Oh man, this cant be good... COOLANT LEAK M103

[Rahulio1989300E]

Hello,

My name is Rahul, and I have been a member here on the forums for quite a while now...

I came back from college this summer to take classes at a local university... While I was gone I missed my car a lot, glad when I came home, get to drive all the time now!

When I left for college last summer, I noticed that my car was using a bit of coolant, the resivour needed to be topped off about once every 4 weeks. I suspected that the head gasket had maybe cracked, so I checked the oil and kept and eye on it by looking under the cap and inspecting the dipstick every night. I also kept an eye on the color of the coolant, to see if any oil was mixing with the coolant. But, the oil was never milky brown, and the coolant kept its color.

As I was gone, my father would use the car often, especially on weekends, when I would come home on certain weekends, I would always top it off.

I never let it get to the point where the cluster light would come on, I also made sure that there was at least 2 inches from the bottom in the resivour. Kept a 50/50 mix in the trunk just in case.

Then I noticed one weekend that there were water marks around the cap of the resivour, I immediately purchased a new cap and installed it. But the problem continued. Coolant was still leaving the system from somewhere...

THEN TODAY, EVERYTHING WENT NUTS!!!!!

I drive back to home, park in the driveway in front of the garage... since I have come home, I have always parked in the garage... anyways, I go into the garage to check if I have some cleaning suppiles. When I return, I notice a PUDDLE OF COOLANT ALL OVER THE CONCRETE! My heart drops!

I crouch to see under the car, to see if I can determine the leak, I am getting real nervous at this point.

I see two places that the fluid is dripping from, right from the center of the oil pan and off the cross bar behind it. This tells me a relative location of the leak, but still is very broad. The leak starts after switching off the car from a operation temperature state, the leak stops as the engine bay cools.

I suspect 3 things,
1) HEADGASKET FAILURE! Crap, this is like a $2000 job, my father would not agree to that price! My car is gone...

2) HOSE FAILURE! Easy fix, lot better than headgasket, I buy the part, take it to a garage, fix it myself. No sweat...

3) ENGINE BLOCK CRACK! Very unlikely but still possible, car is gone...

I am going to take it to a friends garage on Monday and put it up on a lift so that I can take a better look at it, it is dark here now, and not much space to work or even see, I am going to take my camera now and set it on a towel on a timer and let it take pictures of the underside of the engine in an attempt to see the problem.

My main question to you all is, are there any coolant hoses that run along the intake manifold side of the engine block?

The car is a 1989 300E, 193,300 miles M103 engine, I have put so much work into this car, I would get really depressed to see this car go away... I have refinished the zebrano wood pieces, rebuilt the front steering and suspension components, installed new speakers in the front, cleaned and polished the entire car, replaced a lot of rubber in the engine compartment, OVP, cleaned ICV, installed 94-95 turn lights, etc... Lots of money and hard work!

If it is a headgasket issue,
Are there people in the Arlington, Dallas, or Fort Worth area, who have experience with replacing the headgasket on an M103 that are willing to meet me for a weekend to replace the headgasket? It would be awesome to meet a group of enthusiasts who all want to learn about this operation, it could be kinda like a class for DIY M103 headgaskets. This way I could afford to keep the car I have worked hard on and keep it on the road. My father and I would be willing to take the people who help with the work to dinner and even pay a small stipend if you require it.

Please help, I am afraid it is the headgasket since it was replaced at 70,000 but not since then, thank you.

Really depressed,
-Rahul