M104 head gasket diagnosis

[jsmith]

had my '93 300e-2.8 up on a lift for tranny fluid at my local indy. i asked him to look into the oil leaks and he thinks it is the head gasket. i have done a search and so far here are the symptoms that from what i gather are relevant:

-does not use oil aside from leak (3 in spots on floor overnight)
-no oil in coolant
-oil in plenum - saw this when i changed the plugs.

is the oil in the plenum a positive indication? can i wait until oil starts showing in the coolant? i saw a post that said that at this point it is still an external leak and won't harm the engine. i am just concerned about the oil in the plenum and whether that means that the valve guides etc. might get damaged too. btw, right now it has almost 53k miles.

TIA

I am not familiar with the 2.8 that you have. I dont understand your concearn for the valve guides . I would just monitor the coolant. to make sure the gasket has not deteriorated to the point that it reached a coolant passage. And I wonder if there was a recall on head gaskets ? seems to me that I heard that from somewhere , just cant remember all the paticulars on that subject.

[jsmith]

i was concerned that the i would have to do a valve job too. i am not sure if the head gasket failure would necessarilly mess up the other head components. i just saw that those that had them at higher mileage also had the valves done. i recall that someone that had the problem at 65k just replaced the head gasket. at only 53k miles, my mechanic's opinion is that i probably wouldn't have to do it.

as to a recall - i checked alldata.com and there is no recall for the head gasket on my car.

[G-Man]

The gasket normally only leaks externally. Normally only on the exhaust side as well. There was never much factory support of this problem, certainly no recall since it is not a safety issue. The head should be just fine, you should not need any other work due to the gasket leaking. Brent

Oh now I understand your concearn. well if you do decide to have the gasket changed .I might have them replace the VALVE SEALS while the head was off no big deal even with the head on the car.I dont think I would have my head rebuilt with the mileage that you have unless we were talking maybe $200.00 more for the machine shop to rebuild the head while it was off but I think your mech may balk at that Idea because it might slow him down a bit waiting around for the head to get back from the machine shop as opposed to popping the head right back on as quick as he can remove the old gasket .Sooo I guess what all this jiberish boils down to , that I dont think it would hurt to just replace the gasket.

well said g-man I agree with you 100% Thats kinda what I was trying to relay Its just that I babbbbbbble bla bla