Sweet! So that's what the cast iron block looks like huh? Pretty cool!

And look at that engine stand! That's a nice one you got there! More and more now days you need that style engine stand for the aluminum blocks.

So the piston is slightly poping out of the bore .023"? That would make for a nice high compression ratio! Providing you got at least .030 thickness after gasket crush you could get away with it as the valves are closed when the piston is at the top. I'd still check valve clearance, but you might get away with it.

You could shave .010 off the tops of the pistons, and you could even blow a bunch of cash getting the crank and rods cut although I don't know if you could find bearings. I assume the crank has already been cut .010 on the rods and mains? Cutting too much would not be a good idea.

Looking good Tony! Love the photos! Thanks! This may be a good option in terms of making a cast iron 560! Very cool!

-- Edited by SELLC on Monday 3rd of June 2013 12:20:42 PM

One more question while its on my mind, does this block have sleeves? I only ask because there is what appears to be a fresh circle of steel around all of the cylinder bores. Did the MS sleeve this block?

It's very interesting to see the innards of the earlier style engines. This 4.5 looks a lot like the M117 but the fact it's all cast iron would really improve the strength of the lower end.

Seems the main caps look similar too. It looks like the engine has bolts for the main caps rather than studs? Or have you just not threaded them in yet? That crank looks real nice too! That's a M117 560 crankshaft right? Sorry I didn't even think about marks from past crushing of the head gasket rings. They were so perfect looking I almost thought you had it sleeved. Providing the pistons will be thick enough I too agree having them milled would be the easiest and least expensive route.

Really cool how you come up with that idea for the newer style engine stands, even cooler you have a chain fall attached! That's pretty slick and 100% custom, just like your 4.5 errrr, should I say "Cast-Iron" 5.6

This is just a really cool project you have going here! What kind of projections are you coming in with for the final compression ratio?

Hello,
The main caps use bolts. I have not seen an aluminum block engine but the iron block is very robust apearing. It looked much mre substantial than the SBC sitting next to it at the machine shop. I had the 5.6 crank checked and polished and it meets new specs so I got lucky on it. The pistons have a deep dish so the little bit I will take off is insignificant. I had to buy 2 5.6 engines to get enough good parts and 8 pistons the same size.
I'm looking at around 10.0:1 CR if I use the smaller combustion chamber 3.5 heads. The 5.6 heads have bigger ports and intake valves and I have been tossing around the idea of seeing if I can modify them to fit the iron block. I bought 5.6 head gaskets and all the holes line up with the exception of 4 bolt holes which are off about 1/8". I need to get some 5.6 heads to see how feasible it is.

Hello Tony,

I really don't like posting when all I can do is speculate !!! Regretfully I don't know the In / Ex port & valve sizes etc of the 560 cylinder-heads. However, when we work with what we DO know, we can determine that the 350 made its peak power at 5,800 rpm, and peak torque at 4,000 rpm. The 450 made peak power at 5,000 rpm, and peak torque at 3,000 rpm. We know that these two engines shared the same valve sizes ( at least from the information I have ), and it can be clearly seen that both peak torque and power shifted down around 1,000 rpm in the 450's rev-band, (yet was still able to red-line I believe at 6,000 rpm), and the 450 is a full - litre larger engine ( or 61 cubes if you like ). Regretfully the tech-data book ( in your case ) that I have is the 1976 edition, so the required data for your 560 I don't have ( yet ).

Apparently the standard 560 makes its peak power at 4,750 rpm and peak torque at 3,250 rpm, and you say that the ports and valves are larger...Clearly we can see that with your engine, based on the above "indicated trends", will be possibly making these peaks at an even lower rpm again. Don't forget that you've got around 2.1 ltrs, or if you like, 128 cubes of larger engine now to feed ! I'm only guessing here, but I would think that your out-puts are still going to be reasonable, but the peaks will possibly be 500 - 1000 rpm lower in the rev-range again, that would mean a lower numerical diff-ratio will give you a better spread of performance with the limited rpms you may well be faced with.

