Well, now that I discovered that the right head gasket on my 380sl is leaking oil, I'm wondering whether one or more of the bolts or heli-coils that should be holding them in, might have loosened up over the years, and if so, whether loosening and re-torquing the bolts could possibly correct the leak.

I came across a website dealing with Saab's aluminum head engines that states "To address an external oil or coolant leak from the cylinder head gasket when no engine overheating or other running complaints have occurred, it is only necessary to retorque the cylinder head bolts. Cylinder head removal and gasket replacement is not necessary in most cases."

According to this site, all the head bolts should be loosened (in reverse of tightening order) and re-torqued to 90 degrees beyond the original 60NM, which is the same torque that MB specifies. But I'm hesitant to do this until I can be sure that it's not going to make the problem worse.

So, I was wondering if any of you guys ever did anything like this.

Thanks in advance.

DD