Blowby is minimal, I have had two other diesels that ran fine and this one isn't much different. There is no oil visible in the coolant though. I actually don't know how to test the compression on a diesel, can you do it by taking the glow plugs out? Whatever I do I will need to be able to return it to operable condition relatively easily after until I am actually ready to start swapping the head (once I have confirmed that it needs it).

I am going to check the timing chain stretch first, then do a leakdown test and see what happens.

It's hard to see in the service manual diagram which is the 0 timing mark, but if its the one between the 0 and T on the balance it looks like the chain is stretched 2 degrees. I'm thinking in the interest of this not turning into a way bigger job than necessary it should be OK for now? I'm going to order a leakdown tester and do that next.

2 degrees is within spec and can be left alone unless the guides look trashed. Furthermore, I’d like to add that it IS possible it could just be a gasket. People really blow the cracked #14 head deal out of proportion. I just had the exact same issue dealt with... oil leaks near cylinder #1 exhaust runner and pressurized cooling system when cold in the morning. It even got so bad that it did the EXACT same thing to my radiator and blew it apart at the seams of the plastic end tank.

I fully expected to find a cracked head (especially since I mildly overheated it once) but to my amazement; only a breached fire ring into water galley and the front oil galley pissing into cyl#1 and onto the side of the block. Even my head measured out flat (or at least within spec of “flat”) so I opted not to even deck the head or block as to not remove more material.

I did dye check the mating surface with crack developing dye+powder and no cracks in the usual spots between the valves and/or pre-chambers. Slapped a head gasket kit in there after porting the head a little bit and doing valve stem seals + lapping in the valves.

So far so good... 500+ miles on the head gasket job and she’s turned up too... maxed injection pump, more boost, and some water methanol to keep her clean

In conclusion, don’t sweat and have the head checked for cracks and flatness, you could end up being A-ok.

__________________
{2010 Mazda 3 266,000mi} - daily since new, Airlift suspension + some chunky sway-bars: fastest pass 17.7@77MPH
{1987 300SDL 256,000mi} - stock turbo @ 22lbs straight piped + a whole bunch of pre-turbo water/meth injection, 722.3 with increased line pressure, special sauce, and shift kit: fastest pass 16.5@82
{1992 964 Carrera 4 Frankenstein ??,???mi} - 993 forward dated, Speedster conversion, GT45 + E85: fastest pass 12.5@113

Remove the injectors to test compression. I used a HF test kit.

__________________
Only diesels in this driveway.
2005 E320 CDI 243k Black/Black
2008 Chevy 3500HD Duramax 340k
2004 Chevy 2500HD Duramax 220k

This is interesting and reassuring for us 603 guys. I haven't seen much at all about failed gaskets, and a lot about cracked heads. You may be right that its overblown. Not sure. Did you make a thread to document this? If so, please link to it. Thanks.

__________________
DS
2010 CL550 - Heaven help me but it's beautiful
87 300D a labor of love
11 GLK 350 So far, so good
08 E350 4matic, Love it.
99 E320 too rusted, sold
87 260E Donated to Newgate School
www.Newgateschool.org - check it out.
12 Ford Escape, sold, forgotten
87 300D, sold, what a mistake
06 Passat 2.0T, PITA, sold

Las Vegas NV

I've been meaning to start a repair progress/picture thread of my own. I'll get one started here soon. In addition to the head casting itself getting revised, the head gasket construction has been revised too along with increased tensile strength head bolts. Once I found the head flat and crack-free, I prayed that the new gasket design + increased clamping loads would solve my woes. So far so good, and I wasn't nice to the new gasket either. I even clamped the wastegate line off just to see what the stock turbo would do... managed 27 pounds of boost (albeit with 40-50psi of back pressure in the exhaust) so it was getting pushed HARD. I've since reduced boost to 18lbs and it doesn't bottleneck in the upper RPM's. I'll feel better about it lasting longer this way...