The only way you're going to be able to speculate further where you stand is to have all your possible combinations of cylinder heads and cam - lifts evaluated with the use of a flow-bench. Alternatively, hunt-down a computer program that will give you some numbers when the data is processed. Or, just find the known values of one of your cylinder-heads flow-rates, and calculate what to expect with your chosen combination. Why not just measure the ports and valves of the 560 head, and compare the sizes as percentages ? I would do this first !!!

Put basically though, the larger the port and valve area, the higher in the rpm-range that your peak torque and power will occur. ( Important to remember that Peak Torque is where the maximum amount of cylinder filling of air and fuel is...aka Maximum Volumetric Efficiency...) It would "seem" that you're behind the 8-ball at the moment to match even a standard 560's cylinder-heads flow-rates...It's primarily for these reasons that Performance Camshafts came into being...To enhance volumetric efficiency and so improve these torque and power-peaks due to deficiencies in cylinder-head design.

Your venture will still be a success ! But it's better to know and optimize now, than face possible disappointment and removing your heads for improvements down the road.

All the very best and good luck,

Rastus.

Hello Tony H,

This sounds like a positive step forward!!! Now we'll all start to realize ( myself at-least LOL) that your engine will be an enhanced "iron-block"-560, rather than a stroked 450, but either is still pretty cool ! Every MB engine has always had an aluminium cylinder-head(S), whether they be 4,6,8,12 cylinders or diesel unit in the last 70+ years I think. They we're very much "decades" ahead of the others not so long ago, though now-days its maybe a little harder to say that...Still though, when taken care of, they'll out-last most other makes by a wide margine...

Also, don't be too concerned about compression-ratio, as if you really want it, you can always have the cyl-heads machined down to near-Max.-allowable-thickness that will improve things a little. ( Don't go all the way, as you'll eliminate the possibility of re-machining in the event of a blown-head-gasket etc etc ). Even by improving static compression by one full ratio will "generally" only net a maximum of 2% improvement, which is about 5-bhp when based on the std out-put of a 560. Machining of the intake-manifold is required also, but you know this.

The real advantage you will have is that your W111 predates the "Smog requirements" of to-days cars...This means a proper big-pipe free-flowing TWIN-exhaust system and 4-1 extractors plus other things that will / should allow you see the 1 bhp to 1 cube figure and beyond...Maybe... What this really means is that you can start taking advantage of your "Dynamic - compression - ratio " which is all about cylinder-filling and emptying potential at rpm. Should you be able to find those "Euro" Cams that the factory made that netted a claimed 300 bhp from the "special 560" engine, then things will be very, very, very cool...

Good luck with these 560 heads & cheers,

Rastus

-- Edited by Rastus on Sunday 9th of June 2013 01:56:11 AM

-- Edited by Rastus on Sunday 9th of June 2013 02:08:56 AM

You learn something new everyday. Rastus emailed me recently also to inform that your heads are aluminum and also stated that most all passenger cars have always had aluminum heads. While I can neither confirm or deny it's very interesting that Mercedes was using aluminum for their heads way back then! I had seen a little rust (must have been from the valve seats) and just assumed they were cast iron.

The cam bolts being a little off is somewhat scary, I am not sure how you would overcome this without serious work, but I have been amazed thus far so I am pretty sure you will figure something out. Seems working the heads native to the engine would be your path of least resistance. I am most positive you could massage them if needed.

Rastus wrote:

---

Now we'll all start to realize ( myself at-least LOL) that your engine will be an enhanced "iron-block"-560, rather than a stroked 450, but either is still pretty cool !

---

I find it very refreshing that a newer 560 crankshaft will set in the 450 engine! Seem's the 560 crankshafts are the key to a lot of "stroking" projects; for example I have heard that a 560 crankshaft will slide in the newer M119 500 engines to make a 6.0 liter.

Either way, if the idea was to have a 5.6 he just as well could have gone that route, so a "Stroked" or "Modified" 450 sounds much meaner than a "Iron-Block 560".

