I've owned my Cutlass for over 20 years. It's not show quality, but it's in excellent running shape, all original, and a driver. I've decided this car should be driven. I've been tempted to replace it with a 450SL, but I've resisted the urge.

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95 E320 Cabriolet, 169K

HOwever, the good thing is that you can change both, head gasket and water pump) at the same time. I also suggest to change the thermostat and all the hoses in the area.
Good luck!

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J.H.
'86 300E

I just changed coolant in my '92 300e and was surprised to find some droplets of oil in it too. The car does not consume any oil or coolant so I was a little puzzled as to how it got there. The strange thing is that the oil was not visible in the expansion tank but seemed to come out of the bottom of the radiator through the drain valve.

Since there are no other symptoms of a bad head gasket, I decided to just keep an eye on things before going through the trouble and expense replacing the gasket. The oil may have come from a previous owner pouring oil in the wrong place or it may be residual oil from a previous problem (I hope).

There is also water pump lubricant (soluble oil) in some, if not all, coolants. You will see small (1-2mm) diameter droplets of colorless oil floating in the radiator neck or coolant tank, or a sheen on the coolant. You may notice them more when you drain the coolant into a larger vessel where they can float free rather than sticking to the sides of things.

Watch the coolant tank -- if you start getting a ring of blackish oil around the edge of the coolant, you probably have a problem. Isolated oil droplets aren't a problem.

Peter

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1972 220D ?? miles
1988 300E 200,012
1987 300D Turbo killed 9/25/07, 275,000 miles
1985 Volvo 740 GLE Turobodiesel 218,000
1972 280 SE 4.5 165, 000 - It runs!

Thanks Peter,

Hopefully, that is what I saw. The coolant I drained out was a green color.

John