Water in the Oil

[bushbean]

There is a Mercedes 300E I want to buy. The seller says there is water in the oil, and he thinks the head gasket is blown. I'm interested in buying it because I want a project to work on and he is selling it dirt cheap. The issue is he lives 20 miles away. Do yall think it's OK to drive 20 miles with this problem in the oil? Or should I spend a couple hundred bux to have the car tow back?

[A18A]

should be good enough, i bought my car with a blown head gasket and it was driven home (from the other side of town, same distance i suppose) but this was with a 3gee, dunno what a merc would be like though

shouldnt cost a few hundred $ just to tow it 20 miles though

[Civic Accord Honda]

DONT drive with a blown head gasket it will fuck up your head

[ChaseR]

Dont know man its YOUR call.. personally I would Drive it...

and CAH you dont even know what a Head Gasket does..

[Civic Accord Honda]

Dont know man its YOUR call.. personally I would Drive it...

and CAH you dont even know what a Head Gasket does..
yes i do we had a 85 subaru GL with blown head gaskets and we drove it untel the engine died

[Civic Accord Honda]

and i replced i haed gasket on a 92 thunderbrid

[diegoaccord]

Should be good. when I had the black DOHC CRX it needed a HG BAD, overheated mass times, and was still fine once fixed.

[ghettogeddy]

There is a Mercedes 300E I want to buy. The seller says there is water in the oil, and he thinks the head gasket is blown. I'm interested in buying it because I want a project to work on and he is selling it dirt cheap. The issue is he lives 20 miles away. Do yall think it's OK to drive 20 miles with this problem in the oil? Or should I spend a couple hundred bux to have the car tow back?
i would u just have to be cautious i mean watch the temps if it starts to over heat pull over let it sit till it cools then continue plus its a project if it over heats and warps a head u can get it resurfaced or replaced lol even if the engine blows it just gives u reason to put a better on in

[cubert]

just out of curiousity....why would you want a benz as a car to tinker around with?

[88Accord-DX]

20 miles isn't to far. Drain the oil, put a new oil filter & fresh oil in it, that'll get you home without too much emulsion if you didn't change the oil. After you fix the head gasket, run some seafoam in it & change the oil again.

[Civic Accord Honda]

ok WTF is seafoam

[Ichiban]

I'd run it. However, be aware that coolant (ethylene glycol) in the oil can cause major bearing corrosion issues. If the car is going through lots of coolant, I'd fill the rad up with water for the drive, then dump both oil and water when I got to where I'm going. After it's fixed, do a couple short-interval oil and filter changes and you should be set.

[Ichiban]

ok WTF is seafoam

Seafoam is a mixture of naptha and light petroleum oil. It's a waste of time. You guys do not want to hear my thoughts on the subject.

[88Accord-DX]

There are many pros & cons of using seafoam, it's a matter of anyones personal experience with it which way they tend to go. It's not good on older engines' gaskets.

Coolant is your engine oil’s number one enemy. Engine sludge is inevitable when oil meets engine coolant. Contamination of your oil with coolant promotes sludge by two means. First, it introduces water into the oil. Second, it brings into contact oil and coolant, which are incompatible fluids. (emulsion)

Oil and coolant react to form deposits as they experience temperature changes in your engine. Some are gooey or gel-like. Others are hard, brittle deposits that plug oil passageways, reducing oil flow. These two types of deposits guarantee a shortened life for your engine.

[Oldblueaccord]

A turbocharged 5-cylinder diesel engine ....that might be a whole differant ball game.

http://consumerguideauto.howstuffworks.com/1990-to-1995-mercedes-benz-300-e-class.htm


wp

[njpeter]

leaving the rad cap loose can minimize the issue, but I'd go for the tow personally, unless it was a life and death issue ( like being stuck in a blizzard or somthing) benz parts are major pricey

[bushbean]

just out of curiousity....why would you want a benz as a car to tinker around with?

I used to have a 190E--loved the attention I get and the superiority of rear wheel drive. The 300E is also bigger and heavier, so it should be even more stable on the highway. This particular 300E is of the older variaty, so it's simple to work on in comparison to the newer gadget-filled luxury cars. Besides, the owner is selling it dirt cheap.

After some more deliberation, I decided not to get the Benz mostly because it's got an automatic transmission. I'm disinclined toward automatics.

[bushbean]

There are many pros & cons of using seafoam, it's a matter of anyones personal experience with it which way they tend to go. It's not good on older engines' gaskets.
Coolant is your engine oil’s number one enemy. Engine sludge is inevitable when oil meets engine coolant. Contamination of your oil with coolant promotes sludge by two means. First, it introduces water into the oil. Second, it brings into contact oil and coolant, which are incompatible fluids. (emulsion)
Oil and coolant react to form deposits as they experience temperature changes in your engine. Some are gooey or gel-like. Others are hard, brittle deposits that plug oil passageways, reducing oil flow. These two types of deposits guarantee a shortened life for your engine.

Did yall hear about that class action lawsuit against Toyota having to do with sludge? I think the complainants are claiming one category of Toyota engines have a manufacturer's defect that causes sludge to build up and destroy the engine. Many, many Toyota owners suffered catastrophy engine failure allegedly as a result of this defect. Last I heard, Toyota settled the lawsuit. Hard to believe a reputation company could have screwed up so badly.