Thanks Larry,

I've heard that shops exist that will make up these kinds of hoses and AC hoses but i have not looked for/found one yet. thanks for the reminder, maybe next time. I confess that the loss of oil that i'm worried about is a bit silly on my part but for some reason i hate the idea of wasting 8qts by draining ahead of time or making a mess by not draining. The pan will go underneath per your advice.

Should i flush the oil cooler radiator or something while i'm at it?

The same car (daily driver) is starting to weap some coolant at the upper tube-to-tank area. I beieve I had it recored in 1986 when i did the engine overhaul myself. Do you have any recomendations/experience with this? I finally oredered 4 gallons of expensive ($10/gallon) MB coolant for my 2 MBs. I really dont want to buy a new radiatoir at $735. Many years ago i used to periodically put some solder on my pickups radiator but I never could really get it to adhere for more than 6 months. Maybe I could pull the radiator out, cut off the bad tubes, clean the area and solder them shut?

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1972 450SL
1982 300D Turbo