unless one from Daewoo(ex SSanyang)now GM,whom MB has sold the inline six manu plant?

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Tom 1992 300E 2.6

Offering sympathy. I am a long distance commuter also (150 miles round trip) with three cars in my rotation. Even though I am postively neurotic about maintenance my time will probably come too. Lately I have seemed to focus myself on cooling systems, taking a page from aircraft style maintenance and replacing parts periodically instead of waiting for them to fail. Good luck with yours.

Larry sorry to hear about your troubles.
Would anyone on here like to guess at what milage to change the radiator to a new one. I had a Mazda that the radiator went out at around 125,000 miles. The radiator came apart at the plastic/metal interface. I absolutely do not want this to happen on my E320 and plan on going ahead and replacing the radiator at around 120,000, along with the hoses and water pump. I am even considering going with an oversize radiator from Renntech. Any thoughts on this ya'll.
thanks
engatwork

At one time someone recommended radiatiors fro Fluidyne, http://www.fluidyne.com/ . Any one else ever used these in their MB?

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JCE
87 300E, 65k miles
Smoke Silver

engatwork,

My daughters boyfriend has several Mazda RX7's. Two as parts cars, all three have bad radiators. You will see a few radiator issues on this site, but the only time I've ever had to replace a Benz radiator was due to damage. A coyote at over 55MPH will cause you to replace your radiator every time, so I don't know how far the original would have gone.

If you're keeping the cooling system flushed, I would expect you to have hose and other cooling system problems long before a radiator problem.

I replaced the hoses on my 300E two years ago. I'm wondering if the originals would have lasted longer. In spite of the catastrophic results of my split molded heater hose, I feel that I have done a good job of maintaining my cars. They're all coming down at once, but they are mostly things that periodic maintenance had nothing to do with, unless you want to say that I should have replaced the clutch as preventive maintenance. I don't think the vibration in my daughters car is the result of lack of maintenance.

Larry,

Everyone,

I hesitate to post this on MShop. But Monday and yesterday I was driving another car I have, which is an American sports car from Bowling Green, Kentucky. The Vehicle Speed Sensor in the transmission went out which prevented the overdrive from working. This is certainly not something that preventive maintenance would have cured. Of course, that car is a love/hate relationship, I love driving it and hate working on it. I get way too many chances to work on it too. Had to drop the exhaust system, to get to the sensor, piece of %@#(.

The point of this rambling is not to discourage preventive maintenance. But even if you just replace everything all the time because it might fail, you're going to still have some failures, even on a Benz. In my case they just all broke at once.

I have replaced the clutch twice on my 240D, both times it had a broken pressure plate diaphragm finger intermittently jamming up the works and keeping the clutch from releasing. It was the only thing I had to drive this morning, the clutch behaved itself this morning. I got the new clutch yesterday and will replace it this weekend. The 240D is '70's technology, but it is RELIABLE. It has only broken down one time in a manner that caused it to be brought home on a rollback truck. It has a homing instinct. Somehow I know it will make it until I get everything else back on the road, which will probably be Thanksgiving or Christmas the way things are looking.

Thanks for your thoughts and for listening to my depressive ramblings,

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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

thanks Larry,
something that is interesting is that the radiator that blew out was on a 1991 Mazda MPV.
good luck
engatwork

Hey Larry, What's up. Where do you stand with your baby's status??

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Jeff Lawrence
1987 300e
1989 300e
2000 Dodge Grand Caravan SE

jeffsr,

Status update. I haven't put a wrench to it yet except to drain the radiator, pull the plugs and turn it over to clear the cylinders. Not much came out, but I didn't want to let it sit and rust a cylinder that may have had coolant in it.

I got out my piece of #@(% American Sports Car to drive. It did okay until Monday coming home, the speed sensor that feeds the computer went out, had to drop the exhaust system to get to it, and hassle with the dealer for a couple of days to get the right part. In the interim, I drove the 240D. It has always had a homing instinct and the clutch did good enough to get by for a couple of days. I got the piece of #@(% back together last night, and I'm driving it today, although I know that something will break on the General Motors piece of #@(% at any second.

