Head gasket or Not?? Confused!!

[ash_2009]

Evening all,

I have a w124, 1994, e220 cab and the following headache....

I think its time for the dreaded news...yes head gasket gone???

I have oil (possible oil/water) leaking from the area just under the black cover with the silver merc sign on the front of the head of the engine as shown by the yellow arrow.

These are the issues I have noticed over the last few weeks.

1) I am having to top up my coolant about every week...and I hardly am doing more than 100 miles a week!!

2) NO oil in coolant resevoir so far!!! its just nice and blue but i dont know for how long.

3) Oil level on dipstick is just about half way between max and min....its gone down slightly..if at all i would say!!

4) Nothing else seems "abnormal" like high tempartures etc etc!! I have also tried to look for leaks in all the radiator hoses, under the radiator but cant find anything apart from where the arrow points to in the pictures.

5) Again from the pictures you can see the trail of oil being splattered on the side of the air filter casing and also down onto the alternator...its pretty horrible...

Help and advise anyone..paaaaleaseeeeee!!

Thanks
Ash

 

[Dieselman]

Take the cover off and have a look. I would say it's a water pump or hot outlet problem rather than head gasket.

 

[Colin_b]

Compression test is needed, I think. Amazon do a tester for about £18, saves a lot of head scratching.

 

[Dieselman]

Compression test is needed, I think. Amazon do a tester for about £18, saves a lot of head scratching.

It's unlikely to be a compression leak at that are of the gasket as the timing chain is between the cylinders and the front of the engine.

 

[ash_2009]

Take the cover off and have a look. I would say it's a water pump or hot outlet problem rather than head gasket.

Thanks Dieselman for that. is it hard to remover the cover. Never done it before?

Ash

 

[ash_2009]

It's unlikely to be a compression leak at that are of the gasket as the timing chain is between the cylinders and the front of the engine.

Possibly. I was thinking under that cover is the tension something and its leaking from there. I could be totally wrong!!

 

[Colin_b]

It's unlikely to be a compression leak at that are of the gasket as the timing chain is between the cylinders and the front of the engine.

Possibly, but losing coolant with no obvious leaks as well makes a 25 minute compression test a good quick and cheap starting point.

Hard to tell...

 

[ash_2009]

Is it hard to use one of these compression testors. I have seen a few on Amazon. Really dont know which to get and how they are used!!!

 

[kth286]

just unclip that black plastic cover and have a look see first.

 

[WDB124066]

Pressure testing the cooling system may be valuable too....

 

[ash_2009]

just unclip that black plastic cover and have a look see first.

]

thanks kth286. sorry to sound durrr but where are the clips located so i can remove the cover?
thanks

 

[grober]

Just give the the cover a sharp upward tug/blow and it will come right off! There are lots of places for oil to leak from on the front timing cover/camcover gaskets- once it reaches the fast "rotating bits" it can go anywhere. A very common leakage point on high mileage cars is the crankshaft front seal- this is made worse in my experience by the use of "ultra thin" synthetic oils like 5w30 or 0w30 instead of a nice 10w40 semi-synthetic. The loss of coolant should never be ignored and a leaking water pump is a good candidate as Dieselman says or it could be something simple like a defective pressure cap on the coolant expansion reservoir. The simplest [and cheap!] test is to use an exhaust gas analyser to "sniff "the coolant headspace using an exhaust gas analyser most good garages will have them. Its very sensitive and should it be positive you can then go the expense of a detailed cylinder compression test if you like. Another simple check is to remove the spark plugs and visually inspect the top of the pistons- any signs of damp in a cylinder is also a good indicator.

 

[ash_2009]

just unclip that black plastic cover and have a look see first.

Just give the the cover a sharp upward tug/blow and it will come right off! There are lots of places for oil to leak from on the front timing cover/camcover gaskets- once it reaches the fast "rotating bits" it can go anywhere. A very common leakage point on high mileage cars is the crankshaft front seal- this is made worse in my experience by the use of "ultra thin" synthetic oils like 5w30 or 0w30 instead of a nice 10w40 semi-synthetic. The loss of coolant should never be ignored and a leaking water pump is a good candidate as Dieselman says or it could be something simple like a defective pressure cap on the coolant expansion reservoir. The simplest [and cheap!] test is to use an exhaust gas analyser to "sniff "the coolant headspace using an exhaust gas analyser most good garages will have them. Its very sensitive and should it be positive you can then go the expense of a detailed cylinder compression test if you like. Another simple check is to remove the spark plugs and visually inspect the top of the pistons- any signs of damp in a cylinder is also a good indicator.

thanks i shall have a look into this
ash

 

[ash_2009]

Okay guys just a update.

I have pulled off that cover and there is nothing abnormal i can see....i.e water and or oil marks or spats. Just curious on two things

1) Yellow arrow...is that the head gasket??

2) Blue arrow...is that where the transmission oil is cooled?? Cause as mentioned before, oil level is fine, only water level going down, hence I am thinking am I loosing transmission fluid by any chance?? Or am I loosing the plot??

Thanks
Ash

 

[BlackC55]

1. No
2. No

The head gasket is further down. Maybe you should let a mechanic have a look

 

[horgantrevor]

the yellow mark is your rocker gasket

then heading down next is the head gasket

a lot of four and six cylinder engines loose oil from this corner

but were you think you have a leak you may not ,clean are with power washer just the area affected take for spin it will dry off quick then have a look


is their oil in hot water expansion tank were you put anti freeze also is their any mustard gunk under oil filler cap

 

[ash_2009]

the yellow mark is your rocker gasket

then heading down next is the head gasket

a lot of four and six cylinder engines loose oil from this corner

but were you think you have a leak you may not ,clean are with power washer just the area affected take for spin it will dry off quick then have a look


is their oil in hot water expansion tank were you put anti freeze also is their any mustard gunk under oil filler cap

hello horgantrevor
okay i understand...the rocker gasket seems fine...i have checked all round the sides as well as the front...not a drop of oil.
head gasket there is very little oil so might be that and its from the left and right side towards the front if i am looking at the engine head.

so far there is no mustardy gunk in the expansion tank..its clean with just the anti freeze...so i still cant figure out where i am loosing almost 1 litre of anti freeze a week!!

ash

 

[kth286]

I hope you have the engine running whilst looking at that area.

If not, do start the engine and let it run well up to temp. and it should then all be obvious where the leak is, if you are using that much coolant.

 

[Smiley]

My bet is that the water pump has gone - it is quite hard sometimes to find the leak as when the engine is hot the leaked coolant evaporates.
Get the cooling system pressurised and it will soon show you - only takes 5 mins. ANy half decent local garage will be able to test it for you. Whilst you are there get them to look at the oil leak. But don't go spending hundreds of pounds to fix a tiny dribble - they all do that to one extent or another.

 

[ash_2009]

My bet is that the water pump has gone - it is quite hard sometimes to find the leak as when the engine is hot the leaked coolant evaporates.
Get the cooling system pressurised and it will soon show you - only takes 5 mins. ANy half decent local garage will be able to test it for you. Whilst you are there get them to look at the oil leak. But don't go spending hundreds of pounds to fix a tiny dribble - they all do that to one extent or another.

thanks smiley,
i think i will do the coolant pressure test first then take it from there. i did have a close look at the water pump but didnt see anything and may have missed it.

ash