My son recently bought a 1991 SL500 with approx. 50,000 miles. Unfortunately it started blowing white, acrid smoke and using coolant within 200 miles of purchase. It has great compression - lowest 195 and highest 205. I borescoped it yesterday and found coolant in cylinder #2. Since we are in the early stage of a comprehensive remodel of our home we can tackle no large projects for 6-8 months. We are in the Richmond Virginia area. No shops are very interested - simply telling us to get a used motor. So the project will become a DIY next spring when the garage and shop are available. The car has been sitting for three weeks since he brought it here. I have been watching the coolant level periodically since and it holds steady with no pressure on the system. However, I pressure tested it during the borescopeing and the level dropped about 1/2" - about 30 minutes. My plan is to do an oil change and change the coolant while the car is here. Then I will transfer it to a storage facility. When I get it there I was thinking I should drain about 1 gallon of coolant to get the level below the heads as an insurance policy to stop any coolant from leaking into the #2 cylinder and finding it's way to the sump. Any thoughts?

Draining the coolant sounds like a good idea.

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With best regards

Al