blown 87

I would take what ever the dealer said with a grain of salt.

dr bob

Clean the cooling system with a bit of liquid Tide detergent, rinse, repeat. It will get the oil out and doesn't damage the aluminum.

Mechanic should isolate the oil cooler if it's part of the radiator, and bypass it. Run at idle or min load so oil temp isn't an issue, see if you still have the contamination. Otherwise the head comes off, gets cleaned up and gets a dye-pen test for cracks. If none found, carefully inspect the block on top for similar damage. IIRC, and this is from really old (1960's and 1970's) MB sixes, the oil feed to the cam drive is through a separate tube that runs up the front with the cam chain. There are no high-pressure oil passages sealed by the head gasket. Newer engines may be way different, just a thought on where to look.

EMan 928

Thanks for your posts, everyone. The dealer is confident that it is the head gasket, and they've offered that if they replace it and it still leaks the job it is free of charge. So, if they are correct, I can go back to the first shop and ask for my money back, at least on the labor, as they didn't do the job correctly. If they arent' correct, then we go for the oil cooler.

You guys are great!

largecar379

$4k to repair a $4k car......

what am I missing here.....

--Russ

Bill51sdr

Happens here all the time,

blown 87

The fact that the dealership may know it is just a cooler and clean some things up, put a cooler on it, charge 4 grand and call it a day.

JP Rodkey

Those 6 cylinder engines are very reliable. I owned a 300SEL for many years and had no problems up to 275,000 miles on the original engine (sold the car). That's a whole lotta car for a 6 cylinder. If you haven't checked it out, you can get answers here:

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/index.php

Very good group of folks not unlike this forum. Hope that helps.

EMan 928

Dealer just called me. They took off the head and discovered some small pitting in one of the corners. Something, they said, that should have easily been noticed by the first mechanic. They are going to verify the head is within tolerances and if it is, mill it down to remove the pitting and put it back together. They invited me to come down and take a look tomorrow so I'm going to go down and snap a picture so I can show the first mechanic what he missed.

So, if that fixes it, do you guys think I have recourse with the first mechanic who put the head gasket on it? I'm thinking I do. They're in the business to know this stuff and it sounds like it should have been noticed when they did the job.

Mrmerlin

from the first post, the first mech is a someone you have a long history with, no real need to bash his abilities as you may need his services in the future.
I would suggest to see what happens after the dealer installs the new head gasket and drive the car for a bit.

marton

Surprised you did not do this test, it is quick & easy.

When my Mustang had milkshake in the coolant I did this test and there was no colour change; that is no combustion gas. It was the auto cooler in the radiator that was found to be the problem.

I understand that the test looks for the presence of Carbon Monoxide.

Does the dealer have any suggestion as to why there is pitting in the head?

Marton

blown 87

Just a guess on my part, but it sounds like the head was not surfaced when the first head job was done is the reason that the pitting is there.

The pitting is almost always caused my not doing bi yearly coolant changes or using tap water to mix the coolant.

I have people tell me, "why are you 1,000 dollars more for a head gasket than this other shop" the answer is simple, I have 1,000 dollars worth of machine shop charges that they don't.

Many times I will see the same car in a few months with the same problem as it had before the other shop did the head gasket.
Thy always want me to cut them a break because they have already spent X number of dollars on the car, I find that funny and sad at the same time.