is an '87 300E MBenz worth saving?
 

My Dad's got this car he picked up that's in decent shape but it appears to have a blown head gasket, runs but blows white steam out. I can fix the motor but when I'm done will it be a good reliable car? Is the CIS injection trouble free? Efficient daily Driver? Parts available and reasonably priced?

My Dad's a bit of a nut. Loves Benz's but won't spend any money for one. He doesn't care what they look like he just wants to drive it. If it's a good car I'll make the effort and make it a driver for him, as I've done a coupla times in the past.

What do you guys think.

Spend some time in the 911 forum and ask about the trouble free nature of CIS. LOL. That said, its got to be easier to get to all the parts than a 911.

worth means the input vs. the output

it will surely be worth it for him - he gets the output; you do the input

Make sure it has floorpans left in it. Honestly MB CIS is a lot more straight forward then Porsche. The cars are tanks, the seats suck

The Car seems pretty solid, no rust visible but I didn't pull up an carpet.

My first thoughts were it wasn't worth it, too much work for the end value. I read a few reviews on the net and now i'm starting to warm to it. If it's a bad car talk me out of it.

And Webb, you're right. He won't be there while i'm cussin and knucklebustin. But I do think he'd appreciate it if I helped him to get a 'great deal' on this car.

Removing the head on a M103 is pretty straightforward. The headgasket kit is cheap. You might as well send the head to the machine shop while you have it of. If you need instructions on removing the cylinder head, let me know.

ok, then worth is measured by how you feel about making your dad feel...

then there's the input side, so get that figured out

a Benz is usually worth keeping running, so...

how's the tranny feel, BTW?

Check out benzworld.org. Those guys will give you good advice.

If you can do it and it makes sense financially ya do it. Supposedly the new HG and torque specs fix the 103's penchant for coming apart.

Those W124's are considered amongst the best built MBZ ever put on the road. If it isn't thrashed / otherwise a nice car and you know what you're doing-

go for it. Apart from HG they generally don't break.

rjp

I've found the gaskets and they're reasonable. Trans shifts fine,

I think I'll do it. Thanks for the Help.

I looked at one of these a few months back for our lot, same thing head gasket. However there had been a lot of coolant mixing and the lower end of the engine was gone. Water had been sitting in the oil pan for a while and the bearings were trashed.

I doubt we could have salvaged the radiator or heater core either. It appears as though the one we looked at the guy had been driving it around a while with the bad gasket, then parked it for several months.

Maybe something you want to consider.