MUPPETS are friendly and entertaining. The GOONS who worked on my car are surly and non-communicative.

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14 E250 Bluetec 4Matic "Sinclair", Palladium Silver on Black, 156k miles
06 E320 CDI "Rutherford", Black on Tan, 173k mi, Stage 1 tune, tuned TCU
91 300D "Otis", Smoke Silver on Tan, 143k mi, wastegate conversion, ALDA delete

19 Honda CR-V EX 67k mi
Fourteen other MB's owned and sold
1961 Very Tolerant Wife

You are amoungst many people that includes all of us pretty well that unknowingly or otherwise get periodically stiffed in some way or another. Surly and uncommunicative are not good indicators. You paid for a head gasket job. Yet for some reason problems are still present regarding the head seal.

Their insurance carrier or small claims court should perhaps be considered if they are not responsive to doing the job over again.

My dilemma is that, since there was such inattention to detail on so many little things (unrelated to the head seal), I'm very leery of allowing them to do that kind of invasive surgery again. Yet if they offer to re-do the job, from their perspective that's going to be a perfectly reasonable offer.

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14 E250 Bluetec 4Matic "Sinclair", Palladium Silver on Black, 156k miles
06 E320 CDI "Rutherford", Black on Tan, 173k mi, Stage 1 tune, tuned TCU
91 300D "Otis", Smoke Silver on Tan, 143k mi, wastegate conversion, ALDA delete

19 Honda CR-V EX 67k mi
Fourteen other MB's owned and sold
1961 Very Tolerant Wife

Based on what I've read about your experience getting the head gasket done originally, I would bet they didn't lower the head level. If they allowed the head to bump the gasket in that area as they lowered the head, the gasket would be crushed unevenly and oil would leak.

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Chad
2006 Nissan Pathfinder LE
1998 Acura 3.0 CL
OBK#44
"Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work." - Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)

SOLD
1985 300TD - Red Dragon
1986 300SDL - Coda
1991 - 300TE
1995 - E320
1985 300CD - Gladys

Shertex & Gsxr,

Two weeks ago I popped off the valve cover on my 602 and did the 1/4 turn loose and 1/2 turn tight trick on the "a" bolts (at the front of my head). Happy to report it seems to have stopped my leak! Thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread.

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This car had a history, now it has a future.

Learn more about my Benz here.

Excellent result 300D-91. Shertex should find another mechanic to do that, unless he is ready to go hands-on. I would take the first shop to small claims court, with a statement from the 2nd shop as to the problem fixed, plus a list of all the other things they messed up and get them to at least pay for the 2nd mechanic's time. I also learned long ago to do all work myself. It is frustrating to have slackers with an attitude do half-@ss work, pick their nose in front of you, and charge big bucks to not fix the problem.

I should relate that leaking oil from the head of an iron block, aluminum head engine is not always due to bad workmanship. My 2.4L Chrysler engine did that starting at 39K miles (right after warranty). I found it was a common problem, thus a design defect. They started using a multi-layer steel (MLS) gasket which fixed it, but never put out a recall. I had to do it myself at 95K miles since the drips on the exhaust got too bad.

Seems I've got a oil leak at the #11 (603 engine) head bolt. Ive added about 1 1/2 - 2 qts since over 5K miles. The above suggestion seems to be a remedy, anyone have longer term experience with this or is this indicative of a head gasket on its way out? Also, what is the torx size for the head bolts?

TIA

Treetops

Attached Thumbnails

   

They are NOT TORX BOLTS!!!!!


They are XZN "triple SQUARE" bolts.
IIRC 10mm size.

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John HAUL AWAY, OR CRUSHED CARS!!! HELP ME keep the cars out of the crusher! A/C Thread
"as I ride with my a/c on... I have fond memories of sweaty oily saturdays and spewing R12 into the air. THANKS for all you do!

My drivers:
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5-5SPEED!!!

1987 300TD
1987 300TD
1994GMC 2500 6.5Turbo truck... I had to put the ladder somewhere!

Shertex For some unknown reason some of your adventures get me thinking. Well here goes. Take a torque wrench. Set it to the foot pounds recommended as the final stage before doing the 90 degree freehand torsion turn. They may not have made the final turn or turns as well on some bolts.

Start around the centre of the head and work outward in the normal pattern. If you get any advance on a bolt or bolts. Your problem was they used a bad torque wrench or the bolts are stretching away. Or have serious problems.There was some mention reciently of bad head bolts being after market.

A lot easier than pulling a head again. I have to assume they had a working torque wrench at least. But with enough attitude perhaps not. There is some real sickness out there.

This is based almost on them being surly and whatever. This is abnormal if you want repeat customers and know what you are doing.

Just almost a wild guess under the circumstances you quoted. Still I would do it. Not much suprises me anymore either. I do not want to go into it at any depth but some of your description is similar to what I see with heavy drug users. Some have an attitude of basically screw you even during doing whatever their function is. Or they are so self focused they just do not pay attention to what they are doing. Yet besides the ugly attitudes they project that they feel normal about. There is no other giveaway to their problems sometimes.

Steady boy; calm down now.

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Peach Parts W124.128 User Group.

80 280SL
85 300SD
87 300TD
92 300D 2.5 Turbo
92 300TE 4Matic

You say the lip of the block would that happen to be on the passanger side front? I ask because I had a failure there not so long ago and I recall reading others noticed oil also when refreshing there head gaskets.

Bolt #11 (below cyl #2 on intake side) is NOT a common place for an oil leak. Are you sure your 1-2 quart loss is actually from this area of the head gasket? 100% sure? Really really sure?

The common leak is between bolts 20 and 22 (on the 603), at the main oil passage from the block to the head. Other common oil leaks are the front crank seal, IP seals, and turbocharger. But not the middle of the head.

Frankly, no I'm not 110% sure. It could be coming from the where the IM meets the head (or turbo via the IM), but seems to pool nicely at #11. The area from bolts 7 to 23 and 13 are oily/dirty (603), but at 11 it the oily-est. Cleaned the area some the other day and the oil came back. Some grime up to the valve cover but the majority/worse at and down from #11 & 19. 3 & 5 are "clean", 13 is dirty/oily and 17 is "clean" too.

Thanks in advance.

On an aside, I think I found a #17 head for sight-unseen cheap. That'll be another topic.

Treetops

The leak you describe sounds like the typical oil leak from the #2 intake runner. Triple check to make sure it's not oil from the intake manifold gasket, this is very common, and would most likely show up in the area of bolts #11 and 19. If you replace the intake gasket, use OE only (metal reinforced, the aftermarket are plain paper) and smear it with blue Hylomar when installing. Your 1-2 quart consumption per 5kmi is probably not from this leak, that is a different issue.

Be careful buying used #17 heads. There have been a couple reports of folks finding out after purchase, that the heads were warped beyond repairability...

Thanks gsxr I will follow the IM route and read up on oil in the intake or turbo oil leaks. Read one where the the final determination was HG was shot. This just gives me one more reason on top of many to pull the IM(cleaning, checking, new GPs, fuel line clips....etc.