PhilipM1

My 190 has oil in the water. But, from what we can tell no water in the oil.

Ive been told head gasket time. Wich, im not doing. Ide rather get a new car.

There is ALOT of oil going into my radiator. My car gets really hot because the rad doesnt work very well. I flushed it. Put new colant in because the old stuff looked like icing that goes on a cinn-a-bun. Took the thermo out and snapped the spring off and put it back in since it needs it as a gasket I guess. But, basically I dont have a thermostat. When I ran the hose through the cooling system my temp stays right at 60. So, thats why im guessing my rad doesnt work. There are no clogs that we found.

If I do a compression test and it comes back fine, does anyone know any other cause for the oil being in the cooling system ?

MTI

M103 engine + miles= headgasket.

Now the other math work is 1) how much the gasket change is going to cost, versus the resale value of a car with a blown headgasket; or 2) cost of doing the head gasket, which should be good for another 90K miles, versus the cost of acquistion AND maintenance of another car.

kepla

I have the same symptom - oil in the water - and one other: from a cold start it takes a moment for the oil pressure to come up to normal.
In my case, compression test is more than fine and there are no obvious oil leaks - except via the coolant overflow hose !
In this case, but not necessarily yours, it isn't the head gasket but the cylinder head itself. They have a nasty little habbit of corroding if the coolant isn't changed every year and this has happened. Okay, the car is 14 years old but its only done 30000 miles ! It isn't wearing out - its dissolving !
As with a head gasket leak, the solution is to remove the head and involves the purchase of a new gasket set. In my case it also involves stripping the head right down and taking it to an engineering shop where they can alloy weld repair the corrosion and grind off flat.
The total cost is approximately the same as the value of the car !
At the moment, I have flushed out the cooling system properly and am running with the appropriate kind of leak-sealing compounds in both the coolant and the oil.

PhilipM1

and what would be the things i can buy for my oil and coolant to help this situation? I do an oil change once a month... is this product for my oil expesive?

If it was the cylinder head and not the gasket.. is this a major problem, costly fix, can i just keep driving it, wouldnt i notice a performance decrese?

If it is the head, I might just trade it in and buy a new car. Maybe an 05 Stratus or something with a warrenty. Ive been avoiding getting something new because I drive 40k miles a year but im driving much less now so a waaranty will actually last.

John5788

interesting because I believe I have the same problem, compression is good and holds, but i have little power and i saw oil in my coolant when i flushed it a month ago. so basically my cylinder head is no good and is dying while i drive it?

slk230red

What is going on with these W201 head gaskets. My bypass hose burst last night when I got home...no big deal I thought, I'll just get new hoses today, some coolant, and fix it.
Well, there was a lot of oil in the coolant when I removed the lower radiator hose. Everywhere the leaking hose sprayed coolant was oily. I've never had to add oil to between oil changes since new, and sure enough, it is about 3/4 quart low on oil.
The car just turned to 88,000 miles and runs great, but no sense installing $140 in new hoses on the car if they are going to get saturated with oil. So I guess I'll start removing the head on Monday and see if the head gasket is blown or the head messed up or warped.

kepla

Right now I can't remember the trade names of the products I put in the oil and water, but they seem to have stopped the oil and water mixing for the moment. They were both reasonably commonplace proprietary products - the 'Oil Stop Leak' being by either STP or Wynns I think but I cannot recall the name of the 'Coolant Stop Leak' stuff I used. It was expensive, about double the price of 'Barrs Leaks' but seems to actually work. Prices ? About a fiver for the oil leak-stop and around a tenner for the coolant leak-stop.
Of course, they are not a permanent solution. Might get around a thousand miles more out of the car before I really have to sort the cylinder head out.
Question:
Given the cost of parts, such as the head gasket, is so reasonable, does anyone know why the garage charge for replacing the cylinder head (not including head reconditioning) is so expensive ? Is this a really difficult job to do on a Mercedes. I have done Ford cylinder heads before and it took me just a few hours with nothing very special tool-wise except a torque wrench for the head bolts. What's the big deal ?

mctwin2kman

Because it has a three pointed star. Don't believe me then call up a shop and ask for a head gasket job cost on say a Jeep Cherokee with the I6 in it, then call back again and ask about an I6 Benz. I bet the price will be almost double.

Anyway I know the 2.3 is pretty easy to do as I have done two, last one I did in about 5-6 hours time.

An MB head is put on just like any other engines. Nothing special about it or different that should add cost to the job.

kepla

Well, I wish I was the lucky owner of a 2.3 ! We don;t see that many of them here in England - mainly 2.0 and 1.8.
If you are reckoning on about 6 hours complete time - so that's maybe 2 hours dismantling, 2 hours cleaning and fixing and then 2 hours reassembley, then it sounds fair dinkum to me. How do you go with the mechanical fuel injection system - just leave everything attached to the inlet manifold and swing the whole lot out of the way in one lump ?
Anything awkward when getting it running again after it is back together - setting up or anything to worry about ?

mctwin2kman

I took off both exhaust and intake manifolds on the first one I did. But on the second, was someone elses and he was there to help out, I left the intake on to make it easier. You still disconnect a lot but it turned out to be a lot quicker. My first one was done over two days due to me ordering the gasket set on a Friday for Monday delivery so I took the head off on Sunday. The second one was started at about 10 am and done by 4 or 5. The only time the helper helped was when I was pulling the head off and putting it back on. On the 2.3 I could lift the head fairly easily by myself and I am 5'6" and abotu 140. Not big by any stretch of the imagination.

