190E Head Gasket
 

I am gearing up to be doing a head gasket on my 1993 2.6 190e. I just wanted to see if there is anything else I should be thinking about replacing? At this point I am going to be doing the full gasket kit and the timing chain.

Water pump, the stub hose between the head and water pump and the breather hose into the middle of the intake manifold that gets brittle.

Sixto
83 300SD
98 E320 wagon

Be ready for corrosion related trouble

Whats the mater with the head gasket as you want to change it ? Do you have a water leak at the rear of the engin ?

If I was pulling the heads, I would at least renew the valve stem seals, and possibly the valve guides (depending on mileage).

If you must do this send the head away to a good shop to do the work .They will check it for flatness and fit new valve guides along with a pressure test. They will do all thats needed to make it 100% good. Dont think it is just pop on a new gasket, and think is all good to go .

Valve stem seals most definetly. You can have the shop do them if you don't have a spring compressor.

I do have a re-manufactured head pulled from a junk car that I intend to get checked. I will also be doing the head to water pump bypass hose along with a full timing chain kit. I did have a question about the torque on the head bolts. When torquing the head bolts I know I and supposed to torque to the degree, is there any better way other than using the torque gauge? Finally what do I need to clean the surface with?

Also, I am doing this because the car is leaking a large amount of oil out of the back of the gasket. I have read online that it is a common problem for these head gaskets to leak.

Its pretty uncommon for a head gasket to leak to the outside of the engine. The only engine I know of that does that regularly is the Subaru EJ251. I suspect you might just have a leak with the heater hoses or similar.

If you do determine its a head gasket putting a machined and rebuilt head on is nice but that can be costly. I have done a number of top ends where I just checked the head with a straight edge, lapped the valves, and threw it back on with new seals. Things I would do while in there include cleaning the deposits out of the intake manifold, timing guides, timing chain if stretched, check the water pump and power steering pump for play, convert the belt tensioner to a spring loaded one m104 one if you don't care about AC like me, change the belt, replace all the cooling lines and seals, and do the power steering lines. All the accessories on the drivers side of the engine are tight in there and suck to work on.

Actually, its very common to leak from the rear passenger side of the head gasket, so unfortunately that is incorrect information. It widely occurs on many M103.
Get the head skimmed, pressure tested, new valve guides and seals. Done this job 3x so far on two M103's.

Don't remove the intake manifold, remove the bolts and push it towards drivers fender. Its far more hours and risk touching old electrical wires and removing the entire fuel injection side.

My biggest recommendation is do NOT use ANY other head gasket other than Genuine MB. I used Victor Reinz, and ended up having to re-do it again after 20k miles. They are not the same quality. Factory head gasket is only $50, so there is no reason at all not to use it.