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Old 03-07-2018, 12:50 PM
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Diseasel300 Diseasel300 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by vwnate1 View Post
What I meant was : the 300 had the head issues and the 350 was the rod bender .

We drove my Brother's '87 OM603 from Coast to Coast in August with the original head, (#14 IIRC) , it ran hot going up hills with the AC on and used a steady flow of coolant , in Maine I was fiddling with it and discovered red RTV blocking the small radiator to surge tank hose when I replaced it because I noticed cracks in the rubber .

The car never seriously over heated, we'd just turn off the AC whenever the gauge passed 2/3 .

I have also seen quite a few that still run the original heads, some sort of casting shift or defect I imagine is the issue .
Right. 3.0L was head issues, 3.5L was rod-bending (in addition to other questionable design decisions).

The turbo 603 can run up ~100-105˚ on the temp gauge when pulling up hills with the A/C on and still be considered "normal" so long as the temp goes back down when the load reduces. Replacing the fan/clutch with the turbo 606 fan/clutch seems to be a good upgrade. Colder A/C and a cooler engine, I've yet to see mine get above 90˚, even when floored up some of the long steep hills around here.
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Current stable:
1995 E320 157K (Nancy)
1983 500SL 125K (SLoL)

Gone but not forgotten:
1986 300SDL (RIP)
1991 350SD
1991 560SEL
1990 560SEL
1986 500SEL Euro (Rusted to nothing at 47K!)

Gone and wanting to forget:
1985 524TD 167K (TotalDumpster™) [Definitely NOT a Benz]
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