1984 244
B23F
160,000 miles

I suspect that I have a bad head gasket but a compression test has me scratching my head.

Symptoms are a milky oil cap, coolant going missing, and after installing a refurbished MAF I have a lot of white smoke out of the tailpipe for a few minutes until the car warms up then it seems to go away.

I performed a compression test with a cheap Harbor Freight tester so the readings should be taken with a grain of salt. All cylinders were done dry and wet with 8 strokes each. The car was at operating temperature about 20 minutes before test was conducted.

Cyl: Dry: Wet:

#1 190 210

#2 190 210

#3 180 210

#4 200 210

Are these readings in line with a possible blown head gasket or something else?
Unless my temp gauge is inaccurate, I have not overheated in the 2 years I've owned it but now that I think of it, it seems like it has always slowly lost coolant and ran rough until it warmed up but the milky white oil cap is new.
Any help is appreciated.
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1984 244 DL

How much coolant are you losing?

Our '88 745 would lose about an inch on the tank, then stop. In order to teach my girls to take care of their cars, I mad them check fluids and air pressure every Saturday'

We tried to see what would happen if we left the coolant down one inch - it stayed there for 3300 miles after each oil change - the dealer would top it off, then it would go down an inch in two weeks. (I changed the oil at 3300 so that the car would be on schedule for 10K intervals.)

Eventually, i marked the one inch down level as FULL with a magic marker, the dealer stopped topping it off, and it never went down any more.

We drove the car from 111K to 240K.

your engine has a closed cooling system. nothing added nothing lost.
if this dynamic changes you have by definition a problem. irrespective whether its a head gasket weeping coolant from behind the exhaust manifold where the head and block meet (my favorite undetected location by the way) a heater core leaking under your carpets, a heater hose, radiator....well you get the idea. small coolant loss needs to be sorted before it become large coolant loss.

a head gasket failure need not initially be an hg fire ring failure into the cylinder itself. often they start with a degraded coolant passage behind the exhaust manifold. there is little enough gasket material between the passage and the outside world.

check there now for white areas of burned off coolant residue accumulating on the manifold or block.

Is it cold where you are now? I often see white smoke issuing from my wagon's tail pipe on cold mornings, cold rainy days, and usually after it has been parked for a lengthy period of time in cold temp. After awhile it clears up. I live in Southern California, btw. The milky oil under the cap may be due to condensation, especially if you don't drive your car much.

If you're burning coolant, wouldn't you be seeing white smoke from the tail pipe constantly while the car is still running?

Double post

It HAS been very rainy and about 35-45 degrees. I've been driving it only about one mile a day 4-5 days a week so you're pretty spot on in that regard.
The smoke out the tail may be a coincidence as it started right sfter I replaced the MAF earlier this week...... I just put the old one back on and now I have no white smoke. Weird.
Nevertheless it sounds like I might be ok as far as the head gasket is concerned and just have some condensation going on. Hopefully a leakdown test can solve my coolant loss issue.
Thanks for your input!
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1984 244 DL

I might be posting late on this one, as I usually do!
Here are my thoughts.

You hit the nail on the head in statements of rain and not driving the car enough. The last one is the worst thing you can do to a car besides not using the car.
You need to find a longer way around to drive the car everyday. Combine your needs into one longer trip.

The moisture out the pipes and in the engine all come in to play just burning outside air. It has moisture in it and if it's raining a lot, its even worse.

The exhaust pipes are very long and cold! They can actually fill up with water from condensation on very short drives. Have you ever seen a car pull away from you and water pour out the tailpipes. I rest my case on where that came from.

If you drive the car more the pipes will heat up from the hot gases. If you drive the car with more engine speed, highway driving, the flow of gases will push excess water from the pipes.

Short drives like these shorten the life of the entire cars components. I'm surprise the battery holds up for you to start it everyday.

If this is all you use the car for, you might be a candidate for a all electric car or a real small car with a tiny engine. Not a Smart car as they are not Smart. There are better choices for in town drives.
If you look into their engine drive line details and the reason for no spare tire, you will see problems besides a Mercedes price tag.

Volvo means "roll" in Swedish and that year car is as solid. Some people refer to the '84 as a tank, a solid road car for going places. It was one of the last years of the larger steering wheel.
I changed mine over to the '86 sized steering wheel.

The whole 240 line loves miles and more miles.

Phil

Thanks for the input. I usually drive it around 50 miles a week but the last 3 weeks my work schedule has forced me into public transit. I will be sure to take it on some lengthy freeway drives this week.
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1984 244 DL

Hi,

Your milky oil cap is more than likely due to condensation. If you do a search for that you'll find a lot in the archives. There has been a few post lately describing it too. Sometimes people describe "chocolate milk" and "chocolate pudding." I have experienced it in both my 240s. It usually happens with a combo of cold weather and short drives.

Your head gasket readings look real good. I was told on here a long time ago as long as they're within very close range of one another (you could look in the archives but I think I was told 10%) everything should be good and that you do not need an expensive tester.

Your white smoke I would guess is also a condensation issue.

Now for your coolant loss, check near the side of the head, rear of the head and the firewall where your two heater hoses connect. Each time I have had one rupture and leak it was during cold weather. Look in that area for wetness and/or white residue on parts. Other than checking your coolant reservoir for leaks, coolant hoses and water pump, check your radiator. One place I had one leak coolant was along the inner side where it wasn't easily seen. Get yourself a flashlight and look down along the radiator fins in the small space where the fan shroud hides.

One thing to get hold of would be a coolant pressure testing pump to help you track down a leak. You might be able to rent one from Autozone and tee it into the smallest coolant reservoir hose.

Travis

I have had a small amount of seepage from the water pump and radiator line in the past but haven't seen anything the last few months. I will try and do a leakdown test sometime over the next two days. Thanks for the input.
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1984 244 DL

Another place to look regarding the coolant loss is at the thermostat housing where it connects to the engine block. I had coolant seeping from there a while back. Somehow it seems to have fixed itself, though tightening the bolts on the thermostat housing might have helped, but if I recall they weren't loose by any means.