Well, I finally got the head off my 300E. After blowing the head gasket about two months ago. I removed the plugs and turned it over. It appeared that there was a little water in the back two cylinders. The dipstick looked okay, no hint of water in the oil. I squirted oil in the back two cylinders and hoped that it would wait on me.

When I drained the oil yesterday, there was a lot of water in the bottom that came out before the oil.

When I got the head off, the front four cylinders were badly rusted.

Because of everything going on and my travel schedule, the car sat for a long time. I am really bothered to see this rust. I cleaned it up as best I could, turned the engine, oiled the cylinders, cleaned some more, oiled again, and so on. I got the cylinders pretty clean and left a good coat of oil on them and then covered them with rags.

Since the engine has not run with the rust on the cylinders, do you think, I am going to get by with this? My thinking is that when I put it back together I will run it to operating temperature, then drain the oil and change the filter, then maybe run it a few hundred miles before changing oil and filter again.

Any thoughts or bets?

Thanks to everyone,

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

YOU will be fine. I saw a tech do this at the shop one time. He took off the head and it sat for 6 months. When he reinstalled the head, Hans just oiled the cylinders and all was OK.

Good luck

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Benzmac:
Donnie Drummonds
300E
ASE CERTIFIED MASTER AUTO TECHNICIAN
MERCEDES SPECIALIST 8 YRS
PARTNER IN MERCEDESSHOP.COM
OWNER OF MB AUTOWERKS .COM

Thanks Donnie

BTW, are you fully recovered from your accident? I hope it's all over with now.

Have a great day,
Larry

[This message has been edited by LarryBible (edited 10-02-2000).]

It will work fine. The rust won't hurt anything, as little as you say is left. I have seen cylinders horribly scored and rusted slapped back together and still hold good compression.

HEY, LARRY I SENT YOU AN E-MAIL THIS MORNING CONCERNING PICKING UP MY CYLINDER HEAD. IF YOU TAKE YOURS BY TODAY PLEASE PICK MINE UP. I LIKED THAT LAST REPLY TO YOUR RUST TOPIC. IT MADE ME FEEL BETTER ABOUT THAT ONE CYLINDER IN ASHLEY'S CAR. THANKS,
BRAD

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BRAD FRANCIS
1986 190D 160,000 mi.
SUMNER, TX
bfrancis@1starnet.com

I am fully recovered and back on the line at the shop. I set a shop record last week of 170 hours turned for a two week pay period. (Yes, I worked my a-- off to do it, but I wanted to prove a point to the old guys.) Not all of them thought I could do it after having a desk job for a year or so.

See ya/

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Benzmac:
Donnie Drummonds
300E
ASE CERTIFIED MASTER AUTO TECHNICIAN
MERCEDES SPECIALIST 8 YRS
PARTNER IN MERCEDESSHOP.COM
OWNER OF MB AUTOWERKS .COM