At the last minute (Thursday) I remembered that I had strongly suspected a leaking heater core sometime back and ran some bars leaks through the heater core. It has not leaked or smelled of antifreeze inside since. Because I have to pull the heater core to get to the floor flap pods, I ordered a heater core from Phil and got it Friday.

On Friday morning my boss called and said that we are having a meeting at his lake house in Missourri beginning on Tuesday. He said to bring swim trunks and golf clubs, so I guess he's just getting us together there so he can write off the lake house.

Anyway, it will be about 450 miles one way, so I decided not to tear apart the car this weekend. I planned on taping off the fresh air vent for the trip. I covered about 80% of the vent with metal film tape and gave it a test drive. It made little if any difference. I then taped it off entirely except for the little center screen. I think that the center screen is for the water drain only. I still saw no difference. I pulled the tape and ran another 10 miles or so and still no difference.

With a 96 degree outside temp, I was making about 46 to 48 degrees vent temp. That exceeds the performance test parameters in the MB manual.

Since I don't know and can't visualize the positions of the recirc doors, I don't know if taping the fresh air vent at the cowl is having the effect that I thought. After pulling the tape I ran it at speed with the climate control off and still got air through the vents. I should have tried that with it still taped to see if there was air through the vents.

Even with it 96 degrees I was quite comfortable, but this was all driving at speed on country roads. I think if I had to drive stoplight to stoplight it might not keep up.

So, I expect to do the podectomy next weekend assuming that our "meeting" is over.

Your experience and theories are still welcome and solicited.

Have a great day,