Make sure before you pull the head you get the gasket set, the upper chain rail guides(plastic and brittle), and new head bolts. Before you start take the valve cover off and make sure you have the proper sockets to get the head bolts, I forget what size but the are those M ones. Also there are 3, I think, allen bolts in the front for the timing cover portion. Next devise a tool to pull the pins for the plastic timing chain guides. You can do this with a really small slide hammer, or like I did with a bolt in the hole with some large washers that you can pry behind with two small pry bars. They are just pressed in and not that hard to get out.

kepla

In my case, with the cylinder head having corroded due to not getting the annual coolant changes, I am going to have to strip the head right down to the bare casting for the welding to be done.
So, I'm hoping to remove the inlet and exhaust manifolds from the head and just swing them sideways a little to clear the studs so as I can lift the head off. I'm hoping this will be possible and maybe save me a bit of disconnecting and dismantling. The big problem with taking something which is working apart is that when you put it back together . . . well, it might not work like it did. Yeah, like, if it ain't broke then don't fix it ! Hopefully I will be able to keep any dismantling of the inlet and injection system to the absolute minimum.

mctwin2kman

I pulled the exhaust manifold totally off to make things easier. The intake side I just pulled away from the head and left the fuel dizzy still attached to the AFM. Just undid the 4 fuel lines from the injectors.

PhilipM1

So, I have been driving my engine for about 8-10k miles now lol. I get oil changes every 3,000 miles. There is oil in the coolant and I think coolant in the oil. It still runs fine. I need a new radiator. Its not cooling the way it should anymore. But its like 500 dollars and I dont want to put that kind of money into a car that I wont fix the head gasket on.

good luck everyone on thier head jobs.

slk230red

Hi Philip,

As you can see from my 8/22/07 post, I had to replace the head gasket on my '93 2.3 due to oil in the coolant. I started removing the head on 8/27 and got it back together on 9/3. Before reconnecting the cooling system, I flushed and flushed every component in the cooling system and engine block, then drained everything and put in coolant and distilled water.

I took the head to a machine shop and had it resurfaced, along with a valve job and valve guide seals. Doing the work myself, I spent $180 for the head repair, and about $450 in gaskets, sensors, all new hoses, injector seals, coolant, and other misc. parts. In addition, I also purchased new engine mounts and a new hood pad, so I spent a lot of money on this car during the past 2 weeks. I've already replaced the radiator, A/C compressor, drier, expansion valve, belt tensioner, all new brakes and rotors, shocks and struts, tie rod ends, rear view mirror, and other items during the last 18 months. Since I do all of my own repairs, the labor is free...since I'm retired I have plenty of time to spend working on the MB's and Vette.

In my situation, my wife really likes her 190. We bought it new and it has 88,000 miles. I spent very little $$ the first 12 years of owning the car, just regular oil & filter changes every 3,000 mi. and other maintenance items. I realize that things wear out and need to be replaced. If my wife wanted a new car before I started getting into more expensive repairs, I wouldn't have put the money into it.
The head job turned out great, the cars runs like new, I also painted the valve cover when I had it off.

A friend of mine owns an Independent MB repair/parts shop in Tampa that I would highly recommend over a MB dealer. I can give you his name and number if you're interested. If you keep driving your car like it is, I believe you will probably blow a hose or radiator due to head pressure. Also, the hoses will not hold up if they are contaminated with oil.

Good luck,

Dave

PhilipM1

Thank you very much for the information and if I do end up fixing the car I will pm you for your friends number.

I did get a hole in one of my hoses thermo stat to top of radiotor,, I replaced it, and then where the hose meets the top of the radiotor, the radiotor part broke off and now the hose wont stay on. The biggest thing stopping me from fixing this car is that ive been driving on bad cv axles for the past ... ummm... 40k miles. maybe more, it made the noise when I got the car. I think there are only 3 cv axles in america. They are 995 a piece. I need both sides.

with that exspense plus needed a new radiotor due to the piece breaking of and it doesnt work wich is why i have a blown head. plus doign the head, I really dont want to fix it. Im looking into buying a new car. I love this one but Its becoming too much of a hassle with its age.

cypress188

I agree with slk230red. It is not too much for a top level engine job (valve job), cost me only C$2K. Now the car runs just like new, with 3K after a oil change, the oil still look new/fresh. I have 200K (km) now, he tells me I should get another 200K, even if its only 100K...I'll be happy & think its worth it.