Bill,

Thanks for the further suggestions. I expect that if I need valves I will use them from the fresh head, but the guides are probably gone in the old head and seats would need to be freshly recut. I have found a VERY good machine shop. He came through on all three statements about him; slow, expensive and GOOD. I will let him do it.

I will get together a fresh head, and if the engine turns out to have too much blowby, I think I know where I can get the stuff to build a fresh short block. At that point, I can use the fresh head and some other pieces I have such as a completely new timing chain setup and build a totally fresh engine. If I take time to do that now, the car will be down too long. Plus, that will give me time to get the work bay clear of the POS Vette and make the whole thing more convenient and pleasant to attack.

Thanks again for all the suggestions,

------------------
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