We should also not forget why a person would want a cast iron block, and that my friends is called "FORCED INDUCTION". Take solice in knowing that things like port sizes and mirror smoth runner walls are for the Naturally Asperated crowd. The forced induction crowd just CRAM the air in there! LOL! I sure hope this cast-iron beast will at some point be force fed, otherwise why the need for the iron block?

I also wanted to bring up some things that usually come into play when putting different cranks and rods in engines. Often times (on Chevy engines) you must index or cut clearance from the blocks pan mounting area and sometimes the bottoms of the cylinder walls to make room for the connecting rod's or end caps. Did you have to do any indexing to get the engine to spin freely? 

For some reason page 2 of this post has disappeared. Maybe it is my browser but I can't see any of the posts I made after this one. I will try to summarize progress to date. The iron block engine used aluminum heads very similar to the aluminum block engines heads with the exception of the cam tower head bolts that are slightly off about 1/8". I bought some 5.6 heads to check out. They have much larger intake ports and the intake valves are larger. The exhaust valves have thinner stems resulting in more port area. They fit the iron block just fine and everything matches up with the exception of the 5 bolts mentioned. There is plenty of material in the head to redrill the holes to match the iron block. Since I am building a 5.6 engine it makes sense to use 5.6 heads with the correct port size for the displacement. One issue with the 5.6 heads is the combustion chamber is large and will lower my CR. I have investigated having the combustion chambers welded and reshaped to lower the CR-it is commonplace and very reliable-in fact some racing heads are 40% welded material. It is a simple wedge combustion chamber-nothing exotic. Might be a less expensive/simpler solution for someone with a US spec 560 car that wants to raise their CR without installing new pistons.

yes I am excited to invent a new wheel. I'm sure someone has done it but without some means of reducing the combustion chamber volume it will just make your CR lower than it already was which would make the whole exercise pointless. I know a local welder that works on aluminum heads and he said it is very common to weld combustion chambers. Apparently there is not much than cannot be fixed on an aluminum head by welding.

Hi Tony H,

Talk about a man-on-a-mission LOL !!! SELLC has raised some good-points, especially about equalizing your chamber volumes again, as this would mean taking away some of the metal that you've just put in there ! But it would need to be done...

All that I'm going to suggest is to slice-in-two ( or as many pieces as needed )one of your "used" cylinder heads, so that you can determine where your coolant passages are, how deep your welds can penetrate, and learn where you can / can't add metal due to possible localization of heat - eg, too much metal without cooling...Maybe another method would be to also include "ceramic-coatings" of your piston-crowns & combustion-chambers, to keep excess-heat at bay...Good luck & we all look forward to your next post !

Cheers,

Rastus

Rastus wrote:

---

Hey SELLC,

I'm pretty sure that Tony H still wants to run the standard "manual" gearbox, so that's what made him decide to retain the Iron-Block. He was also intent on just a near-standard rebuild, and realized (like most people do ) that for near the same out-lay ($$$), you're better-off to re-build a larger engine as the Hp-per-dollar-spent equation is much more favourable.

---

You know Rastus, I just now noticed this post above. I don't know about anyone else, but seems an adapter plate would be WAY easier to measure out and have CNC'd out of aluminum than trying to stroke an engine. I think most people don't realize the real $$$ out-lay when they get into such things. It looks like Tony is having fun with it, which is all that matters really. But the guy is such a two face. I hate people like that. Like as if I wasnt going to find out or something. He's defiantly among people like himself over there on BW.ORG so I have no doubts he will fit right in.

Hey Tony, weather it ends up working out for you or not, I'll give you $50 bucks for that engine stand when your done with it! LOL! And hey, let me know when this project starts tapping the ole' bank and I'll make you a tender offer on that Welder too! What is that? A Miller 180? LOL... not

-- Edited by SELLC on Thursday 4th of July 2013 06:47:56 AM

I guess every good thread needs a little drama... He's lucky this didn't happen on BenzWorld or for sure SOMEONE in this thread would have been banned, even if they didn't do anything! LOL!

