well, thanks to the encouragement and confidence received from this community, i have successfully removed and installed the head on my 1985 300TD. thank you to everyone for the time, energy, and effort in helping me.
just one last thing. Ive been driving around town and on freeway for two days now, close to 200 miles. totally trouble free. no smoking, good acceleration, good overall pickup and performance. couldn't be happier. with that being said, the temp gauge, opposite the oil pressure gauge hasn't read past 40, the number on the bottom. i know the gauge is hooked up. everything else work great. is there any danger in continuing to drive it like this?
any help would be greatly appreciated.

I would check if thermostat is open,or instrument cluster needs another ground wire.Could be bad sender too.

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1999 w140, quit voting to old, and to old to fight, a god damned veteran, deutschland deutschland uber alles uber alles in der welt

thanks. i would lean towards checking the thermostat, but have no idea how to do that.
it worked perfect before this repair.

Not moving from the bottom indicates more of a problem with the indication than with the thermostat. 40C is a tad over 100F. Measure the temp of the engine when warm. If it's too hot for your hand, it's above 40C.

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Prost!

Yeah even with a wide open thermostat it will usually eventually climb to 55-65C or so depending on driving load. If its just sitting at the bottom then its a gauge issue.

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HI,

MY 1990 300E TEMP GAUGE USUALLY READS BETWEEN 80 AND 100 DEG., READING THE OWNERS MANUAL, IT STATES THAT IN URBAN STOP AND GO TRAFFIC IT MIGHT GET CLOSE TO THE RED ZONE, I AM WORRIED AS ALL OF YOU STATE MUCH LOWER READINGS AS ADEQUATE.

NUEVO LAREDO IS A HOT CITY (110-120 DEG IN SUMMER), WHICH WILL BE AN ADEQUATE READING FOR MY CAR TEMP GAUGE IN THAT WEATHER, ASUMMING A/C IS ON?

THANKS