I'm looking for a little assistance and opinions please although I think I already know the answer. My car is a 1987 300TD wagon with 178,000 miles. The car has the -14 head. Never any issues and then one day the light comes on for the antifreeze level. I top it off and 2 weeks later it comes on again. I pop the hood and notice the 1, 2 and 3 cylinders are all wet. I tow the car home and read about the -14 heads and not if they will crack but when. I let the car sit until now because it's warmer out and do a compression check. Cylinders 1 - 5 are all 340 to 360 PSI cold. Cylinder #6 is 100 PSI cold. This is through the injectors with the intake manifold removed (I already planned on pulling the head). With the IM removed, I noticed that the #6 Intake Valve is extremely oily with allot of carbon/oil buildup. I can't help but wonder if this is skewing my reading? Has anyone found a trick to clean this up without removing the head? I have not done a leakdown check but I guess that is next on the list. I never searched for the source of the water leak as I thought that the oily head was the smoking gun. Ironically, where the oil is on the outside of the head at # 1-3, the compression is the best. I wish now I had done a little more research as I would really like to keep driving the car but don't have the funds associated with a cracked head. I guess I'm just procrastinating but want to be more accurate before I pull the head. Also, the intake manifold is extremely oily and had plugged the sense line for the ALDA a few times. Any correlation? As always, I appreciate your help.
Christian

I am not sure what you mean here? Do you have an exteriorl leak (on the outside of the Cylinder Head)? If so is it coolant pooling in the Injector area or where?
While it can happen Cylinder Heads most often crack somewhere on the bottom surface in the Combustion Chamber or Head Gasket Area.
Is it possible that the Coolant loss caused the Head Problem and you now have a leaking Head Gasket, warped Head or Cracked Head?

This is the area where a leakback test could be helpful. If you have access to an air compressor you could simply use one of the compression tester adapters to pressurize the cylinder with the piston at TDC on the copression stroke and listen to see if air is leaking out of anything.

This is not a difinative leakback test but you already know the compression is low and you are looking for the reason it is not holding compression. If the Valve or valve seat is bad the pressurized air should come out of there.

If it is a head gasket issue air should leak out externally or get into you cooling system (do the test with you coolant pressure radiator/cap off).

A crack in the head may or may not show up with this test. Sometimes crackes open when the head is hot and do not leak when the head is cold.
[I have actually seen this. The one place I worked we pressure tested cylinder heads. We had a hand operated hydraulic pump with a gauger to supply the pressure and ran 180 degree water through the head until the head was up to temp before pressurizing it. During these tests I have seen a few heads that would not leak when cold but when hot leaked.]

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

Thanks for the advice and tips for the leak down test. The wetness on the outside of the engine is oil, not coolant. I'm not really sure where it came from, possibly the valve cover and a strange twist of fate of two non related problems at once. I plan on doing the leak down test tomorrow. I rigged up my compression tester to pressurize the cylinder. On a side note, is it normal with diesels to see the intake manifold extremely oily? When I removed it, oil dripped from the runners it was so oily. At first I thought maybe that was where the oil on the exterior came from but that would imply an intake leak and the car ran great.

Since they have been recurculating the blowby back into the manifolds there is more residue then in the past and the Exhaust Gas let in by the EGR adds to the mess.

I do not know about dripping oil but there are several "how do I clean my Intake Manifold Threads" for the after 1985 Diesel Mercedes. You might want to ask one of the members who started the Threads what their manifold looked like.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel