So I recently did the head gasket replacement in my 95 E320 wagon. And this car, the 95 wagon, has never seemed as powerful or gotten as good MPG as my previous Merz, which was a 94 E320 sedan with similar mileage, both around 200K and neither one smoking or burning oil and passing DEQ beautifully..The 94 would spin the tires with full accel and the wagon seems far less powerful but will AT TIMES seem to get much better mileage..on trips very near 30 but not always..

Anyway its hard to say how accurately the computers are set up on the wagon since it was a rebuilt wreck. It has lots of new parts from Starmark program rebuild, had a quickie head gasket replacement by them IMO, as shown by a loose head bolt and pitting on the cylinder head which was not repaired, and only the intake valves were ground, not the exhaust. Although it ran beautifully. I did the gasket because of both oil and water leaks on one side, although there was never mixing of oil and water.

I had a top quality cylinder head rebuild done and installed with new OEM head gasket and when put together it had absolutely no leaks and ran great but still the same lower power output..And mileage is 17 to 24 rather than the 24 to 30 I got in the other sedan.

So is itpossible intake the cam advance is not working properly and if there is a way to check? Perhaps pull the activation wire and see if there is a difference?? Other ideas??

Thanks in advance for the awesome knowledge shared on these forums!