My 1991 350 SDL heater stopped working. Oil/sludge was found in the water. The repair shop flushed out the system and it is now fine. They stated oil is coming from a porus or cracked head and the repair could be $2,000 to $6,000 and I should sell the car. 130,000 miles, black with a perfect interior and drives like a dream. Mates up to my 300 SD with 202,000 and 12 years of quality driving.
I do not have an oil consumtion problem and have it changed every 3,000 miles.
A second repair shop said drive the car as the repair is close to the car value.
Do I worry, sell or drive till something gives?

3rd. 1980 Unimog diesel DoKa

__________________
uptank

Sell it cheap to me...Having owned a few of these I would say you are not far away from needing to pull the head. Normally you catch it by seeing some darkness in the coolant res. If it gets to a point where it is sludgey, chances are that it has been doing it for a while. You should not have a bad head on that engine as they were pretty good by 91. Hopefully just a headgasket. The lower quote at most.

__________________
64 European Coupe Brilliant Silver with Red interior 4 Speed Sunroof
87 TDT 286k
87 SDL 195k
83 SD 202k
83 SD 201k
83 D 286k
02 R1150RT 32K
00 122HP FLSTF
07 KTM 250SX

"Danger takes many forms"

Uptank001,

I would think you would start to overheat in the somewhat near future w/ a cracked head gasket, as the hot exhaust gasses from the engine begin to leak into your coolant.

I have a feeling that the head gasket alone would be around the $2k figure. They would probably want to go through your valves and replace your timing chain for the higher figure.

If you really love the car, and you have a mechanic you can trust (and of course if you have the $), why not go for it? How much would you spend to buy your next car?

__________________
Love driving my '77 450 SEL!
124,000 miles

Look after that car and it'll go for another 20 years. Sell it and buy something new, and in the long run it will cost you more money than the repairs.

Get it repaired. Or if you can't afford it, do a pictorial thread on this site and do it yourself. I'm sure its a a job many people here have done before.