This is really weird-page 2 came back along with all the recent posts! Must be something my employer put in my browser. I read a lot of posts that have been added since I have been here. I did post a question(which there did not seem to be much interest/input on) at you-know-where but the "other forum" I was mentioning starts with a fruit that contains a stone and they have been pretty good through the years.
So to answer some of the questions that came up: There was a small amount of material removal at the front and rear of the crankcase to fit the 560 crank since the counterweights are larger in diameter otherwise the crank and rods fit fine. The issue with the mismatched 560 head bolt seems easily resolved as there is only about 1/8 misalignment on 5 holes(The cam tower head bolts) and there is plenty of material in the area to me machined. I also found the 4.5 alternator and P/S pump fit on the 5.6 heads but the 4.5 timing chain tensioner rail does not match up to the 5.6 tensioner/head so I need to get a 5.6 rail to try.
I threw the head welding out as more of a wish list item-I really doubt I will go there for now. If the engine lives I might look at some enhancements but initially everything is going to be stock 5.6.
My car is smog exempt due to the age so I can use Megasquirt/EDIS and whatever exhaust I wish.
It was suggested by someone whom I feel is knowledgably that the piston coating is largely nickel. I know there is not much ferrous as a magnet will hardly stick to it. I plan on going with the looser iron block piston clearance of .02-.03mm vs. the alum block clearance of .008-.018mm.
If someone were to go my route they would need to use a transmission that mates to the iron block.

Hey SELLC,

I really don't know what to say...except LOL !!!

Rastus

Hey Tony,

I would think that the clearances that your going to use will work out fine. A possibility for the finer tolerances with the alloy-block is that the materials are probably the same, hence the expansion-rates will be similar, if-not identical. Combined with the friction-reducing surface of the pistons, & bores, would have allowed a more stable platform for the pistons, & provided better function of the piston rings, as well as extending the service-life of these components.

With your Iron block, just ensure that you allow the engine to warm-up a little ( say 50 degrees C ) before driving. This will allow everything to settle-in a little more & take a little stress away from your mind ! I'd be very surprised if things didn't work out fine for you.

Apparently oil-consumption on these Cast Iron V-8's is that you're expected to consume around 1/4 of a litre every 100 Km's, (or every 60 miles or so..). Yes this seems a little high, but it's straight out of the MB Tech. Data Book for M116 & M117 V-8's, & should be considered normal. Also, expect a little higher oil-consumption when breaking-in your new engine, so closely monitor your dip-stick readings ! And your first fill of oil into the engine before, & then after your 1st start-up may well exceed the 10 litre mark, so make sure you have plenty available !

In case your wondering, my little 350 revs quite high at highway speeds ( around 3,600 rpm @ say 65 mph ), yet it actually drinks very-little oil, & I find myself only adding 1.0 ltr of oil after "around" 10 tanks of fuel, or if you rather 3,500 miles, & then I change the oil within the next couple of weeks as it's starting to lose its clear-yellow colour on the dip-stick. Maybe you could follow these results as yard-sticks for yourself...The little V-8 has a little under 100,000 miles on the odometer.

I'm not sure if the pin your seeking comes with a new chain-tensioner kit, but a new MB assembly is HIGHLY recommended !

Cheers,

Rastus

PS I'm sorry about some of my indifferent spelling errors, but here in Oz it's how we spell things, & it's hard to change your ways sometimes LOL. ( eg litre instead of liter ).

