Paying the Car Gods, 300E Gone South

Well this is my period for having all my cars with medium to serious problems at one time.

Clutch is out on my 240D and I was enjoying driving my 300E so much, that I wasn't in a hurry to put the clutch in, especially since I am in the middle of trying to fix the daughter's 300D.

When coming home Friday I stopped for gas about 35 miles from home. The low coolant light came on when I restarted the car. I thought this was strange, but filled up the system with water. Got down the road about ten miles, the light came on and the temp went up immediately. I put it in neutral and coasted to the side of the road.

Opened the hood and found the heater hose at the rear left split and spewing. I called my wife, she brought a couple gallons of water. By the time she got there, I had removed the clamp, trimmed the hose with my pocket knife and put it back on, ready for water. Felt good about it.

It took a gallon of water, and I cranked it up, let it idle a good bit, it drew a little more water, I capped it and headed for home. I figured that if it did burp out some air and the level went down the low level light would tip me off. Went all the way home with 85 degrees C on the guage, and no low level light. Thought I had a good temporary fix, thinking I'd order all new heater hoses on Monday.

Got it out to drive it this morning and the light was on, and engine was missing. Filled up the radiator drove two miles, it sat an hour then two miles back, the light came on again. Smoke was coming out the tailpipe. I topped it off again with ideas of putting it in the garage and knowing the headgasket was probably blown. When starting it to put it away later it made a terrible noise, afraid I may have bent a rod or something. It was not under load. It just made noise, when I started it, I then pushed it into the garage.

Are these engines proned to cracking cylinder heads under these conditions, or just the head gasket. I wonder if I bent a rod or some such. Any thoughts?

I'm running out of cars to drive and my office is 95 miles away. I wonder what is going to blow up next.

Wish me more luck,

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Larry Bible
'84 Euro 240D, 523K miles
'88 300E 5 Speed
'81 300D Daughter's Car
Over 800,000 miles in
Mercedes automobiles

[This message has been edited by LarryBible (edited 07-30-2000).]