Hello all. I brought a 1991 300D 2.5 turbo, with 150,000 miles. The car was beautiful. I picked it up two months ago. Had a little knock in it, turned out to be an injector knock. Replaced all 5 injectors and the car ran beautiful. When I had picked it up, it had an injector leak and a leak in the radiator. I changed the water pump, radiator, while I was at it I changed the reservoir and the radiator was changed by the place I got it. The car ran like a top. I got between 30 to 33 miles per gallon on my ride to work. The other day we got a freaky weather here in NY and it went to 65 Degrees. I drove to work and up a mountain. The car warmed up to about 90 degrees. On the way down the mountain, back to 80 and stayed that way all the way to work. That night I started it up and drove home. On the way home I stopped in NJ to get some Diesel (its 20-30 cents cheaper per gallon.) While stopped I saw a little bit of smoke coming out of the back. No bad but I saw it. I smelled it and is smelled like oil. I drove home and saw my smoke coming out of the tail pipe in the rear mirror. The next day. I drove to a funeral about 60 miles away and saw the smoke again. That point I drove it home and took it to Bendz. They told me that it was most likely the head gasket. They told me that it would cost about $700 bucks. Also if I wanted that they could send out the head and have it pressure tested and have seats, valves, and everything rebuilt for another $700. I told them to do it.

I then got the call. They told me that the head had cracked. They also asked me who had changed the head gasket in the past. They told me that it seems to just have been changed. I told them that I had just got the car a few months back and I did not know. Ended up that the head gasket was just done and that the mechanic chiseled the head bolts out and reused them. They also used an after market head gasket. It doesn't end there. The head wasn't torqued right. I was getting bad compression. The timing chain was streched and shouldn't have been re used.

I went by the Bendz, mech and looked at the head. The crack is about a 1 and 1/2 inch crack right by the valves. The head showed where the head was over torqued and under torqued, just by the discoloration, and the head gasket looked real crappy with a copper color. The timing chain....man was it streached. So need less to say the car ran OK for all the problems it had and it is a baby so its costing me....$3000 for a new head that they say is redesigned just for the reason of cracking. It has all the valves and everything. Its in Germany and will be here this week some time. Also getting OEM head gasket and new timing chain. I know the car is only worth about $6000 to $7000, but it drove great with all the problems and the tranny ran well and the suspension was like a new car. The body is great and the interior is like a new car. The car was great, until the day I drove it to benz. Car still drove great. Just wanted to vent. Later.

PS I've owned (3) 123's 300D 1981, 1983, 300TD 1984 and a 1983 240D and a 1984 300SD.