Having owned a number of 240s over the last 30 or so years I have encountered external coolant leaks on b230f engines visibly confirmed by a trail of solidified coolant deposits down the block. On 3 of the engines I replaced the head gasket and resolved the issue on two of them. In each instance the leakage was relatively minor and in fact on my old wagon I let it go for 60,000 miles without a problem. I only replaced the headgasket because it was annoying. Never has there been a significant leak. Fyi two engines had 350k, the other 150k.

Presently, my wife's 940 which runs quite well shows an external leak that has annoyed me for the last 15k. Leakage rate from max to min on the coolant bottle is about 3 to 5k. However, you can actually see a little puff of presumably combustion gases escaping the slot. Again, though the engine runs fine.

I'd like to hear your opinions and what you've encountered wrt this issue.

Call me "tired of headgasket leaks".

Marty Wolfson