Use Hylomar on the replacement head gasket. Be careful when you turn the engine by hand, the spring on the vacuum pump causes it to lurch forward. Remove the pump if it's a problem. You can do the head/head-gasket with the car in the engine. You'd have to pull it to replace the connecting rods. It comes out with the transmission - you can't get to all the bolts connecting the two with it in the car. It might be possible to disassemble the front suspension enough to get the oil pan off to get at the crankshaft. Probably be more work than pulling the engine. Rods were $190 apiece when I did mine. No reason to replace the head bolts if their length is within tolerance. They stretch when they go bad. I had to replace 3 of them as I recall. You need to be prudent with what you replace, otherwise you will spend thousands to replace good parts "just in case".
-Dave Walton On Fri, Mar 6, 2009 at 9:39 PM, Rich Thomas <richthomas79td...@constructivity.net> wrote: > So is that gasket pretty straightforward to replace? Is getting the head > off fairly easy? Then replacing gasket and putting head back on? I guess > you would need to remove the chain and intake/exhaust then some other stuff, > get the bolts off, then redo? Probably check the round on the cylinders > while the head is off to see if it is starting to go bad? While head is > off, replace rods? > > --R > > Peter Frederick wrote: >> >> Overheating will kill any OM603 head. More likely a dead head gasket -- >> they only last about 200,000 miles, >> >> Peter >> >> On Mar 6, 2009, at 8:12 PM, Jim Cathey wrote: >> >>>> He says the 115 was running fine but the blower resistor overheated and >>>> caught fire, burned under the dash or something, >>> >>> The blower resistor pack is inside the air intake plenum, under >>> the grille. The connector on the firewall goes to it. Nothing >>> there to catch fire except the resistor pack itself, which is >>> metal, and its plastic connector. And the cable over to the >>> blower motor, of course! >>> >>> Unless, of course, that it was something else and _was_ under >>> the dash. That could be a mess. >>> >>>> thinking that for $800 (if I beat on the guy a bit) or $1000 and some >>>> parts and a bit of time, a very nice car could be running. >>> >>> That could be OK. It's all about price and effort. But that >>> kind of territory, if the car is otherwise nice and you realistically >>> could put it right enough to drive (you should see my to-be-done pile!) >>> then you can have a pretty nice ride for not so much that way. >>> >>> I thought the cracking head problem had been dealt with by >>> the rodbender era, so the chances of a cracked head are down >>> to 'normal'. Unless it got overheated at all. >>> >>> -- Jim >>> >>> >>> >>> _______________________________________ >>> http://www.okiebenz.com >>> For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com >>> To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ >>> >>> To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: >>> http://okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com >> >> >> _______________________________________ >> http://www.okiebenz.com >> For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com >> To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ >> >> To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: >> http://okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com >> > > _______________________________________ > http://www.okiebenz.com > For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com > To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ > > To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: > http://okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com > _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
