My 190E 2.6 started having a slight coolant leak about 3k miles ago. I didn't make much of it thinking it was a leaky radiator/hose/etc.

Then it started consuming oil. Bottom line, the other day it overheated for the first time ever at ~185K miles. It was at or above the 120C mark for only a few minutes until I limped to work. I got back home with the engine running at 100C but within operating tempareture. It is quite obvious now that it is the head gasket (oily coolant, etc).

I wanted to junk the car (it has a bunch of other minor issues), but it is my first car and I love it. I figure it is not worth much, so might as well try and fix it myself.

10K miles ago I replaced the valve seals and valve cover gasket because it was consuming too much oil and my mechanic suggested it (I did the job myself and the car worked great but still consumed a but of oil, though much less than before).

Anyhow, I'm going to fix the head gasket. I don't expect to keep the car more than another 2 years/25K miles or so (it is my 2nd car and it has been a great winter car with WS-50's). Do I need to recondition the head? How do I know if it was damaged by the overheating?

Thanks for the help.

I wish I had found this site years ago. You guys seem awesome. Lots of great info.

I would stongly suggest finding a good/quality automotive machine shop to let them inspect/test and recondition the cylinder head. There may not be anything wrong with it but it is cheap/economical insurance.

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Jim

Ok, will do. Just for personal enlightenment... reconditioning the head, I assume entails some kind of grinding/machining operation to ensure flatness across the mating surface to the engine block. Is there anything else to it?

Also, should I worry about the valve guides? I only replaced the seals when I did them.

If you're going to sell the car in 2 yrs. just replace the head gasket.

Cyl. head reconditioning can get expensive.

That was my gut feeling. Also, anecdotally, have heads been damaged by overheating the engine only a few minutes?

Ironically, it overheated on day when the tempreature outside was 3F.

I would only be guessing because one really doesn't know without thorough analysis, but given the short amt. of time, you may not have done much damage other than the gasket.

I wouldn't be concerned about damage to guides, but would be concerned about head warpage due to the overheating. For not too many $$$, a machine shop should be able to check the head surface for warpage.