How would it be possible to determine a HG with the symptoms he's displaying. Coolant will mysteriously appear in the oil. Tear down, head gaskets, and hope?

Looks like a pristine engine bay in the pics.

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1985 500SL Euro w/ AMG bits 130k
1984 300SD Turbodiesel 192k
1980 240D Stick China 188k
2001 CLK55 AMG 101k
2007 S600 Biturbo 149k Overheated Project, IT'S ALIVE!!!

well, hes going to have to tear it down anyway. once he does that he may find a smoking gun, which i hope for his sake is a head gasket and not a crack in the block like he is assuming, or a crack in a head. at least a head gasket is a straight forward repair, so fingers crossed for that is what i was saying.

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This post brought to you by Carl's Jr.

Son's 6.5 had two cracked heads and other issues. Would probably be a decent engine...if it was built by somebody else.
My 6.2 was a reliable workhorse. Only issues with it were the glow plug controller and a leak in the IP

If this happened to me I first would find out what folks on the Diesel GMC/Chevy Suburban fora would recommend doing before I spend any $$$ or time with this.

Just my opinion though.

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1991 560 SEC AMG, 199k <---- 300 hp 10:1 ECE euro HV ...

1995 E 420, 170k "The Red Plum" (sold)

2015 BMW 535i xdrive awd Stage 1 DINAN, 6k, <----364 hp

1967 Mercury Cougar, 49k

2013 Jaguar XF, 20k <----340 hp Supercharged, All Wheel Drive (sold)

I agree it's possible that it could be a head gasket. But all this stuff transpired in a matter of 84 miles which was how many miles ago I changed the oil and everything was fine. (Actually less than that since I checked the oil a couple of times since that change and it was fine) I'm skeptical that you can put a gallon and a half of coolant thru a bad headgasket in 84 miles without clouds of obvious white smoke. I'll do some more investigating though.

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

Is it possible that the intake manifold gasket is corroded like happens with the 80's 307s?

not if the leak is between oil and coolant ports and not into the combustion chamber.

the head gasket doesnt necessarily need to fail into the combustion chamber and show burning coolant. it can fail between a couple other passages passing through it and just dump fluids into other fluids

id check everything else first though, no coolant temp controlled oil coolers or such?

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This post brought to you by Carl's Jr.

Distance between add and fill mark is 3/4". It's reading 1" above the full mark this morning.

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

I hope that you are not running the engine too much at this point, as that diluted oil isn't doing the bottom end any favors.

Might be time to repower it with a 4-53- the real Detroit Diesel.

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'83 300D, 126K miles.

More data. Drained about a pint of oil. Oil came out, not coolant. Water/coolant was visible in the oil but not by a huge volume. Started the engine cold and ran it for a minute. No pressure build up in the radiator. No white smoke.

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

Just a thought; you might consider sending the oil to a reputable oil analysis lab for a thorough scientific analysis of it. Then you would know FOR SURE what you are dealing with.......

Just sent an oil sample off to Blackstone for analysis.

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

There is one other thing that would account for increased volume in the crankcase (but not the sludge and water bubbles)--failure of the anti-drainback valve in the oil filter. It's a Fram. I had one fail on my Landcruiser recently. Changed the oil and the filter was basically empty. Of course that wouldn't account for the loss of a lot of coolant.

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

LOL of all the terrible ideas in the world...

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CENSORED due to not family friendly words