__________________
{2010 Mazda 3 266,000mi} - daily since new, Airlift suspension + some chunky sway-bars: fastest pass 17.7@77MPH
{1987 300SDL 256,000mi} - stock turbo @ 22lbs straight piped + a whole bunch of pre-turbo water/meth injection, 722.3 with increased line pressure, special sauce, and shift kit: fastest pass 16.5@82
{1992 964 Carrera 4 Frankenstein ??,???mi} - 993 forward dated, Speedster conversion, GT45 + E85: fastest pass 12.5@113

I tried a combustion gas tester but there doesn't appear to be enough leaking into the coolant to detect at least. I also bought a leakdown tester and I will do that next weekend when I have more time. On the extra #22 head I have, I have a couple questions. If its not flat enough to use as is, how much can it be cut before causing any issues? Also, if it needs to be decked, how do you get the prechambers out? It looks like it takes a few $100 tools to do it?

Prechamber comes out with a slide hammer. Splined tool to remove the locking ring and you'll need to figure out what kind of contraption you can make yourself to attach your slide hammer to the threads in the prechamber for pulling.

as for the #22 - of all the head gasket jobs I've done on 603's, I've never had a 17 and up head ever show warped.

__________________
Allen Kroliczek
Oak Grove Autosport | Oak Grove Autosport
01 G500, 82 300TD, quite a few more.....

diagnose first then fix or worry about taking prechambers out

For what it's worth, I had tried a combustion gas detector too (albeit BEFORE my head gasket leak got bad enough to blow radiator seams but still had cold pressure, so very obviously present) and it didn't show any signs either. I tried sniffing for both oxides and hydrocarbons and nothing made the meter beep so I'm guessing diesels maybe need a different analysis in that regard.

Since you have a head already, I'd say get to work on pulling the old one off. Once you've determined a failed gasket/head, you can begin "while-you're-in-there" repairs like valve stem seals and lapping valves into the seats; maybe a set of lifters. I opted to do only the sliding chain guide as I melted it a bit getting the guide pins to come out and the others looked pretty good.

Don't forget the new, revised head bolt set and any turbo gaskets as the cylinder head gasket kit does not include those.

__________________
{2010 Mazda 3 266,000mi} - daily since new, Airlift suspension + some chunky sway-bars: fastest pass 17.7@77MPH
{1987 300SDL 256,000mi} - stock turbo @ 22lbs straight piped + a whole bunch of pre-turbo water/meth injection, 722.3 with increased line pressure, special sauce, and shift kit: fastest pass 16.5@82
{1992 964 Carrera 4 Frankenstein ??,???mi} - 993 forward dated, Speedster conversion, GT45 + E85: fastest pass 12.5@113

I definitely plan to do that, it appears that it will add quite a bit of money to a head swap if I have to take the head apart that far so I was just curious if there was any cheaper way to do it. I definitely don't plan on taking anything apart until either a compression test or leakdown test shows an issue though.

I attempted to do a leakdown test but I can't get it to work. If I turn the engine to where both valves are closed and pressurize the cylinder, it just pushes the piston down until the engine turns enough one of the valves opens. How do I do the test while keeping that from happening?

that's because you're not at tdc

each piston has to be at it's exact tdc then it won't move.


OM603 pistons at TDC:

1: OT
5: 120 deg
3: 240 deg
6: OT
2: 120 deg
4: 240 deg


read post #50:

OM603 #14 cracked head or head gasket leak?

It finally stopped raining enough to try it again, I was able to try testing cylinders 1 and 6, but the compressor doesn't seem to have enough capacity because both the compressor side of the gauge and the cylinder side drop quickly, so I wasn't able to tell anything. I couldn't find a mark for 120 degrees on the balencer and couldn't get it close enough to not turn by looking at the cam lobes/guessing where 120 degrees would be so that was as far as I got.

I am not sure what to do next, on one hand I would like to just put it back together and sell it because I am not good enough at working on cars to do a job like this and being frustrated and angry whenever I try to work on it isn't very fun, but also I can't afford to spend more than about $6500 on a replacement car plus initial maintenance and the couple post 2000 cars I have owned (an S55 and TDI jetta) were not an experience I want to repeat and I don't really want to sell this one and end up with an even worse problem to deal with either.

I did that with a $50 compressor and it held for a while so you either were not on a compression stroke or something is seriously wrong

your balancer should have markings for 120 and 240

get a low mile w210 e320 m112 rwd or a stick shift 4 cyl accord or a civic for like $3k and you should be good