To have oil mixing in with your water, but not have a blown head gasket?

I'm pretty sure its blown, but im not loosing any power, I only loose about a quart of oil every 2k miles, and I dont have any smoke or anything out the back. The only actual signs of the headgasket being blown is the oil in the radiator.

Is there anything else it could be?

 

definetly headgasket blown.from main oil channel to water circuit.

 

The five stages of headgasket failure:



1-Denial-"No, this can't be happening to me" or "Maybe the engine bay is just a bit untidy . . ."


2-Anger-"Why me?" or "Damn you Mercedes!"


3-Bargaining- "I promise to take better care of the care, just don't blow up on my way to work today."

4-Depression- "I just don't know what to do, perhaps I should get another car, or start catching the bus, afterall, it's what I deserve."

5-Acceptance- "Hello? Yes, I can bring it to the shop on Thursday. Do you take MasterCard?"

 

Yes it is, but only with Mercedes !
It is one of the problems I am currently facing - there is a little oil floating around in the coolant. Fortunately I seem to have stemmed the tide for a while with a combination of oil leak sealer in the oil and coolant system sealer in the coolant - but it can only be a temporary measure.
So, you are probably wondering, how can this be so if it isn't the head gasket ?
Well, the cylinder heads of the smaller engines are made of an alloy which can corrode a little over time if frequent coolant changes are not performed. A complete change of coolant - and therefore fresh anti-corrosion additive - is recommended by Mercedes-Benz on an annual basis for the smaller engines. There seems to be plenty of stealerships who don't realise this, but if you actually read the published service schedule . . .
On the smaller heads, there are a couple of places where the oil and water galleries are awfully close, and just a reasonable amount of corrosion is sufficient to break through, so you need to keep the corrosion down to an absolute minimum with these engines.
If the head gasket goes, it is for one of three reasons:
The gasket was faulty and has failed due to that fault.
The engine was put together by somebody who didn't do it right.
The engine has been allowed to overheat to the extent that the head has warped.
In any case, you have to take off the head and examine things. At best it will just be failure of a faulty gasket, but this is unlikely with Mercedes quality control.
Quite likely is that the engine has got too hot at some time and the head has warped a little, allowing the gasket to leak. Whenever you have a head off, you should check the mating surfaces are flat and true before re-assembley so this would be spotted then. The solution should be obvious.
Worst case scenario is that the gasket and surfaces are fine but the head has corroded to the point where a leak has developed. This requires the services of a specialist to weld new metal to replace the corrosion, followed by re-grinding the mating surface flat and carefull re-assembley.
The problem I am facing is that the cost of all the work, plus either the alloy welding or a new head, totals more than the market value of the car !
Hopefully, when you getyour head off, you'll only be facing a simple gasket failure.

 

Mine wasn't blown either, but I couldn't force myself to install all new radiator/heater hoses, etc. after the bypass hose blew. The car was running great, but oil was getting into the coolant. You probably have a pitted/separated head gasket that is allowing the coolant ports to get contaminated with oil.
After I removed my head gasket, I could see the problem. The only solution is to get in there and remove the head.









Completed Pictures

 

Wow. Great pics. Thanks for those. Now I kind of want to wakt my engine apart anyway lol.

My cousin said something about "heater taps" Or something incase we strip the bolts when they come out? Is that likley or has anyone has that problem?

I saw the picture of the old looking thing that goes around the cylinders and the new... Is that the gasket?

 

Yes, the first picture is the old and new head gasket. You shouldn't have to worry about stripping the head bolts...but you will need to get the correct tool to remove them. It's a 12mm serrated (triple square) wrench, part number SER2306 at NAPA... price is $7.09, and it is just the right length to use with a 1/2" drive breaker bar with a 1/2" socket. I used my 1/2" hex head impact wrench socket that I trusted not to break....those bolts are really tight.
If you don't have a repair manual, go to your public library and make copies of the head removal instructions for your car.

Good luck,

Dave

 

Hahaha 8vlv's look so funny.

 

Ouch!