Ml320 issues :(

[Drillerjoe]

Hey all. Joe green here in sandia tx. My wife and I recently bought a 2001 ml320 with 160,000 miles on it. Really clean car and ran great for a month. I noticed after about a week of use that it began to miss. I did some digging around and found the plugs to be in poor shape. I promptly replaced them and the issue subsided for another week or so. Then returned. At the same time I noticed it began going through coolant. Suspecting (around a quart a week apr every 300mls) a small leak. I simply replenished the coolant and continued looking for spots on the ground. But never found any. Two days ago my wife was leaving the house to run errands while I sleeper for work. She came in soon after histericle and babbling on about white smoke ad what not. I pulled the truck home and checked it out. And notified the dealer from which I purchased the merc. (used lot) the owner says he is willing to help me out with the repairs so I am looking for basically a break down of what the cost would, could be at the dealer for what I suspect is a head gasket failure and possible need for bearings as well. Or if anybody here has had a similar issue and what their end result was. Thanks a bunch folks.

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[NJProTech]

Coolant useage and white smoke usually point to a failed head gasket. Not too common on m112 engines but I've seen it once or twice. Work case scenario is a bottom end failure. I've also seen the aux coolant pump next to battery leak onto exhaust and eventually cause a fire. Did you clip the pump back into its holder after doing plugs?

[Drillerjoe]

Well the truck is at Mercedes now. Honestly don't know much about this thing I'm a jeep man lol I build my own bumpers and fab junk up and I can rebuild most any American motor along with bmw's but I do not recall the need to unclip any device under the hood doing the plugs.