Hi all, so I'm a little stumped.

I have a 1988 245 with the B230F / M47. A few weeks ago I was driving when I noticed the temp gauge shoot way up to the red. I pulled the car over, turned it off and opened the hood to find coolant sprayed all over the driver's side of the engine compartment, it seemed to be originating from the back half of the block on the driver's side, but I am not entirely sure.

I waited for the engine to cool, refilled the coolant reservoir (which was now empty) and turned the car back on to find the leak. I let it run for about 10 minutes but never saw any new coolant squirt out. Being about 2 miles from my house, I then drove the car back home, and it drove like normal, although the temp gauge started to shoot up again just as I was returning home. I parked on the street and popped the hood only to be greeted by more coolant dripping everywhere once again.

I then let the car sit for the night and came out the next day to try to find the leak. I refilled the coolant and tried to start the car. It was idling very rough and would barely drive. There may have been a bit of white smoke in the exhaust, but not huge amounts - plus the outside temp was below freezing so a little bit of steam wouldn't be entirely uncommon. Given the coolant mysteriously dumping from the rear/side of the block and the rough running, I assumed the problem was head/gasket related.

Then, to make things a bit more difficult it snowed 2 feet the next day, so I didn't touch the car for a couple of weeks.

Today I got back in to try to understand what was going on. I turned the car on, and it idled very roughly for about 30 seconds and died. I couldn't get it to come back on after that. I checked the dipstick and the oil seemed clean and not frothy. I pulled a spark plug and it was charred and the threads were oily. I didn't see any green/coolant however. After running for 30 seconds, the car had turned the snow behind the exhaust pipe black.

I can't figure out if/how the car running rich and the coolant leak would be related. And for the record, I replaced the fuel injection ecu last spring with a rebuilt one after having rough idle/rich running problems.

Does anyone have any thoughts on further things to look into?

Thanks a lot for your time. I've put a lot of time/money into keeping this car on the road, and I'm not ready to give it up just yet, but i'm not sure where to go from here.