Looking for suggestions if anyone has any idea where to buy a head. In my endeavors to remove my stuck glow plugs, I damaged my head, shop tells me that it needs to be replaced. The shop says the only place to get one is to order a new one from Germany, for about $2K, so I am hoping and praying that one can be found elsewhere a little more reasonably.

Would greatly appreciate any help on this one.

Also, the advise provided by the shop for removing Glow Plugs. They say when they do them, they get the motor really good and hot and then do the change. Something to the extent that the aluminum head gets much hotter than the steel glow plugs, and the aluminum head expands more than the steel glow plug. So when the head is hot, it will give up the glow plugs easier than when the head is cold. Not sure if there is one bit of truth to this, but this shop only works on Mercedes and has been doing so for at least 30 years, so I got to believe they must have some idea what they are doing.

Thanks again everyone for your help so far.

So very sorry to hear that.

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raMBow

1999 E300DT Obsydian Black Metallic, Heated Full Leather Parchment options, E2, K2, 136,000+, best 36.5 mpg - GP's 12-04 & 11-12 Zero Stuck
2010 Honda Odyssey - The BrideMobile - best 26.5
(2) 2005 Honday Accord- (1 -Corporate 1 - Personal) - 110,000 4-cyl 30mpg
2000 VW Golf GLS TDI, Upsolute Chip (sold to Brother, now 300+k on it) 48.5 mpg like clock work
1987 Honda CRX HF - Sold 87,000 always over 50 mpg Max 67 mpg

How could you have damaged it so badly it can't be repaired??

It would seem you could either open the hole up and put some sort of threaded insert into the oversized hole or you could have the hole welded shut (they can weld AL) and redrill and tap a new hole...seems unbelievable that you would need to replace the entire head from trying to extract a glow plug even if you drilled too much.

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Marty D.

2013 C300 4Matic
1984 BMW 733i
2013 Lincoln MKz

Anti-Seize will prevent this from happening again.

See a machine shop about repairs to your head

"Google" Dover Cylinder Head... My favorite location is in Orange Park,Fl (outside
Jacksonville,Fl) [Or try Switchboard.com for their number] Excellent Old World
craftsmanship! Seven locations throughout the Southeast.

All they do is cylinder heads!

If the shop has this tool: http://www.startekinfo.de/etools/content/tool.jsp?toolno=900%20589%2002%2099%2000

you may not need to replace the cylinder head.

By 'damaged your head', I'm presuming that you've damaged the glow plug holes/threads?

If so, how many are damaged? Just the one?

No need to buy a new head for that. Even if you can't drill the hole out and put a helicoil it, you can always weld it closed. The engine will start easily enough on 5 cylinders, I should know because mine has for well over a year

Thanks all for your help. It seems that to repair the head will inure substantial costs, maybe not quite as much as a new head, but the cost difference is not worth it. The shop tells me to repair is about $1600.00 where new is around $2k. For me personally, it is worth a little extra to get new versus retool the existing for such a small savings. If a fix the head was $500 I would say sure, but the difference is not worth the savings.

I was just hoping someone had some idea where to buy one a little less than $2K. I guess there is some sort of cooling channel that is what I damaged as well as the threads. I wish I would have taken a picture for y'all. There is some sort of cavity to the right of the #3 glow plug that I drilled into, allegedly this is some kind of cooling cavity. One can defiantly see the hole into this cavity.

Thanks again for all the help and advise, keep it coming.

Bummer

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89 Ford F3504x4CC 7.3 IDI turboed Intercooler and running on wvo now powered by a 1997 Cumins
87 300SDL on bio and wvo killed by chevy truck 5-24-06
1999 E300TD black with gray int.

I sent you a source by email for the part at $1640 plus shipping...they are very dependable and I recommend them highly.

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Marty D.

2013 C300 4Matic
1984 BMW 733i
2013 Lincoln MKz

I'm still not sure that the head is unrecoverable.

It depends if you want 6 working glow plugs. If you don't want to buy a new head, I would simply weld shut no.3 glow plug hole on both sides. It shouldn't matter if you've drilled into a cooling cavity, it should still work perfectly well.

Marty,

Thanks for the link, will call them on Monday to see what the final deal is, but $1642 is a heck of a lot better than $2K.

Thanks,

You're welcome...I still have trouble believing a machine shop would charge more than a few hundred dollars to fix it, I'd hunt around and find another shop before spending that much on a new head...but that's me.

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Marty D.

2013 C300 4Matic
1984 BMW 733i
2013 Lincoln MKz

That took kit didn't work that well for my car. It didn't have the correct inserts.

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01 Ford Excursion Powerstroke
99 E300 Turbodiesel
91 Vette with 383 motor
05 Polaris Sportsman 800 EFI
06 Polaris Sportsman 500 EFI
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Red
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Yellow
04 Tailgator 21 ft Toy Hauler
11 Harley Davidson 883 SuperLow

I always advise people not to drill unless they are feeling really lucky or have a drill that works as well as the machine shops. They have it so they can drill at any angle they want. Our hand drills cannot. Did you fawk it up or did the shop? If it is the shop, they broke it so they ate it. If it is you, you have to bite the bullet.

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01 Ford Excursion Powerstroke
99 E300 Turbodiesel
91 Vette with 383 motor
05 Polaris Sportsman 800 EFI
06 Polaris Sportsman 500 EFI
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Red
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Yellow
04 Tailgator 21 ft Toy Hauler
11 Harley Davidson 883 SuperLow

Dont forget it the new head is just that. minus the valves, springs and cams plus hardware your going to be paying more to swap over the existing parts than just rebuilding and repairing the current one.