So, assuming the piece of #@(% gets me home this evening, I will get the clutch done on the 240D tomorrow, and then should be out of the woods and have transportation with the piece of #@(% as a backup. This gives me time to pull the head on the 300E.

After thinking about it awhile and hearing the opinions of everyone here, I feel comfortable that a head surface and head gasket would get it back in good shape. However, you know how it is, with the head off, I'll get a valve job, guides and seals. My worry is that after that it may not do as well as it did before I melted it down. Before the incident it used NO oil, and ran as close to perfect as I could imagine.

Assuming I also get past the problems with my daughters car this weekend, (I'm hopeful that Steve Brotherton's suggestion that the problem may be timing) I will start tearing apart the 300E the following weekend.

I am spending 2 1/2 weeks in Europe beginning the day after labor day, and I am going to see if I can get some things for it while I'm there. With the DeutscheMark at 2.0 things are pretty reasonable over there right now. We'll see. I will at least plan on getting all new hoses over there, just to see how the pricing works out. I'll probably get the rest of the parts from the PartsShop especially if the project moves along well before I leave. I may not last long working in the heat though.

Thanks for the interest and the excuse to ramble about my car problems.

Have a great day,

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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

Larry, I hate to be the bearer of bad news but I fear for your bearings. I have a 944 Turbo, these have a seal problem that if not updated will allow coolant to mix with oil in the oil cooler. If you find an oil/water mix in this car you replace the seals AND bearings. The water can very very harmful if the car is run. The loud thunk may very well have been a rod bearing siezing. Hopefully the bearing didn't spin, then you could concievably just replace bearings. I do not think water in the cylinder is what caused the noise. Often when the gasket goes nothing gets into the cylinders but it does allow oil to mix with water. While overseas maybe it would be best to find a low mile used motor an ship it back. The exchange is so good you may save money over a repair especially if you need to do the bottom end. Best of luck and get that 5 speed back on the road soon.

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90 300GE 5sp
95 740iL
86 944 Turbo

G-Man and Larry;
Don't think the noise was a bearing. That engine's bottom end is like the rock of gibraltar. If a bearing spins the sound is knock like as the engine keeps running. Larry describes a loud band which to me, sounds more like a charged cylinder blowing part or all of it's power stroke past a blown head gasket. I have heard that sound many many times on racing engines. Sounds like an old steam engine if the motor runs at all. I didn't read any of what larry wrote to indicate no or low oil pressure, so I think it's all top end.


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Jeff Lawrence
1987 300e
1989 300e
2000 Dodge Grand Caravan SE

Hey Larry What's up with the 300e???

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Jeff Lawrence
1987 300e
1989 300e
2000 Dodge Grand Caravan SE

jeffsr,

Thanks for the note. I drained the cooling system and pulled the plugs a few days after the big cry. I then squirted oil in the back two cylinders which, from looking at the plugs, appeared to be where the problem is. I turned the engine over a little to coat the cylinders with oil.

Last weekend, I moved my daughters car out of a bay where I can center the car under my walking beam. I will use the chain hoist to lift the head with manifolds attached off the engine. The manual shows two lift points and says to pull it off this way.

I ordered parts, including a headbolt socket and puller for the guide rail pin from Mshop, it should be here next week. So, next weekend I plan on the pulling the head, so I can leave it at the machine shop while I'm in Europe.

I feel very confident that a blown head gasket is all that I will find. I will, of course, with the head off, do guides and a valve job as well as straightening the head. With a little luck, I won't have any surprises when the head comes off.

Weekend before last I put a clutch in my 240D and I've been driving it. When the clutch went out in the old 240D and I started driving the 300E, I said that I didn't think I'd ever be able to go back to ol' Silver, but necessity dictates many things in life. There is such a HUGE difference in driving a 123 and a 124.

Thanks for your interest,

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