Touring my R129 - advice please.

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Noise-wise the 129 is OK with the hood up ... I've done half a dozen motorway runs to Birmingham and back (200 mile round trip) that way. The main plus with the hard top (for me) is better visibility. It's certainly a bit quieter too though.
 
Re the M104 question , I have had numerous cars with M104 , and M103 which is virtually the same engine , and lots of other straight six Mercs , most of which have been well beyond 200K ( my 300-24 reached 430K on its second engine , 380 on the original not all in my hands but it came with detailed history ) and I've never changed a CHG on any of my cars . A couple of them have had slight oil sweats from the bottom of the camboxes which I lived with ; had a couple of water pumps go along the way but no other coolant losses .

I wouldn't worry about your engine therefore .

Did once have CHG go on an Audi 100 some years ago in spectacular fashion with clouds of steam out of the exhaust , but never on a Merc .
 
Doesn't the head gasket on the M103 degrade over time?
 
Some time ago have driven from London to San Tropez in one blast, 130+ mph with just the soft top:) FWIW don't remember it being particularly noisy, so I'd not take the hard top.
 
This is an interesting qaundry...

Its certainly a lot quieter with the hard top... if you have a pano roof, its a very nice place to be.

The Alps in september?? that is top down driving for sure. But then the 800 miles to get down there, the noise of the soft top may get annoying..

Hmm overall I guess a panoramic roof is what you need!
 
Doesn't the head gasket on the M103 degrade over time?

No, they are very good... The 300E-24 is the first generation of M104 which does have head gasket issues. This is because they tried to squeeze too many valves onto a block made for half as many.

However my car has had one head gasket in 130K miles so the OP would have to be unlucky for this to show up in his jolly to the mountains.
 
Roof down, soak up the rays, it's what a soft top GT is for.
Man up before its too late,
 

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