Good Morning....my 1987 300D has given up....LoL I have 270K miles on the original #14 head.
About 2 months ago I realized drops of coolant in the morning under the car under the radiator. Check the radiator and saw drips all over the sides where the plastic connects to the aluminum, and since my thermostat was a bit stuck open I order one of those too. I installed both of them and since then, I had only problems. Yes the cooling system was bleed properly. It started with a crazy noise under the dash when turned the heat on. I also realized that I had no heat when waiting in traffic or idling, just warmish air. The heat start blowing when takes off. And works while the car moved. Then is started to loose water on the expansion tank while parked thru overflow. I have a lot of pressure in the upper hose, the lower hose is almost cold also pressurized and parts of the radiator are cold. Left side top especially. When driving in the city up to 65 miles per hour, no problem, as soon as I hit 75 or 80 overheats. The indicator needle claims rapidly almost on the red zone and have to quickly release the acceleration pedal, and step on it slowly. I hear the crazy noise under the dash and the needle drops rapidly at 85.
There is no oil in the water or water in the oil, no white smoke, so I believe the head gasket is ok, and the head cracked between combustion chamber and coolant system? am I wrong?

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1987 300SDL
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Pic of this car:
http://www.gigapipe.net/300SDL/index.htm

I'm not sure that you have enough data to confirm that the head is cracked. You would need to confirm one of the following:

1) oil in the coolant
2) coolant in the oil
3) continuous loss of coolant into the combustion chambers resulting in white smoke or a sweet exhaust smell.


Without any of the above conditions, you might simply have not filled the cooling system properly and there is entrapped air.

More investigation is required.

sounds like your radiator maybe clogged.did you flush the cooling system when you changed the thermostat?

1) NO
2) NO
3) NO
I loose coolant over the expansion tank overflow.
this problem is going on for couple of months now, and btw the KLIMA from last summer still works

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1987 300SDL
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Pic of this car:
http://www.gigapipe.net/300SDL/index.htm

RADIATOR is brand new, i didn't flush it

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1987 300SDL
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Pic of this car:
http://www.gigapipe.net/300SDL/index.htm

Kindly perform the following test:

Drive the vehicle until it's fully up to temperature. Then return to home and shut it down.

The next morning, squeeze the upper radiator hose and see if it feels "firm". It should easily squeeze down between two fingers.

Then, open the cap to the expansion tank. Perform the squeeze test, again, on the upper hose. Is the squeeze noticeably softer after the cap is removed?


Please state how you are positive that there is no coolant in the oil? Have you performed an oil analysis? If so, please post the results.

Brian I did that and more
This is what I did:
1) In the morning the upper hose is firm. I can squeeze it but not much, it is a lil softer then when hot. Removed the cap, VERY SOFT, like no water in there.
2) Some mechanic told me this: In the morning to do the same thing, remove the cap, then put the cap back on, start the car, run it for 2 minutes. Shut it off, and see if there is ANY noise when removing the cap again. I did that and I heard noise, he told me that it should be no pressure inside the cooling system at all when car is cold and only runs for 2 minutes.
3) Another mechanic told me that if it was a compression leak it would smell like diesel when removing the expansion tank cap, It doesn't.
About the coolant in the oil I am not 100% positive, the oil is at level and the viscosity seems ok, unless there is VERY small amount.
I had diesels all my life and replaced millions of head gaskets, from Peugeot 505 turbo diesel to WV to 300 Ds and 240(one of them) most of them had lots of coolant in the oil some just a bit more oil and more watery.
I have no idea how to go about an oil analysis.

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1987 300SDL
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Pic of this car:
http://www.gigapipe.net/300SDL/index.htm

Check your radiator cap. You may need a new one.

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DJ


84 300D Turbodiesel 190K with 4 speed manual sold in 03/2012

I agree with replacing the cap on the expansion tank. Simplest things first.

However, the pressure in the cooling system is not a good sign. Usually this is decent evidence that the head gasket......or the head......is compromised.

However, for additional confirmation, I urge you to obtain an oil analysis. The amount of coolant that leaks into the oil is not large enough for you to see. But, an analysis will confirm it before you do any damage to the bearings.

Contact Kim at Snider Petroleum. Telephone: 1-800-773-8357. For $20.00 she'll send you a Mobil Accutrak bottle. You fill the bottle and send it off for analysis. In about 10 days you'll know what you have.

I'm so glad I have an OM617

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green 85 300SD 200K miles "Das Schlepper Frog" With a OM603 TBO360 turbo ( To be intercooled someday )( Kalifornistani emissons )
white 79 300SD 200K'ish miles "Farfegnugen" (RIP - cracked crank)
desert storm primer 63 T-bird "The Undead" (long term hibernation)

http://ecomodder.com/forum/fe-graphs/sig692a.png

Don't grin too loudly. They crack their heads too........if severely overheated...........ask me how I know...........

Why would the car start suddenly running in the red on the thermogauge? It was fine before you did some work recently, right?

It seems that a lot of the problems started as soon as you changed the thermostat - so before you give up and spend a lot of $$ put the old thermostat back in or another new one made by Behr and see if it persists. It sounds like you are suffering from lack of coolant flow and that is building pressure and the thermostat is blowing open and steam or coolant under pressure is making its way thru the mono valve into the heater core - possible?

There HAVE been cases where brand new OE thermostats were sticking or bad in some way.
Do a search and you may be able to find the thread on that, OTOH since the archives were lost (they were lost, weren't they?) it might be gone! Take my word, your Thermostat might be bad. If it were a 617 engine I'd say you may have installed it backwards but I believe that is impossible in the 603.
DDH

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'95 E320 Wagon my favorite road car. '99 E300D wolf in sheeps body, '87 300D Sportline suspension, '79 300TD w/ 617.952 engine at 367,750 and counting!

DDH, that's what I was thinking before I got to the end of your thread. That's a good question about the thermostat possibly being in backwards. I'm sticking with my bad cap theory but I'll also take into consideration something might be wrong with the stat.

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DJ


84 300D Turbodiesel 190K with 4 speed manual sold in 03/2012

I had to run without a rad cap once, in the night I hit a 5 gal paint bucket in my 300TD, it tore a hole in the radiator when it pushed the lower grill back about 6 in. Without the cap coolant stayed in the system o/w it would stream out of the gap in the rad. I never experienced any overheating, even up the mountain roads I had to traverse to get back home. But this was a 617 engine, not a 603.
I suspect a bad thermostat or ?

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'95 E320 Wagon my favorite road car. '99 E300D wolf in sheeps body, '87 300D Sportline suspension, '79 300TD w/ 617.952 engine at 367,750 and counting!

Do not forget the little hydrocarbon or co2 test kit available from some auto parts stores for your coolant. If testing positive you probably have a crack or head gasket problem with the crack more likely. You already have some symptoms and the test will probably confirm. Detects the products of combustion and there is no way it will test positve if there is not a real problem I believe. Every test possible should be done as pulling a head if not absolutly required is no fun.