1994 C280 oil leak

[dwcasey]

Well, I've read through the archives and it seems that I keep seeing head gasket a lot.

Most of those messages related to the E-series. But, I figured the straight-six in the C280 was closely related to the E300 2.8 and 3.0.

So, I thought I would give the engine bay a cleaning to narrow down the search for the problem, what's the best way to clean the engine? Can I use a car wash sprayer at it's low setting (without squeezing the trigger)? Can I use the soap or just water?

Once clean, where would I mostly likely see the oil?

This past summer, I had a problem with the car overheating while at idle. Turns out the water pump needed to be replaced. No more coolant leakage.

However, recently, past 3-4 months, while at idle for a few minutes I can "smell" something. Oil I suppose, not sure. But it's noticable.

I do have some spots in the garage underneath the car, too.

Car has 128k miles. I've owned it since 44k miles and have only had the water pump, windshield and battery replaced...well, the tires have been replaced a couple of times.

thanks.