a week or two ago i allowed my lovely 300CD 1983 to leak out its coolant and overheat . I smelled something on a severe upgrade but thought it might be someone else..... after a while I started to lose power and knew it was me.

I pulled over and allowed it to cool over an hour and a half and then refilled it with water...... at the height of the over heating and looking at the engine.... it was hissing and steam seemed to be escaping from unlikely places or maybe it was other things smoking but not steam

checked the oil and it was ok.... filled it with water and to my surprise it started up and off I went

however, the radiator had a bigger leak and it didn't last long until i was overheating again

took it to my Mercedes man
he put in a new radiator and all seems well

for now...

what can I expect to fail now that i put to the test...

I notice a few more oil leaks

and where it hardly smoked before from the tailpipe
there is a little smoke now

Thanks for your advice!

Ken

Depending on how long it was overheated and the load the engine endured for that time, there is an excellent chance that the cylinder walls are scored and the rings are not sealing like they used to. This will cause oil to burn, but the engine will work.

The other critical item is the head, the head bolts and the headgasket. most likely you have an original headgasket (?). If you find that the 'smoke' coming out of the tailpipe is water vapor, or you find oil in the coolant reservoir or new external oil leaks around the head, then you will want to have the headgasket replaced and the head inspected by a machine shop. It might even by time for a rebuilt head.

There is a slight chance that the head is cracked also. A competent machine shop can usually repair a cracked iron head depending on the placement of the crack. Other than that, replacement heads for these engines are easy to find.

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