but it didn't toss a rod that's really i'm i'm really impressed this kept the bad stuff on the inside before i talk about what happened to this engine i'd like to mention that the m278 is very similar to the m157 which is the amg larger displacement bi-turbo v8 it's built on the same architecture as this engine so if you're interested to see how the m157 comes apart it's all very similar to the engine we just tore down obviously there are some differences but the processes are all the same now this engine man this poor poor engine it's not like it just had one problem it had issues all over the place first thing we saw soft camshaft i did not really expect to see that that was a shocker to me and that material likely ended up in the oil pump which could have clogged an oil passage and that's why we saw the damage on one rod journal and one main journal that was really torn up it's clear that someone had been into that engine they had pulled the oil pan and obviously saw some horrific things inside and buttoned it back up and said not my problem and then well i made it my problem someone also worked on it pulled the cam plates off of it used like 80 grit to get rid of the gasket material and then a bunch of rtv to put it back on i just who works on these cars like that i it makes no sense and that leads me to the head bolt that is a first i've torn down a lot of engines and maybe not that many mercedes engines but what the heck those were the tightest head bolts i've ever had to deal with i mean i almost had to get a cheater bar for my extra long breaker bar and i probably would have had to pin that engine down with my forklift just to keep it from rolling away it was it was a lot those were very tight i'm not surprised i broke one i mean i am surprised it broke but i'm surprised they were that tight thankfully it broke instead of stripped otherwise we wouldn't have been able to get the head off and then we wouldn't have been able to see all of the delightful failures inside of that engine i really hope you enjoyed this teardown it was actually not as bad as i thought i thought it was going to be pretty tough that's why i kind of kicked it aside for a while and passed on it in light of some other easier engines but bit the bullet and it really wasn't that bad it's a lot easier to work on than say a bmw n63 now last week i did a video on it was a hundred thousand subscriber special and i did a walkthrough of my shop and my lot i showed you many of my parts cars and one car got a ton of interest and that is the bullet behind me now this is the ugly side you guys saw the good looking side and this is why i own it obviously it is not getting repaired but if you'd like to buy parts off of it as of monday afternoon all of the parts should be available we'll have prices they'll it'll be inventoried so feel free to send us an email i'll leave our email in the video description and same with this engine if you'd like to buy parts off of this engine or any of the other engines my email is in the video description and before i leave you tonight i wanted to talk about some of the requests i get for engines i am getting a lot of requests for engines i've already done now i'm not going to say i will never do them again you guys know i'll do the same engine over and over and over again five threes and 2.3 liter turbo mazdas but if you'd like to see content on those engines search my other videos i've been doing this for over a year has over 60 tear down videos anyway hope you enjoyed this teardown it really was a lot of fun and as always i love all the comments all the feedback and even the criticism i love it all and i'll catch you on the next one

Channel: I Do Cars

Views: 566,205

Keywords: M278, M157, Turbo, AMG, S550, Turbo V8, Bi-turbo, V8, Engine, Motor, Swap, S Class, Downpipe, Exhaust, Exhaust sound, Noise, Check engine light, Misfire, intercooler, downpipes, Tune, Dyno, VS, BMW, Mercedes, Mercedes Benz, E550, CL550, CLS550, CLS500, S500, GL450, GL550, Horsepower, W221, S63, SL63, E63, CL63, CLS63, W222, C216, Diagnosis, Engine Noise, How to, Replace, remove, repair, step by step, Water pump, oil leak, turbo, upgrades, Mods, 1/4 Mile, ML63, G 63, W463, R231, Fix, straight pipe, 0-60, acceleration, Race, Tuning

Id: UjUUA6bjgT4

Length: 48min 17sec (2897 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 06 2022