I was losing coolant mysteriously for about a week on my 91 300TE 4Matic. When I couldn't trace it, I took it to a local shop and they found the coolant in the number six cylinder. The wagon has 130,000 miles on it, the dealer put a new head gasket in it at about 118,000 miles. So I took it back to the dealer to see if something went wrong in that job.

I was just informed that I have a cracked head. Even though they could not explain how I did that without ever overheating the wagon. Question 1: Can this happen without overheating it? I have only seen the coolant low light come on and never see the temperature rise above normal operating temp.

Question 2: What are my options here? They are recommending some used parts with year warranty on them. Then again, I had my own trusted part and it failed anyway. Should I go new OE part or used remanufactured? The quote is around $3500 with labor for the new part and obviously less for the others. I'd appreciate some guidance here. Thanks.