Kinkandri

Hi folks!

Figured that I have to register here to find some knowledge or information from somebody smarter than me.

So I'm having major problems with my rides (1999 W210 2.7 cdi 125kw) cooling system. I know very little about its history, bought it second hand. But here's what I can assurely confirm what's done and what not:

New thermostat (by me)
New reservoir cap (by me)
New engine water pump (by me)
New cooling radiator
Auxiliary electric water pump hums BUT I have confirmed that it DOES NOT pump water SO I already ordered new one (aftermakret), should arrive around this week for sure.
Duo valves work and been cleaned and checked over.
No faults by CC

Car does have aux heater(diesel- not working) and also hest booster, seems to work, atleast has power to it.

So here's the big problem: engine warms up very nicely and quite quickly but coolant system pressure seems to be too much IMO. When changed thermostat and water pump and adding old coolant back after parts change the coolant seemed a bit too dark (for almost new coolant) so it seems that some combustion gases have gotten to cooling system. Exhaust blows blueish/whiteish? smoke when idling with warm engine (not very sweet odor), no smoke when accelerating hard or something BUT a puff of same colored smoke comes out when suddenly accelerate after coasting for a while.

I'm out of ideas and can only assume problem with head gasket OR EGR cooler (best bet after head gasket &#128513

I would be really appreciated for some info and knowledge about this from you guys!!

Thanks alot in advance and sorry about my weird English, because it's not my native language 😊

Peace!

Plutoe

You seem to be the kinda guy that likes to throw money down a rat hole. Before you rip the engine apart to change a head gasket, have the engine compression tested!

Kinkandri

Not actually that kinda guy. Can't just jump to conclusion on the head gasket 😁

But how I can make the difference between head gasket or egr cooler? It seems very much that carbon from the intake is also burning with coolant due to "steam cleaning", hence the blueish smoke from exhaust and not straight sweet only coolant white smoke.

Kinkandri

Sooo...
Got the time to take it all apart and inspect very carefully everything. First issue with taking the head off was with injector nr.3 and 5. Spent too much time getting them off so had an idea to invest into injector puller (gonna use it in the future for sure). Got the two injectors out finally, then started to get the head off. Not very complicated engine must say and everything was very straightforward. So when the time was come I got the CH off finally. Couldn't determine exactly where it was leaking, seemed like gasket itself wasn't as good as it should've been. Got cylinder head nice and clean, brought it to shop where They resurfaced the head and cleaned all valves and valve seats. Cylinder head itself didn't seem warped or cracked or anything. Looked nice and good. So went ahead and started to clean engine block. Inspected it and also couldn't pinpoint exactly where the fault was. Inspected all piston heads to see which one was the cleanest and had the least amount of carbon on them. IMO the cylinder no. 4 looked cleanest (injector no. 4 was the most easiest injector to take off, pulled it right out after removing retainer). I also noticed that water channels were kinda rusted or something, can't tell if it was because of the red antifreeze or too weak concentrate and too much water etc. So started to clean everything and scrape all old material and imperfections off. Took really good care not to scrape or make any rough couges and so on. Got the surface nice and clean and ready to put everything back together.
New head bolts, new gasket ofcourse (there were two options when sourcing one: the original and 0.2mm thicker. Went ahead and ordered the thciker one because of the head resurfacing. Also couldn't find any identification holes or notches on the old gasket), new injector washers and bolts. Followed every step very carefully when tightened everything up and used torque wrench (torqued last 2x 90° by eye, didn't get my hands on right tool, was doable)
Got timing and everything lined up perfectly, used new washers and orings and gaskets whereever I could and cleaned every major part etc. Now today when I finally got back to do final finishing touches, put new oil and oil filter, 10 liters of new green coolant and double checked everything just to be safe. Coolant resercoir cap was off to let bleeding air out and to see what is going to happen. Tank was relativelty full i woult say, not overflowing or something but it was bit over maximum. So the moment of truth, went to crank engine, cranked it for a while because of the empty fuel lines. Cranking sound was very okay, like it used to be haha and when it finally jumped and started and stayed on I went ahed and checked for any leaks or problems. Right away when looking at engine bay: cold engine, reservoir cap off, coolant bubbling over the tank and bubbles contained very light white and warm steam. Just......like.......before... Felt very devastated..

Maybe I'm not that competent but I've successfully changed a bunch of head gaskets on different engines. Even have vocational education on repairing cars. Do I really have missed something very important and clearly overlooked something very obvious or easy? Half of the engine has been overhauled and don't want to think about scrapping the car or salvaging it. I like working on my car(s) and repairing them myself because I can only trust myself and it costs me basically only time (not when parts are needed lol).

HUUUUUGE thanks in advance for everybodys help or info and replys on this, it really means alot.

Ps: hope it won't hurt Your eyes to read such weak English, trying my best!

Cheers!!!

Kebowers47

First mistake was letting the shop do the head. The heads are very flexible and seldom need resurfacing. The cam towers are line bored with original block deck height. Machining the head will change the cam tower alignment and lead to bearing overload/camshaft failure if any material was removed from the head. Now, perform a compression test to learn if any cylinder is low. There are different woodruff keys available to get camshaft timing back to specs. The offset keys run up to 10 degrees if I remember correctly. The probability of mal-installation is low. The probability of the wrong head gasket is HIGH. Also check yourself with a good straight-edge the flatness of the 'resurfaced' sealing surface. Specs are IIRC, +/- 0.030" over length of cylinder head. Also check (if you can) did you get YOUR cylinder head back?

Good Luck

Kinkandri

Case can be closed due to replaced OEM cylinder head. New one was im very good condition and hopefully lasts many miles(kilometers) 😁