enough to make me cry! - head gasket

[martymillwall]

after being made redundant in Jan and with my company car gone, i bought a 500se and have spent a £1000 of my precious little money to get her to good condition as i live 3 miles from any civilisation.

on doing a motorway trip this morning to attend an interview the temp.guage started to rise quickly to the redline so i pulled over, and also noticed a drop in oil pressure. In addition i couldnt get any hot air iinto the car.

the cooling system was just about empty, and along with a bit of gurgling and popping from the cooling system my oil (changed a month ago) was a caramel colour. On inspection i had smoke from the exhaust too, and back pressure through the cooling system.

Although im not mechanically minded, i know enough to suspect the head gasket has blown.

I've just been towed home, are there any checks i can make to confirm my diagnosis? and if it is the dreaded head gasket what sort of bill am i looking at?????? The cars only worth 2k ish and i'm really worried that if it is the head gasket then i could be looking at scrapping her............

if it is financial suicide to fix, any ideas how to recoup as much money on her as poss? The car is in great condition so i suspect even with a blown hg she must be worth £500?? Should i break and try and sell bits on ebay etc or contact a breakers?

when it rains it pours....................

 

[Peter C1974]

Sorry to hear about your problem.

Try posting an ad here: http://retrorides.proboards86.com Yours wouldn't be the first Merc offered for sale with head gasket problems. The forum is free to join and the For Sale section attracts a lot of interest.

Good luck!

Peter

PS: Where is the logic in buying a V8 powered 500SE Merc if you've been made redundant? With hindsight, perhaps a nice little Metro would have been more suitable?

 

[martymillwall]

peter I always wanted a big s-class and as i only needed a car to get me into town and go to interviews the mpg didnt really matter.

with 129k on clock and a thumbs up from an aa check i thought she'd be a good buy to see me through a few months. Ive had everything that needed doing done and she was running beautifully until this morning with no sign of any oil or coolant problem.

 

[kth286]

any comeback from the expenditure on the AA inspection that can help towards cost of repairs ?

Perhaps I think differently, but I always believe that the car you know is best kept and repairs to it should be carried out.

Otherwise you are into the unknown again and all the potential hassle that could involve, and how many times are you going to go through that process with each successive car.

 

[television]

Just for my little bit of input, its a rare occurrence on a 126 to have the head gasket fail, thats if it is a 126, but all of the faults point to that

 

[martymillwall]

malcolm, its a 91 w140 - still rare??

 

[television]

malcolm, its a 91 w140 - still rare??

Yes still rare on the 119. the only thing is that it will only be one head gasket that has failed and easier to do than an inline 6

 

[martymillwall]

ball park repair cost malcolm????

 

[HERBIEMERCMAN]

hi marty, i know exactly how you feel, i have just spent £700 on my 97 e300 td est, 190,000 miles, and it is still not operating properly, some of it is my own fault as i stayed with my local garage not realising the technicalities were really for a merc. specialist, on this club they are refered to as indes, ( independant experts). with ref to your car problem, prior to you using the car was any work carried out which involved any part of the engine cooling system? the reason i ask is that many head gaskets fail due to overheating , it can be a split hose, a broken clip, hole in rad,loose rad cap. heater, etc. my neighbour ruined his engine as he was on a m/way and only noticed the car was overheating when the car started to slow down, most people do not keep a watch on their temp. gauge. diesel engines suffer more from this than petrol due to the much higher compression challenging the integrity of the head and gasket. to avoid this situation on my car and a boat i have i fitted a by-metal clixon temp. sensing disc to the engine blocks, wired them to a falling relay to prove system continuity, and to the horn. twice on the boat the sounding of the horn has saved the engine. best of luck. herbiemercman.

 

[television]

I will look up the time for doing the job later in the day and post back

 

[jberks]

Although im not mechanically minded, i know enough to suspect the head gasket has blown.

I seem to remember a chemical gas analysis thing hat you can put on the radiator cap fitting that detects exhaust gasses. That plus a compression check should tell you all you need to know.

 

[television]

Marty, where are you in the UK

 

[martymillwall]

i'm in abergavenny, just over the welsh border from hereford

got a plan..............???

 

[television]

No not yet, I was thinking of who could do a good job with out breaking the bank, someone like JIB on the forum does this type of work.

I will pass this over to SAM and see if he can get a time for this job

 

[Cole@MBS]

Info sent Malc!!

 

[jibcl500]

malcolm, its a 91 w140 - still rare??

Very rare on a W140 V8, could be a cracked head !!!
where are you in the UK it might be cheaper to put a another engine in, speak to Carl at www.w140.co.uk carl@w140.co.uk, he might have some heads for sale if needs be, tell him I recommended him.

Its worth fixing as once fixed you then have a great car.

jib

 

[television]

The time to do the job is 12 hours on the left side and 13 hours on the right, that is plus the head gasket job, though as JIB is it the head cracked

 

[jibcl500]

The time to do the job is 12 hours on the left side and 13 hours on the right, that is plus the head gasket job, though as JIB is it the head cracked

Its a big job, could be cheaper to just drop another lump in there.

jib

 

[television]

Its a big job, could be cheaper to just drop another lump in there.

jib

I agree completely with you jib, and it is a rare occurrence on a 119

 

[martymillwall]

thankyou guys for trying to help, unfortunately it looks like the cost is too much for me to bare.

i imagine the labour alone will be £1000 ish on its own, so although the car is in fantastic condition (just spent nearly £1000 on it!) it looks like ill be trying to sell her to someone who can afford to fix, or breaking her.

still cant get my head round it, no signs of head going and she was running like a dream.

anyone want to make me an offer............