-- Edited by Rastus on Thursday 18th of July 2013 01:53:22 AM

Hi Tony H,

It's good to hear that the l o n g process of your restoration is well under-way & comming up to your expectations. Thanks also for the indicated completion time-frame of 12 months, as it will allow most of us to stop holding our breath & breathe a little LOL. Good to hear that your timing-chain-guide issue seems to have sorted itself out, & that progress is being made on your cylinder heads. Maybe some "before & after" photos of the cylinder-head-bolt-hole relocation modification would be great to post-up if possible ?...I hope that your not too disappointed with your compression-ratio increase, as it's still an improvement over stock, though I think that your real-improvements on power-out-put will lie in your exhaust system...Have you managed to source manifolds or headers yet ? I was very surprised to see how the drivers side exhaust manifold on the US std 560's wraps around & above the transmission bell-housing, & then joins on into the passenger-sides with a "Y" piece. Not good for HP output !

Anyhow, any up-date of proceedings would be good whenever you can manage it ! Best of luck !

Cheers,

Rastus

Decided against using the 560 heads. Too many issues for little gain. Using the 560 heads will lower my CR considerably due to the larger combustion chamber. If I use late K-jet 450 heads (they have a combustion chamber the same shape as the 560 heads only 45cc instead of 50cc) I will have 9.75 CR. I could get to 10.0 by taking about .010 off the deck when I have the block finished. When I rebuild the 450 heads I will install the thinner stem 560 exhaust valves and see if I can port the 450 heads to the 560 profile.

Went back and got the 560 timing chain tensioner and it fits the 450 block and pin. The pin was really stuck and I had to tap it and pull it out. Not much fun in the Sacramento heat. Now I'm thinking about the 560 heads again! I put one on the bench next to a 4.5 head and the ports are so much larger. Maybe I will just work through the issues. The main issue is with the large combustion chamber. I'm going to talk to my welder and see if he can weld the heads without ruining the seats. I already expect to replace the guides.

Here are some photos of a 560 SL manifold.

The 560 SL exhaust is pretty cool, pretty much dual pipes all the way back with the exception of cat's and muffler.

I also dig how you can drop the 5.6 liter out the bottom on the R107. Of course it does suck to have to replace the mounts. But here is a look at how the drivers side pipe drops on an R107. They don't seem near the same as the Euro logs found on the W126 sedans and coupes.

In going this R107 exhaust route I would imagine said parts would be on the pricy side, but perhaps you can pick some up at a good deal.  

I found a pair of 560SL exhaust manifolds on Ebay for $200. I doubt I will find a better deal. They pretty much duplicate the original 3.5 ones as far as where the downpipes route. That way I can tie into the existing exhaust system then consider upgrades later. The existing dual 1.75" system is smallish for 5.6L but will work well enough until I can build a custom 2.25" system.
I will take a pic of the timing chain tensioner over the weekend. I was very pleased to see the pin diameter was the same between the two so it was a direct swap.
Like I said it might (probably) be 1-2 years before I get this going as the car is pretty much dissasembled now.

Yo folks,

Great pics SELLC, fingers crossed people take note & find some for themselves...

I would consider a 2.5" twin-system as the bare min. requirement for your 560 Tony H...You would be amazed at how quickly back-pressure rises with a small diameter piping system...You "can" have quiet exhaust systems with min. back-pressure if you're prepared to demand the required components & shop around...Don't be contented with anything off-the-shelf...An exhaust system for a MB will always cost you a "little"- more, so you might aswell get what you ( or your engine rather ) needs...

Cheers,

Rastus

Them are some great photos! Nice side by side action! I love that stuff!

So by increasing the compression you would feel better about using the heads native to the block? Knowing now that they are both aluminum I'd say sticking with the original heads would save a lot of time and potential stress/money. Like you said, if you are able to bump the compression all will be good.

Am I understanding this right? Seems like the best path to take and as you said, all that hassel for such a little gain. The main part (lower end) is good to go right? You will still be using the 560 crank?

Excellent job on the photos and glad to see you staying the course. Don't be rushed, enjoy the build and take your time. There will be more than enough time to get in a hurry when its all finished and your itching to get it installed and feel the power. Take the time now so you don't have to mess with pulling it back out. Sticking with the heads native to the engine was a wise choice if you ask me.

I thought using the 560 heads required re-location of some head bolt holes? Is that still the case?