Mack,

Uh-oh - that's not good. Is the car still parked? Are you going to swap heads on it? BTW, it's very wise to stop driving the car when it begins to "burn" coolant. I have heard of more than one incident where the owner kept driving it, and when the head was finally removed, the block surface was steam damaged (pitted, corroded) from the leak, and required a new short block!! (Usually a used engine is installed, but you get the idea - the block was toast.) While this is not terribly common, it's something to keep in mind - when coolant is vanishing with NO signs of external leakage on a 603, it's time to park the car and yank the head.

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Dave, thanks for the input. The first time it used a bit of coolant, (I would guess about two quarts) I pulled the R/H inner fender liner and checked the coolant resevoir, just so I knew that I had a full system. A week or so later I found it low on coolant again, not sure what it took that time, about the same or more, but as this confrimed it was fubar, I then parked it straight away. So hopefully no damage was done.

I am looking for a used head at present, but I am not having much luck, so far every time I find one, it turns out it the yard has not updated their computers for some time, or they just sold it. I still hope to swap out the head, but to tell you the truth, if I could I would just dump the car as is......... I love the way these cars drive, but after looking at a higher cost in unscheduled maintenace in my first year of Mercedes Benz ownership, then in my previous 12 years of Toyota ownership, I will find a way to deal with a ubiquitious tupperware ownership, and just save the enthusiast focus for my motorcycles. The car has excellant service records from the previous owner, so it's well worth doing the head, vacum pump, and climate control pods, but my heart just isn't in it anymore.

If I could tow my motorcycles behind my 84 190D, I would keep it, but I need something that can tow. I may see what I think of the 95 E300D's, but this is material for a another thread.


Happy Holidays, Mack

One of the questions you may want to ask yourself when buying an 87D is how long you want to have it. I have had two of these terrific cars, both with a #14 head, and no problems. It has been made clear to all of us that overheating will crack these heads. If you decide you want to have the car for 100 or 150k miles then the 3 grand to replace the head is a lot better than car payements. Also as an FYI, there are different head replacements for the 603 engine... I could be mistaken , but 2 of them are a simple replacement with all the valve components from the original, and the 2 others need diff cam and valve componenets (correct me if I am wrong). People who generally have only had experience with gassers don;t pay much attention to the temp guage in a diesel. I've had MB diesels since 1980, and the temp and oil pressure guages are alwasy on my mind. In a gasser, people simply don;t may much attention to those.. adn tend to tak ethem for granted. Hence a gasser peerson is not particularly attentive to the different and critical temp sensors in a diesel. If I were buying a 603 from a gasser person, I'd be very careful. But agin, this is a terrific car. But you DO have to take care of it, and don;t let just any mechanic touch it with a 20ft pole. Jack D

For peopel who step up from a 240d or an 85 or earlier 300d , the 87 300d is more complex and mroe hi tech. Those older ones were a lot more simple to repair (esp the 240d), and built like the rock of Gibralter. the 603 engine is rock solid, but more complex adn needs a little more attention. If you have ever cruised down the thruway at 75 or 80 mph, you'll know what this car feels like. Jack D

Perhaps should not mention on this thread. Where do these heads like to crack? There is an automotive machine shop in montreal, canada that services all canada and perhaps some of the states as well. It seems to have a reputation of doing the impossible. Know a lot of mercedes dealerships use their facility as years ago sent them cams that had the first lobe worn off on the 130 type gas engine. Was surprised by a few things. First they quoted the repair would last, second that they had all mercedes cam profile guides in stock, that they do them everyday, and turned out way below expected price, they do sub work for automotive machine places at least a thousand miles away, across country for all I know. When my friends started having their bmw heads crack, a two thousand dollar proposition, suggested they try this firm and they did. Results were perfect on every repair and the heads lasted in service. You cannot get a perfect metal match when repairing so often wondered how exactly they did it. Bmw became famous for cracking around the fifth cylinder. With the american dollar differential maybe someone should call and talk to them. Will try to locate name and number again if anyone is interested. The guys I talked to seem to have had really good character back then. (six hundred miles away)Told it like it was with with no snow job. Just maybe they repaired these heads every day when these cars were in their prime. Kind of would not suprise me as everyone was buying new or used cams years ago when I was using this shop. They were repairing mine and paying the return shipping for 50.00. This also included reprofiling the whole camshaft. That was cheap even back then.

Mine was cracked at cyls 1, 5, and 6.

I will have to later check the cylinder numbers for sure, but mine had cracks between the valves on two cylinders and one cylinder had the prechamber to valve crack. Looked like another between-valve crack had been fixed previously.

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There can be any number of problems with a used car and the head issue is only one that is well defined as for repair. To me a more important issue is rust. Having lived in the rust belt for many years, I know that the life of the car due to salt is very limited. However, be careful in buying a "Southern" car as some dealers buy in the Rust belt and sell them in Florida or Arizona.
O.

It might be here someplace.. But where does one see what the head number is for their head??? Where is it stamped???

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It's normally part of the casting on the side of the head that faces the manifold. It is beneath the #2 runner on the manifold and you will need an angled mirror to read it.

There are a bunch of numbers there. You are interested in the second to last group of two. The earliest is "14". The latest is "22".

with serious questions RE: the # 14 head on his engine.

I'm not the OP, what info are you looking for?

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- Jeff

I guess that the number 14 heads are everything they are cracked up to be. We still have no diffinitive knowledge of the new afternarket spanish heads to use as a baseline though. The price seems right at about 800.00 new.
Especially a concern as a good member has reported an age related softening of the alloy metal on these heads. He is now experimenting with heat treatment methods to try to restore the factory hardness on the used heads. One of his observations is applicable already. If you can see the head bolt area of metal displaced on the used head just run away. Also before doing any work on a used head the hardness should be checked with a rockwell hardness tester or simular instrument obviously.

That is presuming that the heads he tested were proper hardness when new. Impossible to draw a conclusion of softening without hardness data when new.
It might be that variations in the metal properties between heads is the problem from the beginning.

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- Jeff

Really good thought. Although one would have to assume that mercedes would have picked this up and rectified the situation. Rather than issuing many other variations of those heads.
I do agree it might be problems in alloys mixes somewhat as far as the cracking goes. Oddly enough if the soft heads he is running into are not cracked that sotness may be their protection from cracking to some extent. For what it costs it may also be benificial to run a water wetter in conjunction with the antifreeze in these engines. That may lesson steam pockets or at least reduce them if and when they occur. May also aid heat transfer in the head to some extent.