FYI...I have used K & W Headgasket sealant in my daughter's car with a pretty severe head gasket leak and it is still going strong after 2 years. The only difference is I put it in and drove it for 500 miles vs. running the heater and idling it on high for 30 min, then draining it and letting it dry over night. My friend recommended I try it and I only used an $8.50 bottle. I don't know how it works, but it does. You just have to make sure you don't let it sit overnight or during the day in freezing temps because you just have water in it!

Did not want to follow up on this until after I installed a new water pump. It has been 5 days since then. I filled the coolant system with soapy water to clean out any residual oil and have been running on that since Monday. Will flush tomorrow and refill with proper Zerex G05 mix.

Since the refill on Sunday;

• I show zero loss of water in the overflow tank.
• There is no visible steam from the exhaust.
• There are no water drops from the tailpipe making puddles on the ground.
• I am maintaining normal 82C-95C operating temperatures.

I am therefore declaring the Steel Seal treatment a conditional success, the condition being a 2-4 week observation period beginning this weekend when I can verify that no more oil is leaking into the coolant. If that is the case, I will then declare the treatment a complete success.

My assumption is the oil leaked into the coolant through the same head gasket breaches (or head cracks?) that the coolant did. If the leak was sealed for one fluid then the same should be true for the other. But I will err on the side of caution and wait a month to be sure.

The odd thing is that M104 engines are not supposed to leak oil into the coolant.

Very nice!!!

Isn't it?
 

Mine did before the head gasket was replaced!

RayH

Did you also experience coolant pressure losses beforehand?

when you say steel seal, are you refering to the thermostat o ring seal? i am noticing a tiny drip from the small hose that connects the metal tube coming out of the cylinder head and the water pump,im baffled as to how they got the hose off and on,it appears you need to remove the water pump just to replace that small 4" piece of radiator hose,ive tried loosening the clamp moving the hose around and repositioning the clamp closest to the thermostat housing,it appeared under pressure that the leak was gone,but i noticed when cold the next morning the hose was colapsed from suction and there was a tiny 1 spot drip,do you think my coolant bottle cap is malfunctioning,the hose stays extremely firm most of the time,i already replaced the thermostat with a 195 degree,i think i will put a new cap on next,if its not breathing cxorrectly im thinking thats why the hose was imploding on itself cus when i opened the cap it released the vacum pressure and the hose returned to normal,anyone have any thoughts or ideas?

I didn't, no. I did notice greasy scum in the coolant and this is what to me to the local MB for the gasket job. They also replaced all coolant hoses as they feared contamination from the oil.

There was never any water in the oil, however, so it was truly a 'on-way failure'.

RayH