yup. I have 2 617's with cracked heads from driving without coolant I'd guess...

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John HAUL AWAY, OR CRUSHED CARS!!! HELP ME keep the cars out of the crusher! A/C Thread
"as I ride with my a/c on... I have fond memories of sweaty oily saturdays and spewing R12 into the air. THANKS for all you do!

My drivers:
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 560SL convertible
1987 190D 2.5-5SPEED!!!

1987 300TD
2005 Dodge Sprinter 2500 158"WB
1994GMC 2500 6.5Turbo truck... I had to put the ladder somewhere!

A 123 diesel was in my indy's shop late last year with what they finally decided was a cracked head from driving with little or no coolant. The driver simply ignored the gauge as long as the engine kept running. The mechanic said it actually ran fairly well, considering. Last I heard they were shopping for a good used head.

Jeremy

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"Buster" in the '95

Our all-Diesel family
1996 E300D (W210) . .338,000 miles Wife's car
2005 E320 CDI . . 113,000 miles My car
Santa Rosa population 176,762 (2022)
Total. . . . . . . . . . . . 627,762
"Oh lord won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz."
-- Janis Joplin, October 1, 1970

I found a 15 in a JY years back, it was on a 3L motor (in an '86) if that tells you anything. Sold that off as I bought a fully refreshed 17 on the board with camshaft, new lifters, new springs, new injectors, etc.

Potentially I may have a few pictures of it still, if anyone cares I will look. I think it had the 'straight' injection still.

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I'm not a doctor, but I'll have a look.

'85 300SD 245k
'87 300SDL 251k
'90 300SEL 326k

Six others from BMW, GM, and Ford.

Liberty will not descend to a people; a people must raise themselves to liberty.[/IMG]

I bought an intact #15 head as a core to rebuild and replace my cracked #14. It appeared not to have been machined before it got to me. It had the collars with the splines and the newer angled prechambers. It didn't have the coolant passage near the timing chain filled in. The machinist put my old prechambers in this head so I could use my just-rebuilt old-style injectors. He has a long background machining & building Mercedes heads at a dealer, but had not put straight prechambers in a #15+ revised head before. They dropped in fine and the prechamber protrusion into the combustion chamber was within spec, but they all still leaked like crazy, which he says he has seen many times. He says he has addressed the problem before by using some kind of locking sealant on the prechamber mating surfaces and on the locking collar threads.

I haven't looked at all the prechamber leaking threads yet, so I don't know if refinishing the prechamber bore and/or adding a shim to create a better sealing surface is a better solution.