Hi everyone. I recently had the head of my 250SE crack and had the head re-welded and reconditioned. the only problem is, I had it done by a back yard mechanic who simply drained the old oil, and put new oil in it without without going to the expense of have the entire engine cleaned out. So even with the new oil, I still have water in it. My mechanc says it should simplt evaporate but I highly dbout this.
A friend of mine suggested buying really cheap oil, and doing an oil change every 2 days for 2 weeks.

Is that a fesable course of action without cost too much $$$?

Your friend offers the better solution, except I would run it a matter of minutes the first time.

Get cheap oil and a few filters. Run the first oil and filter change about two minutes WITHOUT putting a load on the engine, then drain the oil and change filter. Put in the second fill and run it about 15 or 20 miles to get it to operating temperature, then pull the plug and let it drain a long time. After that change, you should be able to run it a week or so, then drain it hot and possibly overnight. At that point, you should be able to go to your favorite premium oil and premium oil filter and start back on you regular oil change interval schedule.

I have done this before and it worked very well. That was about 80,000 miles ago and the engine is in great shape.

Good luck,

It happened to my 190e. I listened to larry Bible and it took 5 oil changes and filter changes to get all the water out. I had lots of water in my oil and after the 5th oil change it was pretty much all gone. If there is any more water left and you can't see, it will evaporate with heat. Go to Wal-mart and buy their supertech oil and filters. Buy 10W40. 10W30 is like water and your engine lifters will click bad with it. A filter is about $2 and their oil case go for about $12. Your total cost is less than $20. When you're done put a good brand filter and good oil. I used Quacker state. My oil after 3K miles is still 75% clear. If you need a container to hold all the drained oil everytime you change it, just go to Mcdonald and ask for their plastic container that cooking oil comes in it. Any other greasy fast food should have it.
Good Luck,
Meza

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Meza
1993 190E 2.6
Advanced Diesel Systems Test and Research Engineer

Never mind about Wal-mart! You are in Australia.
Meza

__________________
Meza
1993 190E 2.6
Advanced Diesel Systems Test and Research Engineer

don't worry, we have a supermarket that sells cheapo oil.

If alcohol will suspend water in fuel I don't see why it wouldn't do the same in oil. Try mixing a half liter or so of alcohol with the first oil change and I bet ti will pick up most of the water.

DO NOT, DON'T PUT ALCOOL IN THE ENGINE
Alcool has a flash point of 85deg
If you want an enlarged oil pan, and have gallons of super glue to put your valve cover back in one piece, then, go ahead, use alcool
Alcool will ignite (flash) at 85DegF
JackD

Jack,
Ease up lad. Alcohol flashes at 85C perhaps, not 85 deg. F, which is a lot hotter that one would need to run an engine. If you were worried about ignition you could run the engine for a few minutes and let it cool and run it again.

If alcohol flashed at 85F I wouldn't even be able to open a bottle of it here in S. Texas. I assume that the 'alcool' you write about is actually alcohol. I also doubt that even if the alcohol flashed over it would do much damage since it has only about one half the BTUs of gasoline and no where near the violent ignition that gas has.

Flash point of 85F or 85C, makes no matter. Who cares about flash points?

Where has it ever been written to add alcohol to oil? Huh?

Do the multi-drain trick as mentioned above.

Forget about adding alcohol to motor oil. It will do 2 things:

- Thin out the cheap oil being used.

- Alcohol "dries" - not something you want going on inside an engine.

Without trying to de-rail the thread, what about the related problem of removing oil from the cooling system after a head gasket failure as is often necessary on an M102,103 or 104?

After doing the head on our 300TE a few years ago, I spent considerable time flushing the cooling system. Fortunately, the head was clean after having it checked and machined. New hoses where possible addressed that aspect. The block, radiator, heater and expansion reservoir are the reamaining items. Those plastic reservoirs are very difficult to clean due to all the internal baffles and separate compartments. I removed the reservoir from the 300TE and repeatedly flushed it with degreaser then dishwashing detergent and hot water.

Obviously when the head gasket was replaced on my 190E prior to my purchasing it, the same efforts had not been applied. There was a trace of oil visible on top of the coolant which disappeared after flushing. Recently however, I replaced the coolant reservoir due to it leaking. I was surprised to find some of its compartments still containing considerable amounts of old, thick oil, despite the coolant not showing any oil contamination. Obviously, the oil floats to the surface or highest point and collects there, that point usually being the expansion reservoir.

How have others dealt with this problem? Judging by the number of M102, 103 and 104 engines I have seen with oily coolant it is a common problem to be dealt with after a head gasket failure. I believe there may be a chemical or product available for removing oil contamination from the cooling system.

__________________
107.023: 350SLC, 3-speed auto, icon gold, parchment MBtex (sold 2012 after 29 years ownership).
107.026: 500SLC, 4-speed auto, thistle green, green velour.
124.090: 300TE, 4-speed auto, arctic white, cream-beige MBtex.
201.028: 190E 2.3 Sportline, 5-speed manual, arctic white, blue leather.
201.028: 190E 2.3, 4-speed auto, blue-black, grey MBtex.
201.034: 190E 2.3-16, 5-speed manual, blue-black, black leather.

I was thinking about the oil in the cooling system???

I have have replaced quite a few head gaskets over the years -- old jags are the worst for this -- I must have had some oil get into the cooling system?

But after a flush or two -- what harm would that little bit of oil do. It would be too cool to cook onto anything -- right.

or am I missing something?

In terms of oil in the cooling system, my experience suggests that the combination of oil and coolant produces a thick sticky sludge, which may be inclined to coat surfaces, and perhaps clog things up. About 3 flushes with just plain water seems to get the worst of it. The oily sludge tends to float on the water, so it will show at the top of the radiator, and settle into the expansion tank. The tank needs to be cleaned thoroughly as well.

Perhaps accelerate the next coolant change. After that, the residual oil should be nearly gone.

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1986 300E 5-Speed 240k mi.

Oil in the cooling system destroys the hoses - causes them to 'sweat', and eventually to crack. When ours had the problem, I replaced all the hoses. With some oil still in the system, the new upper radiator hose started oozing, then failed - in a couple of weeks.

Steve

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'91 MB 190E 2.3
'08 RAV4 Ltd 3.5
'83 Lazy Daze m'home 5.7

I do not know what you mean by "sweat"

modern hoses are made from very advanced compounds (EDPM) etc. and are virtually unafected by oil products -- they also can take acids/ strong bases.

They are attacked all the time by oils in autos - old rubber hoses were mostly affected by the heat -- causing them to crack -- jsut like ruber will on a hose left in the sun -- this by UV

1991300SEL, your asked ''Where has it ever been written to add alcohol to oil? Huh?
Go up 4 posts and you'll see this: ''Try mixing a half liter or so of alcohol with the first oil change and I bet ti will pick up most of the water.''
KipFoss: '''I assume that the 'alcool' you write about is actually alcohol''. Very good assumption. my mistake.
'Ease up lad. Alcohol flashes at 85C perhaps, not 85 deg. F,''
Alcohol flash point is 85deg F, not 85deg.C (at 20% concentration)
Flash point is: ''the lowest temperature at which a vapor above a liquid will ignite.''
A mixture of alcohol vapors at 85deg F +air, add an ignition source==== result. explosion/fire.
Agreed, alcohol has a lesser BTU content than gasoline, but having this reaction in a closed confinement (oil pan) could result in some pretty bad consequences.
jackd