Hey All,

I have an 83 240 and have had a ton of problems pop up over the last week or so. It started with a blown alternator -- my neighbor grabbed another one from a junk yard from a 740 that was a few years newer but fit fine. Things worked great -- for a while.

The past few days, I've been getting water out of my exhaust pipe. I stopped driving it around until I could figure out what it was, fearing a blown head gasket or something. I wasn't sure where to start, so today I did an oil change, and replaced the spark plugs (it also has been idling a little rough for the last several months). Still getting a bit of water dripping out of the tail-pipe, but thought I'd take it for a spin and see how the new spark plugs were. That's when I started noticing steam coming through the air vents (when the vents are NOT on recirculation mode -- when I flip on the "REC" switch, it pretty much stops). I immediately turned it back around -- really fearing worse engine damage.

When I changed my oil, I noticed nothing odd about the oil -- it was exactly as I would have expected it to be as it was due for a change. Not sludgy or chunky, not like a milkshake or anything. I also have been paying close attention to the coolant, because I know that in some cases when there is a crack in a gasket, the oil and coolant can mix and nobody is happy. But everything else checks out fine. Car also runs just fine -- no problems accelerating, no odd engine noises, no backfires... just a slight vibration when idling.

I should also note that there seems to be a build up of oil residue around the back end of the engine, just past the last spark plug. The engine doesn't seem to leak oil onto the ground as I've parked in the same spot for a year and there's no oil spots. When I changed the plugs, they all looked the way you'd expect for old plugs except for the last plug, which had some oil on the threads, but not on the actual spark area of the plug -- that part looked like all the others and was dry, and just a little blackened from use.

Should I be worried about a blown head gasket? Could it just be my heater core, and I've just been having bad luck this last week?

First time poster, but I've been browsing the board ever since I got my beloved 240. Any help or advice is greatly appreciated!