Saw a nice '91 300SE today at an auction. The fan cowling is missing and make a growling sound seemingly from the fan. Guess the something is going on with the fan clutch. But saw a large amount of sealent around the distributor housing down towards the the tensioner plug. Not familiar with this engine. What work would cause gobs of sealent to be used around the distributor and associated parts?

Thanks in advance.

Junkers end up at auctions - you saw one today.

Missing cowling, growling sound; gobs of sealant.

Walk away.

Yeah have seen some junkers at the auction for sure. This is a '91 300SE with 132985 miles. Clean Carfax. Straight body, checked all around with a magnet to find bondo repairs and found none. Found no undercar leaks. AT fluid does not smell burned. Slight gassy smell in the engine oil, but needs a change. Rotors look about new, no significant grooves. Tires are 95% all matched. All accessories work as well as the sliding roof. Black leather seats could use some cleaning and re-dying on the drivers seat. Drivers heel wear on the floor mat. It looks like a pretty nice, black on black 300SE.

Could most likely get if for around $3,500. NADA is $11,125 Trade-in, $10,025 loan and $13,400 Retail.

Have seen the same sealent on other 3.0 engines. Mainly around the base of the distribtor. Just wondering what may have been repaired to use sealant.

Thanks...

Just did a search and found what I needed. Looks like it is the cam seal which has been worked on.

Thanks for all your help!

Dampness

Oozing.....

HI! Gimpie: the sealent around the distributor. the distributor uses a O ring seal. to chage that seal you got remove the distributor check the rotor arm.
good luck.
Alberto Méndez Sorry grammatic's

Gracias Alberto! Le pienso estoy correcto. Su gramática está correcta en inglés. Bueno oír alguien en México que fija aquí. ¡Gracias mucho por usted ayuda!

As for the growling, it's more likely the bearing behind the fan than the fan clutch. About $140 as I remember since the bearing is part of a bigger assembly.

There are two seals in that area. One is the cam seal as mentionted, but it's not an o-ring. The other is the u-shaped seal between the upper timing chain cover and the lower timing chain cover. Sealant is used between the upper timing chain cover and the head.

Sixto
91 300SE
87 300SDL
83 300SD

Sixto is right on. That bearing is a common failure item. You will have no trouble replacing it. But you might wanna check the water pump for noise as well.

__________________
Chuck Taylor
Falls Church VA
'66 200, '66 230SL, '96 SL500. Sold: '81 380SL, '86 300E, '72 250C, '95 C220, 3 '84 280SL's '90 420SEL, '72 280SE, '73 280C, '78 280SE, '70 280SL, '77 450SL, '85 380SL, '87 560SL, '85 380SL, '72 350SL, '96 S500 Coupe

Thanks for your advise guys!

The car has been on the public auction block for three weeks now. The last asking price for it was $3500 with no takers. Think the growling sound, sealant and missing cowling have scared people off from bidding on it. With a loan value of $10,025 on it, even replacing the engine with the price of $3500 would still come out ahead.

Guess I'll go down to Stu Ritters shop to get his book on the 300E's.

Again, thanks.