questions on my 300sel - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

wrnmnro · #1 07-15-2009, 10:54 PM

Hello,
I just put my 89 300sel back together after sitting for 8 months after my daughter over heated the engine. The car always has run great and no problems...until I turned her loose with it. Anyway, I was told probably a head gasket was needed and was going to attempt it myself. Changed my mind and it sat for 8 months. I got tired of looking at this beautiful car...sitting so I put everything back together, new fluids and going to re-enact the scene and reproduce the heat issue. It started right up and ran fine at 80 cent. and did not peg! there is a little surge, drop off surge and then runs fine.

My question is....anything I can do to test this out more before I put it on the road? any suggestions as to what I should expect? And the radiator warning light is on...????

Thanks
Warren

erhard · #2 07-16-2009, 12:38 PM

I wonder whether anybody has ever used these new engine "additives" which advertise nano-technology to fix minor head gasket leaks? As I remember they need to have all coolant removed first and replaced with water; costs are around $50.

tinypanzer · #3 07-17-2009, 10:19 PM

Try driving it around, and with the AC on.

You may have nothing more wrong than a radiator which is clogging up, aux fans that aren't working, a bad fan clutch or similar.

Of course, the temp sender could be bad or intermittent too.

What I do in these situations is take a cheap $5 digital meat thermometer. Duct tape it to the top hose of the radiator. You can use this to validate temp gauge readings.

Drive it around. See if you can make the temp climb. If it does, verify that it is actually climbing via the meat thermometer.

Once we verify that it is in fact overheating, we go from there.

erhard, welcome to the forum. You should post your additive question in a separate thread if a search has yielded no results.