I apologize for being so egotistical that I think that everyone is interested in my own plight, but I'm excited to have my precious manual transmission 124 car back on the road.

Several of you have very kindly been asking for an update, so here it is.

In Early July my 300E overheated on a 105 degree day. I thought that it was due to a cracked hose. As it turns out, I believe the blown hose was a result and not the cause of the problem. Upon taking the head to the machinist, he found that it had corroded into the combustion chamber from the water passage in the head. This was right next to the failed hose. I realize that the pressure is distributed, but I suspect that it somehow blew the hose. I believe the previous owner must have never maintained the cooling system.

I was to leave for a three week trip in Europe just a short time after the incident and didn't get to take the car apart for some time. I initially removed the plugs and blew out the cylinders. It appeared that only the back two cylinders had coolant in them, so I squirted oil in those two cylinders.

I finally got everything that I needed to take it apart about a month later. When I pulled the head there was coolant everywhere. The cylinders were rusted, and when I drained the oil, water came out first, then chocolate milk.

I cleaned the cylinders as best I could and left the drain plug out.

Yesterday morning, I began putting it back together. I checked the piston height and could not find any evidence of a bent rod. I got almost everything back together and then took my wife to the movie last night.

This morning I finished up and put in cheap oil and cheap filter. After some spitting and coughing, during which I thought maybe I had some worse problems, it started trying to run. I got lots of smoke for a good bit, and things leveled out. I ran it for about fifteen minutes and drained the oil, and put on another cheap filter and another fill of cheap oil. I drove it about five miles and then came back and began flushing the cooling system. This afternoon I will continue flushing the cooling system and put in antifreeze.

I plan on driving it a couple hundred miles and then give it a good overnight oil drain and put in my normal oil. It's about 1,000 miles 'til normally scheduled oil change time, so I expect to be back on schedule at that time.

It was quite an experience driving it after driving my C240 for 4,000 miles.

Thanks for indulging my celebration, but I thought that this might be of interest to a few of you.

My baby lives,

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Larry Bible
'01 C Class, Six Speed
'84 Euro 240D, manual, 533K miles
'88 300E 5 Speed
'81 300D Daughter's Car
Over 800,000 miles in
Mercedes automobiles