Well gents, I got her back today. Valve seals and valve gasket. The MB mechanic showed me the old ones and some new ones so I could see the difference - man, mine were SHOT! All hardened and misshappen - no wonder I was going through so much oil.

The oil ate away at the motor mounts, which explains the rough ride I was feeling under the hood. My 2-week old Bosch spark plugs were covered in oil carbon residue. He put in new Titanium ones.

This mechanic (Karl from Star Service in Wantage NJ) is a Mercedes expert, trained in Austria and expert in all older (1999 and back) models of MB. His personal car is a old 300 4.5, a real beauty. He had a very old 2.2 (?) I think, I will have to look at it closer next time. Lots of 126, 124, 116s on the lot.

He carefully explained everything he did to me, showed me all the parts he pulled out and why they needed to be replaced. He then told me I would need a new fuel distributor (!), and we went out to my car. He popped the hood, took off the air cleaner (what a pain in the ass - pull the hoses, two bolts, shimmy just so - on my old GTO, it was just a wing nut!) and showed me the part on the right of the distributor that is leaking, but of course it is permanently attached to the distributor so I have to replace the whole thing. He then pushed open the vent and showed me inside the motor where it was leaking.

He said it would cost $1500 new. So I'll need to find one here used. Bummer, But after that he said I am done for 100,000 miles - the head looks great, gasket is fine, motor is strong.

Now check this out - I get the bill, 6 hours labor like he said - $420!!!! Only $70 an hour for an MB-trained Austrian enhtusiast/service tech extraordinaire?!? Plus he washed his hands (he was working on a 124 3.0 l diesel engine when I showed up) before he sat down with me to go over everything, and then he patiently went over the whole bill and repair.

I am severely impressed, and wish now I had taken the car to him in the first place. I feel very confident in his abilities, and also feel better now about keeping the car - which by the way runs so much smooother now!

So - anyone have a 5.5l fuel distributor?

-gil