Hi everyone:

I have a tech question and your opinions/advice/thoughts are greatly appreciated.


I purchased a 1987 300E (knowing that it had a blown headgasket) (The car sat for 7-9 months)

Once brought the car to a friend's house, A mercedes mechanic during the day (He does side-jobs at home)

The head was pulled and discovered that headgasket caused a lot of problems internally, we even noticed the a piston or two was chipped and a rings were bad, so we decided on going with another engine.

We picked one up from a Mercedes yard (a place who only sells Mercedes stuff) The engine was tested/certified, GREAT compression, etc. anyway.
Once the new engine (with 150k)miles was installed, we took it out for a test drive.

Well, as we were out for a test drive and noticed after about 3 -4 miles driving it, it started to blow some smoke of out the tailpipe, which (I’m hoping) maybe its all of that stuff that was trapped in the exhaust system due to the original engine which had a blown head gasket, it turned out not only did the original engine have a headgasket problem, once the head was pulled off we noticed that a piston or two and ring had a small part of it chipped/cracked. (I guess the guy should have pulled over and not continue to drive it)



I wanted your opinion/advice:



Do you think what is causing the smoke (sometimes blue) maybe coming from all of the “gook” from the headgasket problem must of clogged up parts of the exhaust system and may have clogged up the catalytic converter and or muffler? I know you guys tested the compression on it and Brian said it has great compression, I hope the engine is good, As I mentioned the smoke color was kind of blue, but all that gook oil and antifreeze must be burning up in the clogged areas….What are your thoughts? Any recommendations? What have been your experiences with this? I guess, first thing I will have to replace the cayaltic converter and perhaps the muffler and parts of the exhaust to really know? Have you seen this before when a car has a blown headgasket, chipped rings/pistons and the engine gets replaced, maybe it burning all of that crud in the exhaust?


I got a response from a MERCEDES SHOP as follows:

RESPONSE to my tech question:

First thing you do is to drive it for about a week or two and (Keep in eye on the oil level & water temp).

After a week or two.

1. CHECK the oil level again, hopefully no change in oil level.

2. Pull a few spark plugs, if they are crudded up, then the head will have to be pulled off and the VALVE GUIDES need work/replaced.

3. If after a week or two, the spark plugs are fine, and the oil level is fine, just drive it and all of that crap in the exhaust should burn out…


WHAT DO YOU GUYS THINK?????? THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!