Valve guides for 1996 E300
 

Hey all. My 1996 E300 (168K miles) had an outer leak on the head gasket, so in the shop it went. Apparently the valve guides need to be replaced. I'm in a rental and the car has been in the shop for 4 days and they couldn't find vavle guides...it'll take 1 week to ship from Germany.

Anyone have a source? I called Rusty and GermanStar and no dice.

Anyone? How stupid would I be to tell them to put it back together with the old guides? The part only costs $4 each. Can they overnught them from germany?

thanks

Valve guides if I am not mistaken would cause you to burn more oil and you would see blue smoke. I think they are looking at higher oil pressures in the PCV system, sounds like you need to have the PCV system cleaned.

What did Fastlane Phil (our hosts) say?

oil burning
 

I did actually manage to burn some oil between changes, enough to get my light to come on. Granted it was 10K between changes but I was a little surprised. I don't notice an appreciable amount of smoke when I drive, at dusk when i gun it uphill I notice some fumes/haze.

on the phone now
 

I'm hoping

Phil is on the job.....
 

Waiting call back.

BTW, MB will not expedite shipping from Germany. It comes VOR (??) and that takes about 1 week.

Getting stuff from MB germany takes forever. It took our dealer almost 3 weeks to get one of the terminal block units (the power block on the passenger side) in from Germany....

Ahh don't tell me that
 

I just got reamed for not taking it to the dealer for the job. Anyone know what the stealership charges for a head gasket job + milling + guides?

not quite sure I'm with you
 

They pulled my head and the shop that checks the head, mills it etc said the valve guides were worn. Are you sugesting if I'm not seeing blue smoke I should be OK with the old valve guides?

Thanks

still waiting
 

..............

Nothing wrong with going to the dealer for the tough jobs, they generally do excellent work, it just comes at a price....

One quart add in 10K is not bad consumption. Although, I think if completely filled the max/min on the dip stick (where the light comes on) is 2 qts......

Mine uses 1 in 8K and I know another turbo member who is 1 in 5k. My driving is 90% highway and FSS allows me to go as much as 16K between changes (don't tell anyone).

2 qts
 

Thanks for the info. I've done the same on my lasst oil change, I think I went 16K and my friends thoought I was abusive. It's a diesel and it's FSS.

Still no word from Phil, i guess I should call him back.

Anyone care to chime in on how bad it would be not to switch the valve guides if they don't show up?

thanks

Nobody can comment with any intelligence because you failed to provide any data as to the size of the existing guides versus the specification. Are the guides .0001" oversize or are they .003" oversize? The answer depends on the data.

FWIW, every time I chose the "expedited" and cheaper solution, I've regretted it.

The 1996 606 is not FSS!!!.. The FSS did not come into play until 1998 or 1999. You should be doing 5k oil changes if using Dino and maybe 7500 if using synthetic. If nothing else the filter should be changed at those intervals.